Terza Posizione

The Terza Posizione (Ital. "Third Position") was a far right group founded in Rome in 1978 (but already present with the name of Lotta Studentesca from 1976). The TP rejected both capitalism and socialism, looking instead to found a third force or Third Position, with its main influence being Julius Evola. The group became a front for the Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari (NAR) in 1980. It insisted on tradition, nationalism, anti-parliamentarism and militarism.

Overview

The group was founded by ex-members of previous neo-fascist groups such as Ordine Nuovo, Avanguardia Nazionale, Lotta di Popolo, Fronte Studentesco, disbanded for apology of fascism. Peppe Di Mitri was the leader of the group, with Roberto Fiore and Gabriele Adinolfi amongst its most important ideologues. Massimo Morsello was also a member. Parallel to the official organization, an operative clandestine nucleus was formed, led by Peppe Di Mitri. The movement was not to last long as Di Mitri was arrested not long after its foundation. When he was arrested in the summer of 1980, the structure merged with Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari.

The group motto was "Nè fronte rosso nè reazione, Terza Posizione" (Ital. "Neither red front nor reaction, Third Position"). The group logo was a variation of the Nazist Wolfsangel symbol, with the central bar substituted by a fist holding a hammer.

Terza Posizione was one of the various Italian neofascist groups of the '70s (alongside with Lotta di Popolo, for example) that attempted to break the wall between radical left and radical right ideologies. Terza Posizione platform supported a social, corporativist state and looked with interest at both the Peron Argentina and the Vietcongs.

Terza Posizione and the NAR

On December 1979, in one of the premises of the organization, three members were arrested, having been caught while moving a box full of hand grenades. After the incident, the police found several Carabinieri uniforms, false papers, arms and explosives. As a result, in September 1980, Fiore, Adinolfi and other forty members of Terza Posizione received a warrant of arrest. However Fiore and Adinolfi escaped abroad, leaving the leadership of the group to Giorgio Vale (a member of Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari). The NAR's Giusva Fioravanti of the NAR would later accuse Fiore and Adinolfi of absconding with the movement's money. Without Di Mitri's lead the NAR quickly took control and used TP as a front movement.

Investigations into activities

In June 1983, judge Mario Amato, who was investigating the links between the Terza Posizione and neo-fascist terrorism, was assassinated by a commando formed by Gilberto Cavallini and Luigi Ciavardini. The instigators of the killing were NAR members Francesca Mambro and Valerio FioravantiFact|date=April 2007 (Both have been convicted for a lot of other terrorist killings and the 1980 Bologna massacre). The judge had been investigating under severe isolation from his superiors, like the chief prosecutor Giovanni De Matteo, a member of Propaganda Due, and under heavy attacks from his colleague Antonio Alibrandi, a right-wing sympathizer and father of Alessandro Alibrandi, member of Terza Posizione and NAR.

Legacy of Terza Posizione

Despite its brief life and ambiguous relationships with terrorist groups, Terza Posizione remains one of the most influential groups of the Italian and European far right. Many of its former members continued to play play prominent roles in the far right politics after the disbanding of the original association.

Peppe Dimitri later joined Alleanza Nazionale and became the advisor of Gianni Alemanno. Fiore and Morsello, meanwhile, repaired to Great Britain founding the International Third Position along with Nick Griffin and other English nationalists. They then returned some of their ideals to Italian politics with Forza Nuova, albeit with less social-oriented and more strictly anti-immigration overtones. Forza Nuova web sites and manifests are still sometimes titled "Forza Nuova per la Terza Posizione" ("New Force for the Third Position"). Gabriele Adinolfi is not formally involved in politics but he is still active in the Italian far right scene as an ideologue and thinker.

References

*cite book|first=Gabriele Adinolfi |last=Roberto Fiore|title=Noi Terza posizione|publisher=Settimo Sigillo|year=2000
*cite book|first=Giorgio |last=Cingolani|title=La destra in armi |publisher=Editori Riuniti|year=1986
*cite book|first=Gianni |last=Flamini|title=L’ombra della piramide|publisher= Teti|year= 1989

See also

*Third Position
*Neo-fascism