Alessandro Orsini - Sacrifice: My Life in a Fascist Militia
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SACRIFICE
My Life in a Fascist Militia
ALESSANDRO ORSINI
Translated from the Italian by
SARAH JANE NODES
CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS
ITHACA AND LONDON
To my father,
Arturo Orsini
Arturo Orsini
CONTENTS
PREFACE
I was warned not to write this book.
I ask any reader who recognizes the facts and places I describe not to reveal their real identities. A kind of complicity is often created between a writer and his readers. I hope this also applies in my case.
Bloody noses, knifings, barroom brawls, murders, massacres, as well as ritual suicides like that of Dominique Venner, an intellectual and Fascist sympathizer who, on May 21, 2013, shot himself in the mouth before the altar of Notre-Dame de Paris to protest the presence of immigrants in Europe. This book talks about these things.
Contrary to the common belief that Fascist militants get caught up in violence because they are uneducated, I argue that they attack, kill, and commit suicide because they have studied, because they read certain books, and because they spend a lot of time debating the meaning of what theyre reading. They study, they read, they reflect: the people Im dealing with possess a political culture. Sacrifice is a Fascist organization that has been involved in numerous incidents of violence. (In this book I never use the expression neofascist because these people strongly reject the label.) In some cases it has been attacked by far-left organizations. In other cases Sacrifice members have been the attackers. Many of its militants are in prison for beating up political adversaries or for taking part in various kinds of clashes. But no Sacrifice militant has ever been arrested for larceny or robbery or drug pushing. Violence against people is always the reason for their arrest.
I managed to gain access to two cells in towns I call Mussolinia and Lenintown in order to understand the cultural significance that the Sacrifice comrades attribute to violence. The history of this research, recounted in the course of this book, is long and complicated and required me to move to more than one city. It lasted for five years and can be divided into three stages.
The first stage, the approach stage, took roughly three and a half years. During that time I managed to become friendly with some important Sacrifice militants after taking out a membership in an excellent gym that they own. The gym is neither in Mussolinia nor in Lenintown.
The second stage, the entry stage, lasted some four months, three of which I spent as a full-time militant. During those three months I played the part of a militant day in and day out, including weekends. This stage ended with my expulsion from the group and an explicit warning not to approach any comrade in the future.
The third stage, the departure stage, lasted a year. Since I couldnt approach the group anymore, I continued to study it through the enormous quantity of documents the Sacrifice comrades publish on Facebook, and also thanks to a friendship I had developed over five years with a Sacrifice militant who doesnt live in Mussolinia or in Lenintown. This young man, though a highly respected militant, had begun a de-radicalization process after the birth of his son, but he had never spoken about this with his other comrades.
This is living ethnography.
THE ORGANIZATION OF EDUCATION
The Fight
It was one oclock in the morning.
In Mussolinia a big party was in progress, organized by the mayor and town council. For the occasion, all the shops were staying open until six. Thousands of young people were drinking and dancing in the streets.
Caesar, a Sacrifice militant, was strolling downtown with fifteen buddies. For reasons that have never been made clear, not even during the trial that followed, he started insulting Joe, a man he had met by chance, and his friends. After a brief fight, the two groups separated without inflicting too much damage.
An hour later, Caesar, who had lost an eye in a brawl a few years earlier, went in search of his adversary, telling his pals that he wanted to humiliate the guy. When he saw Joe in the distance, Caesar broke a bottle and, holding it by the neck, took a run at Joe, jumped on him, and thrust the bottle into his eye. The victim fell to his knees, his face covered in blood, yelling for help. The two groups launched into a new fight, at the end of which Joe was taken to hospital.
My Arrival in Mussolinia
A week after the fight, I went to Mussolinia to collect information and interview people about what had happened. The doctors made it very clear: Joe had lost an eye.
Neither the mayor of Mussolinia, nor the political parties, nor the various cultural associations condemned Caesars attack. After remaining at liberty for some months, he was arrested, tried, and sentenced to three and a half years in jail (and is still there as I write).
While the case against Caesar was under way, I tried to find out about the relations between Sacrifice and the political parties governing Mussolinia. I spoke with as many locals as I could, as well as politicians, journalists, and some police officers.
Although many Mussolinia residents condemned the brawl that Caesar had initiated, the political parties had decided not to organize any demonstrations against him and his political movement. As a Mussolinia shop owner said: Its incredible what happened. Its incredible but also terrible. My son could have been there instead of Joe. How awful for the family of that poor boy, to have a son whos lost an eye!
I managed to extract a more useful piece of information while eating with some friends in a pizzeria.
Jonathan, a forty-two-year-old engineer who owns a building company, told me that Caesar had lost an eye during a brawl at the Mussolinia stadium between ultras, rabid fans of rival soccer teams. Everyone knows about Caesar. He lost an eye during a fight at the stadium and now hes done the same thing to that poor kid. The Sacrifice militants are extremists and violent, but the mayor protects them.
Why?
Max, thirty-three, unemployed, and from a well-off family, explains to me that the mayor of Mussolinia, who today is the head of a liberal party, had been a far-right activist in his youth: Mussolini loved Mussolinia and the people of Mussolinia loved Mussolini. The architecture of the town also tells you this. Havent you noticed that there are Fascist symbols everywhere in Mussolinia? In the seventies we even had right-wing terrorists here. Max asserts that the mayor of Mussolinia is very friendly with the Sacrifice militants, who claim they oppose the bourgeoisie and capitalism but who go around secretly at night putting up electoral posters for the mayor, who has even given them a medal for bravery in peacetime. (A medal for bravery?)
In the winter, Max continues, there was a heavy snowfall. The Sacrifice militants shoveled the snow off the roads. Thats all. I did the same thing with my friends, but nobody gave us a medal! The mayor wanted a pretext to show his loyalty to Sacrifice, and so he gave them a medal!
Max raises his voice: Do you think thats normal? What a shitty country were living in! The mayor from a liberal party gave a medal for bravery in peacetime to an organization that praises Hitler and Mussolini!
Max seems sincere, but hes a left-wing activist who hates Fascism.
To check his facts, I ask for an appointment with a Mussolinia councilman who belongs to the same party as the mayor. He answers my question courteously: Yes, its true, our mayor gave Sacrifice a medal. The Sacrifice militants are idealistic young people who are militant in politics in a very open manner. The councilman tells me that, when he was a boy in the eighties, he was active in the same Fascist party as the mayor. After various experiences, they both ended up in their present party. He remains friendly, however, with the Sacrifice leaders: But I would ask you not to repeat what Im telling you because I could have problems with the press. You know what journalists are like. Im a member of a liberal party now, and I dont want to find myself labeled a Fascist.
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