Red Brigades Research Articles

An empirical study on the communication effect of Xiaogang short video

The story of Xiaogang Village began in 1978. The protagonists of the story - 18 villagers of Xiaogang Village, Fengyang, Anhui Province, demonstrated the pioneering "big contract spirit" to the world through groundbreaking reform practices. The 44-year road of rural reform and development has written a new chapter for Xiaogang Village. The "Xiaogang Spirit" of "dare to create, dare to take responsibility, and dare to struggle" has become an important core of China's rural revitalization strategy. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the government work report of the two sessions both pointed out that we must comprehensively deepen reform and opening up and promote rural revitalization. This article aims to study the publicity effect of the Red Brigade short video in Xiaogang Village under the integration of the Red Brigade, explore and summarize the optimization strategy of short video communication in Xiaogang Village, shoulder the mission of the times with practical actions, and help rural revitalization.

Choosing what (not) to do next: a preliminary theoretical framework on strategic innovation in terrorist organizations

ABSTRACT This paper presents a theoretical framework on strategic innovation in terrorist organizations. By comparing three historical organizations (ETA, PIRA, and Red Brigades), it seeks to understand the rationale and dynamics of strategic innovation. In doing so, it delineates this phenomenon as a process articulated in four stages: Evaluation, Formulation, Adoption, and Implementation. While the first two stages involve different actors, leadership is crucial during the stages of Adoption and Implementation. Additionally, the framework discusses how innovation is not necessarily related to escalations in violence and highlights an important difference between strategic change and strategic innovation. Finally, the paper explores the role of culture to then suggest areas for future research.

Interactive Cultural Communication Effect in VR Space of Intelligent Mobile Communication Network

Virtual reality technology can provide more display techniques to realize the interactive design of multiexhibition area of red humanities and natural resources. First of all, through the three-dimensional interactive display of cultural relics and scene reproduction of historical events, visitors can enjoy the unrestrained and immersive appreciation, make up for people’s lack of understanding of history, and let tourists personally feel the difficulties and hardships in the development of Chinese revolutionary history. Second, the digital method also provides for the pavilion and the scenic spot design personnel more creative method; dynamic scene reappearance interaction design based on virtual reality technology to promote education, protection of cultural relic collection and utilization, academic research, and the industrial development and multidimensional public welfare publicity results is blended in among them, through the panoramic, immersive, and interactive display technique, such as multilevel multiway spread red brigade culture. Virtual reality constantly imitates the real-life environment, and the application of perception sensing equipment has perception. This new technology requires us to continue to explore and research it. Virtual reality technology is a very cutting-edge subject and research field, which is very challenging. The communication form of culture has also been constantly evolving. Virtual reality technology (VR) has changed the way of traditional culture appreciation through the transmission of visual information, bringing people a new aesthetic enjoyment. Mainstream media is used to mobilize the red cultural heritage protection and scholars at home and abroad, to explore the application of virtual reality in the red culture tourist attraction planning, and to explore virtual reality applications in red open spot virtual roaming: exploration of virtual reality in the application of historical and cultural sites to red tourism management and exploration of virtual reality in the brand historical and cultural sites in the application of the travel marketing, to build an intelligent mobile communication network communication platform and broaden the new path of inheritance and protection. On the basis of studying the communication effect of traditional culture, this paper studies the possible communication effect of symphony orchestra under the new technology format under the framework of communication studies. It also analyzes and explores various factors such as the practical value, difficulty, civilized prestige, adaptability, and resistance to adversity of the culture in cultural communication and compares the methods of cultural communication. By developing a virtual instrument placed in the sphere of virtual reality space, the traditional symphony orchestra can be transformed into an interactive culture communication in virtual reality space. In this communication design, users can define their own instruments to play interactive culture communication, change the position of the instrument on the sphere interactively, and even change the sound effect of the symphony interactively by rotating or adjusting the size of the sphere, so as to achieve the best communication effect of the symphony.

Disengaging from Left-Wing Terrorism and Extremism: Field Experiences from Germany and Research Gaps

Left-wing terrorism and extremism have received limited scholarly attention beyond a focus on large terrorist groups and violent campaigns between the 1970s and 1990s (e.g. German Red Army Faction, Italian Red Brigades, or Weather Underground in the United States). This article discusses the contribution of German research regarding disengagement from left-wing terrorism and extremism, as well as field experiences from Germany in the field of preventing and countering violent left-wing extremism. Significant research and prevention practice gaps severely limit knowledge in this regard. Available evidence mostly stems from highly structured and strategically operating groups from past decades.

Daniela Saresella. Catholics and Communists in Twentieth-Century Italy: Between Conflict and Dialogue.

In recent years, historical literature has highlighted the transnational dimension of progressive Catholicism, which in various phases animated the political and cultural climate of the second postwar period. Italy emerged as one of the major hubs of this network, which among other things tried to build bridges between the Catholic and the Marxist culture. This book by Daniela Saresella, Catholics and Communists in Twentieth-Century Italy: Between Conflict and Dialogue, confirms the “singularity” (9) of the Italian scenario while presenting a comprehensive history of the relations between Catholics and the Left in the twentieth century. The title of the book is somewhat misleading, as is the surprising choice for the cover—the famous photograph of Aldo Moro held captive by the Red Brigades, which mistakenly suggests a conflictual and dramatic narrative. This is not just the story of the relationship between Catholics and Communists but between Catholics “and the Left” (57,...

Secret Life versus Double Life: Modes of Clandestinity of Italian Terrorist Groups

This article presents two distinct modes of operating in a state of clandestinity adopted by Italian leftist terrorist groups, such as the Red Brigades and First Line, in the second half of the 20th century. The two modes of clandestine life are specified with the terms “invisibility” and “camouflage”. The invisibility mode of clandestinity imposes a regime of “secret life” on the group members, while the camouflage mode of clandestinity imposes a “double life” regime on them. The research aims to construct two simplified models, or, to use the Weberian terminology, two “ideal types”. Our primary sources are autobiographies published by former terrorists, official propaganda documents and pamphlets compiled by terrorist groups, and court rulings. Our secondary sources are journalist reports and research published by experts in political violence. From the theoretical point of view, the conclusion is, that for law enforcement, it is much more difficult to combat terrorist formations imposing the double life regime on their members rather than a secret life regime. Still, the double life regime is more stressful from a psychological point of view, as it requires an artificial split of personality. In the conclusions, the article expands the discussion to non-Italian terrorist organizations, with a different political or religious agenda.

Almost nothing in between. Red Brigades and Italian terrorism: structure and dynamics of violent groups

Almost nothing in between. Red Brigades and Italian terrorism: structure and dynamics of violent groups

Maoism, Political Violence and Terrorism in Italy

ABSTRACT When assessing political violence and terrorism in recent Western European history, the case of Italy stands out. The 1970s—the anni di piombo or “lead years”—saw an incredible level of political violence, leading certain observers to openly speak about terrorist violence. However, violence continued to a lesser extent even in the 1980s. This article deals with leftist political violence in that period and argues that Maoism was one of its triggers/inspirations. The Italian case stands out also because these high levels of leftist political violence were not linked to nationalist grievances, as was the case in Ireland (IRA) or the Basque Country (ETA). Maoism pushed many on the Italian revolutionary Left to take up arms against the bourgeois state. They did not take Mao’s proclamations of violence and revolution (“power comes from the barrel of the gun”) abstractly. As China opposed Soviet peaceful coexistence on an international level, the Italian revolutionary Left opposed it on a national ground. The pervasiveness of this Maoist call to arms in Italy can be seen looking at the example of the “new” Red Brigades at the turn of the twenty-first century.

Takashi Yonetani: A stellar biochemist, a man with dignity. The Roman connection

Takashi Yonetani: A stellar biochemist, a man with dignity. The Roman connection

The Red Brigades and communist Czechoslovakia: a troubling legacy full of ambiguities

ABSTRACT This article examines alleged Czechoslovak assistance to the Italian extreme-left terrorist organisation, the Red Brigades, and how the case has been investigated in Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic. The authors present the sources of information on the issue and analyse the course of the investigation undertaken by the Office for the Documentation and Investigation of the Crimes of Communism. In the absence of a complete archival record, given that important documents were shredded, the full truth about the fact and nature of any Czechoslovak assistance may never be known. Yet there are some grounds for speculation that assistance was granted by elements within the Czechoslovak secret services, and that these elements failed to inform the Communist Party leadership about their actions. However, it is not possible to confirm this on the basis of available documents.

Radicalisation: old and new a comparative analysis of the Red Brigades and the Islamic State

This study aims to broaden and refine our knowledge on radicalisation by applying a different lens derived from communication sciences, it also aims to minimise the bias resulting from the several studies focusing on one movement—the Islamic State. The research utilises a qualitative thematic analysis triangulated with a quantitative content analysis to compare 30 documents: 15 belonged to an old radical movement—the Red Brigades and 15 to a new radical movement—the Islamic State, to explore possible strategic communication patterns used by both organizations to establish their legitimacy among their target audiences. The findings revealed a similar division in the construction of the documents of both movements under four main themes, high and equivalent proportions in the representations of ‘violence’, and an extensive concentration of ideological terms in the Islamic State documents compared to a large focus on organizational aspects in the Red Brigades documents. The principal and wide gap existing between both movements is related to the organisational tactics. Likely to be one of the main distinctions contributed by modernisation in the world today.

40 años del secuestro y asesinato de Aldo Moro: la estrategia de la negociación de Craxi contra el muro de la firmeza

El objetivo de este artículo es analizar la estrategia que aplicó el Partido Socialista Italiano liderado por Bettino Craxi contra el terrorismo de las Brigadas Rojas, durante el secuestro del político democratacristiano Aldo Moro, que tuvo lugar en marzo de 1978. Para llevar a cabo este trabajo, hemos utilizados fuentes bibliográficas (artículos de revistas, prensa de la época, libros) y material audiovisual, procedente sobre todo del archivo audio de Radio Radicale. Los resultados demuestran que Bettino Craxi utilizó una estrategia distinta a la de los demás líderes políticos por razones humanitarias y políticas: quería salvar la vida de Aldo Moro y a la vez reforzar su debilitado partido.

Terrorism, Religion and Self-control: An Unexpected Connection Between Conservative Religious Commitment and Terrorist Efficacy

ABSTRACT Correlations between terrorism and the religious commitments of terrorist organizations and actors have been the subject of extensive scholarly investigation. 1 Whilst the focus has often been on extreme Jihadist terrorism, other terrorist groups and individuals with religious commitments have been widely discussed such as Baruch Goldstein’s 1994 attack in Hebron, Christian Identity groups in the US, and Aum Shinrikyo in Japan. 2 A number of theories have been advanced to explain the relationships between religious commitment and terrorism. For example, Atran has argued that many terrorists are “devoted actors”, and that members of deeply conservative religions are typically devoted actors. 3 Whilst not denying that these factors may be important, this article draws attention to a further significant impact of religion on terrorism: the surprising connection between religion and self-control. 4 Drawing on the large empirical literature establishing a link between religion (in particular deeply conservative religions) and self-control, it is hypothesized that the religious practices of religiously-inspired terrorists enhances their self-control and thus raises their efficacy, operationalized as casualties per attack. This hypothesis will be referred to as TERS (Terrorist Efficacy, Religion and Self-control). TERS predicts that highly conservative religious terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda and ISIS will typically have higher levels of terrorist efficacy than non-religious or moderately religious groups, and the research of supports this hypothesis. 5 In addition, it is argued that TERS provides a crucial addition to Piazza’s emphasis on “universal/abstract” ideologies. 6 Piazza remarks that left-wing terrorist groups can have universal/abstract ideologies. Case studies of atheist left-wing terrorist groups—specifically the Red Army Faction and the Red Brigades—reveal that such groups satisfy Piazza’s characterization of universal/abstract groups but have casualty rates per attack very much lower than those of highly conservative religious groups such as Al Qaeda and its affiliates. It is argued that highly conservative religious convictions enhance the self-control of the latter groups, raising their efficacy relative to the former atheist groups.

Types of terrorism: From the Red Brigades to Al Qaeda, from the Palestinian Brigade to ISIS

It is necessary to link the phenomenon of terrorism to the concept of information and communication. Information that comes from the propaganda that every terrorist organization makes of itself and from the communication produced by the media to inform the public opinion about the facts. In the 70's, in Italy, the Red Brigades used flyers as real ideological treatises, intended for the media. Thirty years later, the jihadist organization of Al Qaeda inaugurated the season of the new global terrorism; on 11th of September 2001, a new type of propaganda was born, which exploited the television channels and the web, reaching all the rest of society. Nowadays, we are faced with ISIS, which has managed to set up a very articulated and complex recruitment work based on online propaganda, through the diffusion of photos, audio and video messages on the Internet, succeeding in making proselytes even among Europeans. The aim of this in-depth study is to demonstrate how all terrorist movements are organised and lucidly determined to plan their actions and messages. The historical context that gave birth to the organizations, the internal structure, the ideology, the modus operandi and the media dimension; the role of women and children, the enrolment, the new scenarios and the extra-European measures of prevention in the fight against terrorism have been deepened.

Dejar de informar: La prensa italiana y el debate sobre el “apagón informativo” tras los ataques de las Brigadas Rojas

Este trabajo analiza la actitud de la prensa frente a la amenaza terrorista de las Brigadas Rojas y la oportunidad de limitar la información relacionada con la banda. El grupo terrorista Brigadas Rojas tras cada atentado solía difundir unos comunicados de reivindicación de sus acciones violentas. Con el paso del tiempo, ese goteo de información suministrada por parte de los terroristas hizo que el mundo del periodismo cuestionara la oportunidad de seguir publicando los textos que provenían de una banda armada. El debate se hizo particularmente intenso durante dos acciones perpetradas por los brigadistas: los secuestros, por un lado del presidente de la Democracia Cristiana Aldo Moro, que acabaría con la muerte del rehén, y por otro, del juez Giovanni D’Urso, liberado tras más de un mes de cautiverio.

Three novels of terrorism: explorations in the politics of literature

ABSTRACTThis article explores the political role of literature through the medium of three novels of terrorism: Francesca Marciano’s Casa Rossa, Nicholas Shakespeare’s The Dancer Upstairs and Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto. The literary features of these novels, set in the Italy of the Red Brigades and the Peru of Shining Path and Tupac Amaru, foster a political perspective that is a de facto endorsement of the status quo in each society. They hinder a comprehensive understanding of the underpinnings of terrorism that is essential to the formation of counterterrorism strategies.

La lotta armata e il processo di sacralizzazione dell'ideologia rivoluzionaria

The article analyses the phenomenon of armed struggle in Italy in the seventies with particular reference to the experience of militancy in the Red Brigades told by those who have experienced and perpetrated political violence. The dimensions of analysis taken into consideration – ideology, organization and sacralisation – will constitute the guidelines for articulating an analysis of the link between revolutionary ideology and political organization. Moreover, this kind of analysis will help to describe the specific process of sacralization which, by investing at first only the ideology, has subsequently also involved the organization contributing to its transformation into a sectarian reality.

Influencia de Lukács en los movimientos revolucionarios italianos del siglo xx

<p>El objetivo de este artículo es profundizar sobre la influencia que tuvo el pensamiento del filósofo György Lukács (1885-1971) sobre los movimientos revolucionarios italianos de las décadas de 1960 y 1970. Nos centramos en los dos movimientos más conocidos a nivel internacional, el operaísmo y las Brigadas Rojas. Como técnicas de investigación hemos recurrido al análisis de documentos, escritos y audiovisuales, y a una entrevista en profundidad con Toni Negri, uno de los más destacados miembros del operaísmo. Los resultados demuestran que Lukács influyó mucho más sobre el pensamiento operaísta, más refinado desde el punto de la elaboración teórica y filosófica, que sobre las Brigadas Rojas, una organización cuya elaboración teórica ha sido muy escasa.</p>

The Death Penalty and Narrative Strategies in Porte aperte by Leonardo Sciascia

This paper analyzes narrative strategies used by Leonardo Sciascia in Porte aperte to create, among readers, sympathy for and identification with his (nameless) protagonist, a judge and an opponent of capital punishment. The judge has been called on to preside over a murder trial in 1937, a decade after Fascism had re-instated the death penalty, considered by the Regime a deterrent that would allow Italians to sleep with “open doors.” To that end, I consider the historical context in which the novel was written—given that Italian Constitution, in force since 1 January 1948, had abolished the death penalty—and the impact Sciascia sought to have on his readers. That is, Sciascia’s long-time opposition to the death penalty is to some extent pretext for ‘re-litigating’ in 1987, a decade after the fact, two polemics of the late 1970s. The first public controversy had been sparked by his declaration (issued during the trial of colonna torinese of the Red Brigades) of personal neutrality in the struggle of the Italian State to suppress terrorist subversion, the other by Sciascia’s contention that the political parties who refused to negotiate with the terrorists for the release of Aldo Moro had indirectly re-introduced the death penalty in Italy.

The Red Brigades’ Communiqués: An Analysis of the Terrorist Group’s Propaganda

ABSTRACTThe article analyzes the language, the propaganda, and communication techniques used by the Red Brigades (BR) during their activities. The analysis is based on the study of 181 communiqués, written and circulated by the terrorist organization between 1970 and 1988, i.e., from the beginning to the end of its activities. The corpus comprises three types of communiqués: a) claims of responsibility for violent actions (kidnapping, homicides), b) internal documents aimed at creating a coherent organization and ideology, and c) texts that circulated within the extra-parliamentary Left to generate positive propaganda towards the BR. The paper demonstrates that the language used, as well as the propaganda techniques, underwent important changes during the period of activity of the BR, in accordance with the evolution of their objectives and their internal development. In addition to this, the analysis reveals a certain repetition of specific communication strategies, as well as identification of specific contents that show a certain degree of homogeneity. At the same time, the article also assesses the structural changes that took place within the BR, which may have affected their communiqués.