On January 7, 1978, five members of the Movimento Sociale Italiano's (Italian Social Movement, MSI) youth group, the Fronte della Gioventù (Youth Front, FdG), were ambushed by five Lotta Continua (Ongoing Struggle) militants in front of one of the MSI's social centers in Rome's Tuscolano neighborhood (Fig. 1). Franco Bigonzetti was shot dead at the scene, and Francesco Ciavatta died in an ambulance shortly afterwards. Later on that day, a large demonstration in the courtyard outside of the neighborhood headquarters on Via Acca Larenzia quickly turned violent. Following a confrontation between Roman police officers and a number of far-right demonstrators, shots were fired into the crowd. A third young man, Stefano Recchioni, was struck by a police bullet. He died two days later.
This sticker incorporates the Celtic Cross at its center, a symbol that has been co-opted by neo-Nazi, neo-fascist and white supremacist movements globally. The symbol has been banned in Italy in political contexts, though it remains a religious symbol in some parts of northern Italy. The Celtic Cross features prominently in the 2012 commemorative painting on the façade of the former MSI youth center on Via Acca Larenzia, and is frequently incorporated into various neo-fascist commemorative materials in Italy (Fig. 2). In both form and design, the sticker is reminiscent of the long banners carried at the front of commemorative marches by the contemporary far right, which usually draw upon a highly contrasted black and white color palette.
Every year on January 7, Rome's neo-fascists commemorate the deaths of Bigonzetti, Ciavatta, and Recchioni. Informally organized by CasaPound Italia (House of [Ezra] Pound Italy, CPI), this annual ceremony involves a procession through the surrounding neighborhood's streets and culminates in the gathering of participants in front of the former MSI social center on Via Acca Larenzia (Figs. 3 and 4). Typically, the leader of the ceremony stands in front of participants, who are organized in tight military-style rows, and shouts out the names of Bigonzetti, Ciavatta, and Recchioni (Fig. 5). Participants respond with the cry "Presente!" (Present!) – a common mnemonic device deployed during Benito Mussolini's twenty years in power which signified the imagined eternality of the Blackshirt militiamen who were killed in clashes with left-wingers in Italy during the Red Biennium uprisings (1919-20) or during the regime's various military conquests during the 1930s (Fig. 6).
In addition to the CPI-led ceremony, members of Forza Nuova (New Force, FN) and Comunità Politica di Avanguardia (Vanguard Political Community) gather annually in Rome's Verano Cemetery to honor Italy's various far-right "martyrs." Similar to the Via Acca Larenzia commemoration, this ceremony involves a procession through the cemetery, stopping to honor those deemed as part of Italy's right-wing heritage, including the Risorgimento-era patriot, poet, and writer of Italy's national anthem, Gofredo Mameli (2024), neo-fascist victims of the Years of Lead (1968-82), and the 1933 Chapel of Fascist Martyrs, where the commemorative procession ends. "For years now, we have chosen the Verano chapel as a symbol of all comrades who died on the path of honor," remarked Vincenzo Nardulli, a leading figure in Rome's neo-fascist community, explaining his group's decision not to hold their January 7 ceremony at the site of the Acca Larenzia killings. Nardulli and Giuliano Castellino, both FN operatives, were sentenced to five years and six months' imprisonment in 2020 after attacking two Express journalists who were documenting the January 7, 2019 Acca Larenzia commemoration (2019a; 2019b; Federici 2020).
Beyond Italy's openly neo-fascist community, a number of the country's prominent politicians regularly commemorate the Acca Larenzia "strage" (massacre). Indeed, every year Giorgia Meloni (Meloni 2021), along with her party Fratelli d'Italia (Brothers of Italy, FdI), circulate Internet graphics and physical posters in Italy honoring the "fallen" at Via Acca Larenzia, placing Meloni and her party firmly within the commemorative practices of Italy's neo-fascist community (Figs. 6, 7, and 8).
Video
Images
