Giangiacomo Feltrinelli
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Giangiacomo Feltrinelli (June 19, 1926 - March 14, 1972) was an Italian publisher, left-wing Italian activist and countercultural icon. He founded Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editore in 1954. He was also a communist and founded GAP in 1970. GAP would become the second terrorist organization to be formed during the Years of Lead.
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Early life
Giangiacomo was born into one of Italy's wealthiest families, descendents of Feltre. His father Carl, served in high positions with numerous companies including jobs in the lumber field. A young Giangiacomo first took an interest in the lives of workers and the poor during discussions with the staff who ran his family's estate. He came to understand that, under capitalism, and the fascist regime it had spawned, the vast majority of people could never attain his privileges and were compelled to sell their labour to the bosses and landowners for a pittance. During the latter stages of the World War II, Giangiacomo joined the partisans, led by the Communist Party (PCI), fighting the invading German army and the remnants of Mussolini's regime. It was a small step from this to formally joining the PCI. Over the next few years, Giangiacomo played a key role in financing the activities of the PCI.
In the post-war period the PCI held a dominant position amongst the Italian working class. The country was in economic ruins and the ruling class was weak. Given the widespread radicalisation in society, it was entirely possible for the PCI to embark on a struggle to peacefully take power on a number of occasions. The leadership of the party, however, was firmly under the influence of the reactionary, ruling Stalinist bureaucracy in Moscow, which wanted to come to an accommodation with Western imperialism. This lead the PCI to propose a coalition government in Italy, which would see them sharing power with progressive capitalist parties and putting off the struggle for socialism to some distant date. But even this was too much for the Italian bosses, who were afraid that the PCI in office would unleash a revolution from below.
Publisher
Activism
Feltrinelli spent the next years travelling the world and making links with various radical Third World leaders and anti-imperialist and guerrilla movements. In 1964, Feltrinelli meets the leader of the Cuban revolution, Fidel Castro, supporter of the main South American and international movements of liberation, with which long friendship was hoped to be established. In 1967, Feltrinelli arrives in Bolivia and meets with Régis Debray. He published the writings of figures such as Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Ho Chi Minh, and a series of pamphlets on the unfolding revolution in the colonial world and the Middle East.
Feltrinelli's political ideas were confused and contradictory. Lacking an independent class analysis, he increasingly sought to advocate guerrilla struggle to further the aims of the Italian working class. But guerrilla campaigns could only play a role in fighting the ruling classes in underdeveloped countries, where the peasantry predominated. Even then, isolated from a struggle of the working class, guerrilla movements could not provide a route to genuine socialist states. By contrast, Italy was a modern capitalist country. Here the struggle for power lay in the weapons of collective action by the working class, including the general strike.
GAP
The late 1960s and early 1970s saw a period of renewed student and labour struggles both in Italy and internationally, marking the end of the post-war economic boom and a new offensive by the bosses. Many in Italy feared an attempted coup by the rightwing in response. As the conservative labour and PCI leaders refused to develop the mass movements, and confusion and impatience grew amongst some middle class youth and workers, Feltrinelli prioritised organising clandestine resistance to the right-wing threat. Along with the sprouting of other underground terrorist groups, such as the Red Brigades, he established the Partisan Action Group (GAP). As the GAP carried out a series of small-scale bomb attacks against neo-fascist targets and employers, Fetrinelli was forced into hiding.
Death
On March 14, 1972, Giangiacomo Feltrinelli was found dead at the foot of an electricity pylon near Milan, apparently killed by his own explosives while on an operation with other GAP members. Like his father's death, the passing of Giangiacomo was immediately viewed suspiciously. Many believed Italian secret services, which had a number of informants in the underground groups, had a part in his death.
