A Protest March from Brescia to Rome, via Bologna and Florence.
A Political Intervention by Dario Fo and Franca Rame in the Form of
a Carnival-Funeral in Protest against Thirty Years of Terrorist Killings in Italy
and against the Involvement of Fascist Organisations
and the Complicity of State Institutions.

What follows is a simple account of the proceedings as I saw them. There are also links to photographs of the event. A more detailed account will follow at a later date.

Click here for a plain-text account without links.

Piazza Fontana. In a sense it all started here. The bomb placed by fascists in the Bank of Agriculture, 12 December 1969. Dario Fo wrote his Accidental Death of an Anarchist, to highlight police cover-ups of the true facts. Now, on the thirtieth anniversary of Piazza Fontana, a national protest has been organised, largely inspired by Dario Fo and Franca Rame.

The demonstration begins with a simple ceremony of remembrance, attended by Dario Fo in the company of townspeople and representatives of partisan organisations, in Piazza della Loggia, Brescia. Then the procession, together with the cut-out figures, proceeds to the railway station, where it boards a protest train, specially hired for the occasion. The train takes us to Milan.

For the past month art students from various art academies in Italy have been working with Dario Fo and Franca Rame, to produce banners commemorating the victims of these 30 years of violence. Accompanied by a marching band playing the musics of the movement, we go from Milan Central Station to L'Umanitaria, where the banners are waiting to be carried in procession.

The banners are ranged up against the walls. One in particular catches the eye. Painted by the hand of Fo himself, it depicts the kidnap and rape of his wife, Franca Rame, at the hand of fascists in 1973. Recently evidence has emerged of high-level carabiniere involvement in the event.

The procession sets off, led by a band of samba drummers beating out rhythms that fill the streets of Milan city centre. The banners follow in due order: a banner commemorating the women victims of the stragi; a banner showing how the police destroyed a key piece of evidence in the Piazza Fontana bombing; a banner showing the death of Franceschi, Milan 1973. And many more besides.