A legendary Autumn
The ideas of the transnational radicals seemed soon vindicated by the events, both in Turin and Detroit. ‘‘The working class has a spontaneous strategy of its own motions and development:the party needs only to detect it, express it, and organize it.’’ (Tronti, Operai e Capitale, p. 113) wrote Mario Tronti, one of the key leaders of operaismo. And indeed in 1969 Italy the working class took the lead in opening a long season of labor conflict that lasted until 1975, reshaped industrial relations and, for a generation to come, employment rights. Starting with the so-called Autunno caldo, autoworkers flocked to radical groups such as Lotta Continua and Potere Operaio that fiercely criticised the stale Italian Communist Party and its metalworkers union, the CGIL.
While the rise in popularity of groups in the far left of the political spectrum can only be understood in the Italian context, Italian radicalism and autonomism fascinated the Americans, as explified by a special issue of Radical America dedicated to the topic.