[lbo-talk] Strategy of Tension

[Michael Pugliese]

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