• HarryLime [any]
      ·
      4 years ago

      In Italy (and I think other countries) the Gladio ring and the CIA infiltrated both ultra-left and far-right groups, gave them guns and training, and manipulated their most extreme members into committing terror attacks and killing each other.

        • EldritchMayo [he/him,comrade/them]
          ·
          4 years ago

          As said before, it was indeed in the years of lead. My father lived through them as a teenager in Naples. Everyone, especially youngsters, were very politically radical, and the most radical groups were pretty violent. The Italian police and far right groups were being backed by the CIA to kill communists and labour organizers. The really far left, particularly the red brigades, was being backed by the KGB. The biggest event was when the red brigades kidnapped the former SocDem prime minister of Italy and murdered him, despite him openly expressing support for communists in government. Basically the red brigades were ultras. Anyway, I can tell you some personal experiences from those years if you are interested as I’ve heard some things from my dad. He also got really close to experiencing an IRA bombing in London in the 70s.

              • AnarchoLeninist [he/him]
                ·
                4 years ago

                The Aldo Moro assassination after he planned to form a government with the communist party.

                • EldritchMayo [he/him,comrade/them]
                  ·
                  4 years ago

                  OHHHHHH. THE KIDNAPPING. I thought you meant literally taking a nap. That makes a lot more sense. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure. It could have been. Either it was really an op or the red brigades were really leftcoms without much critical thought. Left communism did have a big thing in Italy and my dad tells me he knew red brigades members and they were definitely serious... being teenagers though they weren’t fully involved in the organization, just relaying intelligence and the like. By that I mean he had schoolmates involved in the red brigades, he himself was involved in the socialist party. Anyway, it is true that the Italian left went on a sharp decline after the kidnapping of Moro, so it could very well be an op, but I don’t think the people in the red brigades were pretending to be communist, I just think they had absolutely no foresight. Seriously, murdering a sympathetic prime minister was not a good idea in the long run.

                  • AnarchoLeninist [he/him]
                    ·
                    edit-2
                    4 years ago

                    Wasn't he held in a safehouse used by Italian Military Intelligence? Edit: Really cool of you to share your perspective

                    • EldritchMayo [he/him,comrade/them]
                      ·
                      4 years ago

                      Thank you, and reading more about it, there was definitely some evidence the cia was involved, but it’s kinda floating around in the realm of possible conspiracy theories. All I can tell you for certain are the things I have heard from my dad. I do know his opinion of the red brigades which is very negative. He was definitely a moderate socialist type then, demsoc I would say as opposed to socdem, but I still think he has a lot of good knowledge on the subject.

    • KrasMazovThought [comrade/them]
      ·
      4 years ago

      To add to what HarryLime said, exploiting the strategy of tension meant harsher state reprisals seemed justified to the average population, the expansion of security forces, and rounding up/jailing/killing communists with pretext.

      It's the continued cause of wariness whenever a comrade seems really enthusiastic about engaging in direct action, yes hello two week old account Mr. ParodyAllLandlords-ACAB sure we'll meet up to go over bomb making plans and declare our intentions to attack local government targets and sure we can enunciate that why do you ask