On this week’s episode of Yeah Nah, we talk to Caterina Froio [Twitter], Assistant Professor in Political Science/e-politics at Sciences Po, Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics (CEE), and co-author (with Pietro Castelli Gattinara, Giorgia Bulli and Matteo Albanese) of CasaPound Italia: Contemporary Extreme-Right Politics (Routledge, 2020):
In 2003, the occupation of a state-owned building in Rome led to the emergence of a new extreme-right youth movement: CasaPound Italia (CPI). Its members described themselves as ‘Fascists of the Third Millennium’, and were unabashed about their admiration for Benito Mussolini. Over the next 15 years, they would take to the street, contest national elections, open over a hundred centres across Italy, and capture the attention of the Italian public. While CPI can count only on a few thousands votes, it enjoys disproportionate attention in public debates from the media. So what exactly is CasaPound? How can we explain the high profile achieved by such a nostalgic group with no electoral support?
See also : The appeal of neo-fascism in times of crisis. The experience of CasaPound Italia (May 25, 2014) | Fascists out of our cities! More on Casapound and recent racist murders in Florence, Italy, libcom / Italy Calling, December 15, 2011 | ‘The Proletarian Migrants: Fascism and Italian Anarchists in Australia’, Gianfranco Cresciani, The Australian Quarterly, March, 1979.
4.30pm, Thursday, December 17, 2020 /// 3CR /// 855AM / streaming live on the 3CR website
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Hi Andy.
Maybe you could interview Dr Joe Toscano in the future. He knows a bit about the history of Italian anti fascist fighters in Australia. Every year he honors the Anarchist and anti fascist Francesco Fantine, who was sadly murdered by fascists with a 2×4, while bending down to get a drink of water, at camp Loveday (an internment camp in South Australia). The Australian Government threw Italian leftists in with fascists, given their near sighted racism.
Hi psyberimp.
Maybe, ‘though Joe is already very much on the 3CR airwaves. At one point I did try to contact Cresciani in order to talk about The Italians, but no luck. Who knows, maybe next year? And yes, am aware of Fantin: CO.AS.IT done published stuff on the OG antifa in MEL too.