The disobbedienti, or disobedients, are an Italian radical extraparliamentary group, espousing direct action and operating across the peninsula, that formed after the events surrounding the G8 conference in Genoa in 2001.
Antonio Negri
autonomist Marxism
social centres
zapatistas
direct action
protest
The Italian peninsula. The Disobedients have local groups across the country.
As the White Overalls from 1994-2002, as the Disobedients from 2001 onwards.
The Disobbedienti are a direct descendant of the autonomist marxist groups of the 1970s in Italy. In their first incarnation, they were formed in 1994 after the mayor of Milan ordered the eviction of the historic Leoncavallo social centre, saying that from that point on squatters would be no more than “ghosts wandering about the city.” As a response, activists in and around the Italian social centre movement donned white overalls and took to the streets. After street confrontations and the saving of the Leoncavallo, the “Tute Bianche”, or White Overalls, began to form as a radical extraparliamentary political group based across Italy (but strongest in the north east, particularly Padova and Milan). After the Genoa G8 conference in the summer of 2001 where one protester was killed and hundreds arrested and injured, the Tute Bianche dissolved and gave life to the nationally based group they would call the Disobbedienti, or the Disobedients.
As Luca Casarini, the best known spokesperson of the Disobedients, said during the transition period after the Genoa clashes at the G8 meeting: “Tute Bianche does not exist now as it did before. It is important not to confuse the objective that we have with the means. The means for us was to create a network that came from the autonomists, but went further than the autonomists because we came to the conclusion that the political experience of the 1970s and 1980s had come to an end. The experience of Tute Bianche has been important in trying to change paradigms, trying to change language, and trying to change how you relate to other political forces as well as the method of struggle.
In Genoa Tute Bianche reached their objective but it was only a partial objective.
The main objective for us was to bring into civil society the idea that there
was conflict and there will always be conflict. It wasn't just raising the issue
of conflict-it was also raising the issue of creating greater consensus amongst
people. We have learnt a lot from the Zapatistas, the idea of spreading yourself
out and increasing the range of consensus you obtain. So one of the things that
we developed is the concept of civil disobedience-bringing together and raising
the idea of conflict, but also trying to get a degree of consensus at the same
time.
The important thing is the practice of this disobedience. It is not one in which we are the specialised army, or the vanguard in which people just follow us. It is a principle that can be reproduced and adopted by others. We have tried to do things differently from the old left by entering into these networks and trying to develop them from within, without the old fashioned way of trying to be hegemonic within the network and trying to become the vanguard force. The way we want to set about convincing people is through practice, by intervention and arguing with people.
construction of alternatives
destruction of existing forms
impeding existing forms
redirection of existing forms
working the system
Captialism and the State
The Internet, radio, television, and print
blocking movement
property destruction
protest
running candidates in local elections
In 2002 the Disobbedienti
destroyed the construction site of a “centro di permanenza temporanea”,
a space for the confinement of clandestine immigrants in Bologna.
On the one year anniversary of the police invasion of the Diaz school in Genoa,
where dozens of protestors attending the anti G8 demonstrations were beaten
and arrested the year previous, the Disobbedienti marked the event by occupying
the school with students.
On the day on George W. Bush’s visit to Rome in June of 2004 the Disobedients launched fireworks against the Italian Ministry of Defense, breaking windows.
The Disobbedienti have a strong presence in many social centres across Italy, and in some cases they work with the Italian Green Party and two remnants of the old Communist party, the Partito di Rifondazione Comunista and the Comunisti Italiani.
Radio Sherwood
Padova Radio station that has been broadcasting since 1975 and is closely connected
to the Disobedients
Theories of Conflict: Tute
Bianche and the Socialist Worker’s Party
A discussion between Luca Casarini and Alex Callinicos on political strategy
after the G8 conference in Genova
http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/free/tute/tutebiancheswp.htm