CasaPound Italia
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CasaPound Italia (House of [Ezra] Pound Italy, CPI) is a neo-fascist "accelerationist" organization that describes its members as "third millennium fascists" (2012). The group began in 2003 when members occupied a large multi-story residential building near Rome's Termini Station, which eventually became its full-time headquarters. This unauthorized occupation was allegedly, as CPI has repeatedly contended, in protest against the city's shortage of affordable housing. Towards this end, CPI invited twenty, mostly working-class, Roman families to move into its squat on Via Napoleone III.
The organization's logo – an "Arrowed Turtle" – allegedly symbolizes knowledge, heritage, longevity, and the right to affordable, dignified housing, as it is "fortunate enough to carry its home with it" (2020). This emphasis on social housing, of course, is also reflected in the group's name, which combines the Italian word "casa" (house) with the English word "Pound" (a reference to the pro-fascist twentieth-century American poet Ezra Pound), who spent the majority of World War II in Fascist Italy.
As with many other neo-fascist organizations in Italy, CPI has cultivated numerous ties to the institutional right-wing in Italy. Its founder Gianluca Iannone, for instance, ran as an independent candidate for Pino Rauti's Movimento Sociale Fiamma Tricolore (Social Movement Tricolor Flame, MSFT) in 2006. He and his far-right squatter movement joined MSFT later that same year, which eventually grew into the largest faction within the party, with particularly strong support among the party's youth wing. After facing increasing pushback from leadership over the subsequent two years, however, Iannone and many of his supporters dropped out of the MSFT.
CPI's members frequently draw upon the symbols, rhetoric, and collective rituals of interwar Italian Fascism. It has made the establishment of a neo-fascist subculture in Italy, particularly among the country's younger generations, a priority. The group is deeply engaged in what Elisabetta Cassina Wolff has referred to as "a counter-cultural mission" in which "a cultural revolution must precede a political one" (Wolff 2019: 67). According to Caterina Froio et al., CPI's media visibility, branding, and provocative symbolism "are unprecedented for a fringe group so openly inspired by historical Fascism" (Froio et al. 2020: 1).
Two posters in this collection – "The Shaman of the Palatine Hill" and "Heroes" – publicize events focused on twentieth-century Italian history, both of which were hosted at CPI's headquarters in Rome; a space that plays a significant role in the socialization of the organization's members. The group repeatedly states that Italy's history and its "victories" are undervalued (and in many cases forgotten) by the anti-fascist Italian Republic. CPI encourages its members to celebrate Italian history and heritage, including the twenty years of Benito Mussolini's dictatorship, at events such as the public rally it organized on the centenary of Italy's "victory" in World War I.
Much of CPI's energies are focused on youth engagement. The organization has its own youth group, Blocco Studentesco (Youth Bloc, BS), and its own propaganda channels, including the magazine The National Primacy (N/Da), the Internet radio station Black Flag Radio (N/Db), and online TV channel Turtle TV. The organization also works with various other far-right youth groups, and organizes social events with a particular focus on edgy, rock 'n roll style musical groups. Iannone himself, in fact, is the lead singer of the CPI-affiliated rock 'n roll group Zetazeroalfa, which has played a significant role in the construction of a neo-fascist subculture in Italy since the early 2000s.
