Neither left nor right: Crisis, Wane of Politics, and the Struggles for Sovereignty

When I arrived for fieldwork in Rome, in early 2008, I was seeking to track and interview the ex- militants of the fascism-inspired ‘Spontaneista groups’. Active in the late 70s, these had been very violent and had claimed to be ‘neither left nor right’. Their name made reference to the supposed ‘spontaneity’ of their constitution and action, announcing an ideological predilection of instincts and drives over reason and thought. All of these movements had a short life of four to six years between the late 70s and the early 80s. I was then very surprised when – on my arrival in Rome – I ran into a crowd of students, dressed in black and with shaved heads, rallying against the reform of lower education and crying in the streets the slogan: ‘Non rossi, né neri, ma liberi pensieri