thanks! i googled it and it turns out the quote and book is on google books.
yeah "Our atrophied brains reminded us of birds which, when we go to let them free, to let them escape, do not know how to fly. I was overcome with sadness. I told myself: God made our brains not to let us think. Then, suddenly, in '69, they began to function again. We broke the cage, and we began to fly again." It's attributed to someone on strike in a FIAT plant in Italy during Italy's "Hot Autumn", IIRC. I got it from a book called Transnational Moments Of Change: Europe 1945, 1968, 1989. There's a good discussion of the Italian situation in 1968/69 in it.
hey, did you previously have a quote in your sig from a 'striking italian worker' or something? i just remember it was pretty cool if you still have the quote somewhere.