Armed far-right organizations in Italy

The attempt, in 1960, to include representatives of the Italian Social Movement (MSI), the neo-fascist heir of the National Fascist Party, in the Tambroni Cabinet led to short-lived yet intense anti-fascist rioting. In the second half of the 1960s, widespread labor unrest and co-ordinated agitation of student activist groups along with factory workers and radical leftist organizations, such as Potere Operaio and Lotta Continua, broke out in the country, culminating in the Hot Autumn of 1969, a series of massive strike actions in factories and industrial centres in Northern Italy.

Student strikes and labour strikes, led by workers, leftists, left-sympathizing laborers, or Marxist activists, became increasingly common, often deteriorating into clashes between the police and demonstrators composed largely of workers, students, activists, and militants.

During this period of mass social unrest, various far-right organizations emerged in Italy and undertook violent action. Young neo-fascists agitated against the "red threat," perceiving the legalist politics of MSI as abandoning their cause, especially through its ostensible inaction in the face of attacks by the police and the extreme left.

Influenced by theories of urban guerrilla warfare and spontaneism, a number of neo-fascists moved from street-fighting to armed militancy and terrorism. Small groupings of militarist neofascists are still active in the 21st century.

Organizations