[lbo-talk] Strategy of Tension

Michael Pugliese michael098762001 at earthlink.net
Thu Jul 29 10:18:54 PDT 2004


http://squawk.ca/lbo-talk/0006/0850.html Abstract: Between the late 1960s and the mid-1970s, Italy was subjected to one of the most sustained campaigns of right-wing terrorism and subversion in the history of postwar Europe. This campaign, which has been dubbed the "strategy of tension", was designed to provoke an authoritarian involution of the Italian political system and in the process prevent the Communist Party from joining the ruling governmental coalition. To accomplish this and various subsidiary objectives, its sponsors and perpetrators covertly conditioned the political environment by means of a combination of public bombings, assassinations, coup plots, infiltrations of left-wing groups, provocations, and psychological warfare operations. The seriousness of the situation was reflected in Italian police records, which attributed 83% of the 4384 officially-registered acts of violence between 1969 and 1975 to the extreme right. There were three main factors which lent this "strategy of tension" a heightened degree of historical and political importance. First of all, the Italian neo-fascists who carried it out were linked to the "Black International", a loosely-interconnected network of far right groups throughout Europe and other parts of the world. Secondly, through this network they became acquainted with the full gamut of sophisticated countersubversive techniques that had been developed by French military experts, especially the use of "false flag" operations, which they then applied more or less systematically. Thirdly, they received technical assistance, logistical aid, "cover", and other sorts of protection from hardline factions within various Western intelligence services. This dissertation explores the reasons why this important subject has been ignored, identifies the chief organizational components of the "Black International", painstakingly reconstructs two emblematic case studies associated with the "strategy of tension", and assesses that strategy's broader historical significance. The goal throughout is not only to illuminate a dark but significant chapter in the postwar history of fascism, but also to show how this seemingly arcane sphere of contemporary history is related to highly sensitive aspects of the Cold War. Indeed, this study goes straight to the corrupt, amoral heart of the bipolar confrontation between the Atlantic Alliance and the Soviet Bloc.

-- Michael Pugliese



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