Communists vs. the Mafia

[Mr. Piccolo]

I was wondering if comrades could enlighten me or point me to some good sources regarding the conflict between Italian communists and the Mafia. My understanding is that organized crime in Italy supported the capitalist status quo after the end of World War II and actively helped to suppress the Italian Communists, even killing some activists.

Thanks.

[Blake's Baby]

Good question. I don't know the answer. It might take some time to rustle someone up who knows the post-war history of Italian Communism.

The novel '54' by Wu Ming (an Italian writers' collective) is a really interesting, heavily fictionalised (but against a real background) account of some mafia-communist interactions in the mid-50s (1954, to be exact...). If you want a cracking and pretty weird read while you wait for real information, do track it down.

[Os Cangaceiros]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Tresca

[Viktor89]

Read about the infamous years of lead, the civil war-like situation in Italy after WWII. This is a topic that takes a lot of reading to understand well. But to keep it short: yes, some mafia thugs and gangsters supported, helped or financed or worked with some fascist terrorists and murderers, these fascist groups you can read more about if you look up literature about Operation Gladio in Italy. It's complicated as there was so many bombings, shootings, and different groups and people, some fascist attacks was false flag and they blamed the communists for several bombings in order to create panic or chaos and people would shout for a fascist government they thought. These groups worked with NATO in Gladio and also the mafia. Start with basics and go to Wikipedia and look up these articles and read them:

Operation Gladio
Banda della magliana
Nuclei armati rivoluzionari
Golpe Borghese
Years of lead
Ordine Nuovo
Roberto Fiore
Strategy of tension
Propaganda due

Some of them worked with murderous fascist dictatorships in South America also.