ITALY: IL SESSANTOTTO AND BEYOND

In: Socialist review: SR, Band 18, Heft 4, S. 143-156

Abstract

THE ITALIAN EXPERIENCE WAS PERHAPS THE MOST RADICAL AND DRAWN-OUT OF ALL THE '68 MOVEMENTS. BUT DESPITE THE IMPRESSIVE CHANGES IT BROUGHT TO ITALY, THE MOVEMENT HAD COME TO AN IMPASSE BY THE LATE 1970S, SIGNALLING THE EROSION AND CRISIS OF THE LEFT AND LABOR MOVEMENT LONG BEFORE THE MORASS OF THE 1980S WREAKED DAMAGE AND DISORIENTATION EVERYWHERE IN THE CAPITALIST WORLD. THE MOST NOTABLE THING ABOUT THE ITALIAN EXPERIENCE IS THE EXTREMELY LIMITED POLITICAL REALIGNMENT THAT ACCOMPANIED AND FOLLOWED SO MUCH MOBILIZATION AND FLUX IN THE SOCIAL SPHERE. THE POTENTIAL UNLEASHED BY THE MOVEMENTS WAS NOT COMPLETELY WASTED, BUT IT CERTAINLY WAS BLOCKED. THIS ARTICLE REVIEWS THE HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS PROCESS AND CLARIFIES THE AMLIGUOUS LEGACY OF THE STALION EVENTS.