An Explosive Society

Italy's current political crisis has been exacerbated by a spreading plague of riots, lootings, assassinations, kidnapings and bombings that has thoroughly unnerved Italians and turned the streets of many of their historic cities into battlefields. The death of three young neo-Fascists last week brought to 34 the number of politically motivated killings in Italy since January 1975. The total includes thirteen known or presumed extreme left-wing activists and seven neo-Fascists killed in clashes during demonstrations, in single assassinations and in raids on party offices. The others: five innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire of fierce street fighting, four police officers, two magistrates who were presiding over the trials of accused urban guerrillas, the president of the Turin Bar Association, the deputy editor of the Turin daily La Stampa and a neo-Fascist politician.

Most of the violence and killing is the work of an assortment of 115 identifiable extremist political movements, splinter groups and urban guerrilla commandos, 94 belonging to the far left and 21 to the neo-Fascist right. Between January and October 1977, ultras of one stripe or another were responsible for 1,693 attacks on people and property, an increase of 40% over the previous year and almost three times the total of 628 in 1975. Italy was also Europe's most explosive society: more than 2,000 terror-connected bombings occurred there last year, almost double the number in 1976.

Police last year seized 11,441 small arms, 937,711 bombs of various kinds and almost 15,000 lbs. of explosives. They also made 590 arrests throughout the year in connection with terrorist acts. These ranged from murder to a spate of leg shootings of journalists, lawyers and businessmen --including, in separate attacks, seven employees of the Fiat automobile company. Industrial sabotage and arson caused more than $55 million worth of damage to factories, not counting numerous minor bombings of public buildings, government offices and party clubs all over the country.

Campus ferment reached its climax last spring in widespread leftist-led student protests over bleak job prospects for new graduates and chronically overcrowded classrooms. At Milan University young "proletarian committees" brought teaching to a standstill, destroyed books and scientific instruments. At Bocconi University, a Milan business school, three masked urban guerrillas destroyed the computer center. In Bologna, a 25-year-old medical student was shot dead by police during a youth rampage in a 20-block commercial district near the campus, and his death triggered more bloody riots in Rome.

With the police so busy, an increase in general crime was inevitable. In 1977 reported crimes in Italy rose by 7.5% over the previous year--from 1,900,000 to 2,090,000. An average of eight out often of these crimes, or 13% more than in 1976, remained unsolved. Kidnaping, more often for profit than political motives--but occasionally for both --reached a record total of 76 in 1977. Since 1970, kidnapers have netted $175.5 million in ransom money.

But the chilling fact was that of those kidnaped last year, 39 were never seen alive again, while the families of 17 victims last week were still negotiating. As the kidnaping spread, wealthy Italians hired bodyguards, barricaded themselves behind sophisticated electronic alarms or joined the quiet exodus from Italy to homes in Switzerland and New York City. Kidnapers were forced to lower their goals and seek smaller fry. But the pace showed no signs of diminishing.

Nor did the concern of commentators, some of whom began to draw grim parallels with the violence and political unrest that prevailed in Italy before the Fascist takeover in 1922. "Today, again, we have a determined minority waiting in the wings to exploit the first turbulence in our political, economic or social equilibrium," said Rome University Historian Rosario Romeo. "And if this were to happen, I would not vouch that civil strife could be avoided." However, others pointed out that in 1922 Italy was in a state of political anarchy, while the present government crisis, for all the chaos, is an example of the wobbly democratic process in action.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.