Abstract
This chapter describes the years of ‘riflusso’ (‘the ebb’) in the city of Milan in the late 1970s and early 1980s, under the social, cultural and political points of view: the years when the movements of the 1970s came to an end and a general withdraw in the private sphere started. Two complementary tendencies could be observed in Milan: the ongoing harsh repression of the political movements by the state connected to their terrorist drift and the attempt, during the 1980s, to normalise any form of counterculture in the city; the rise of a new culture of hedonism, praising consumerism and inviting to individualist pleasure to be experienced as consumption. Giving voice to the interviewees, the chapter also depicts how subculturalists perceived these two complementary tendencies, and how they framed their experience of subcultural belonging as a way to resist the ongoing tendencies, and to oppose mainstream culture.
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- 1.
Time Magazine, 5 April 1982, cover with the title: “Giorgio’s Gorgeous Style”. Available online at http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19820405,00.html. Last accessed 1/9/2019.
- 2.
Pope John Paul II visited Milan twice. The first time was from 20 to 22 May 1983, at the end of the 20th National Eucharistic Congress; the second time (November 2–4, 1984) on the occasion of the fourth centenary of St. Charles Borromeo’s death. (Available online at the website of the Holy See, in John Paul II’s speeches section: https://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/it/speeches/1983/may/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19830520_benvenuto-milano.html and https://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/it/speeches/1984/november/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19841104_arrivo-milano.html, last accessed 1/9/2019).
- 3.
A short journalistic report of the Soviet leader’s visit to Milan can be found in Bonsanti, S. (1989). “Occhetto soddisfatto: Gorbaciov è con noi”. La Repubblica, December 1, 1989. Available online at: http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1989/12/01/occhetto-soddisfatto-gorbaciov-con-noi.html. Last accessed 1/9/2019.
- 4.
A report on the progress of drug use throughout Italy, published in 1992 by the British Journal of Addiction, estimated that there were 28,000 opiate users in Italy in 1977. This figure rose to 92,000 in 1982. During their study period (1985–1989), the authors found that the number of subjects who went to drug addiction recovery centres increased from 13,905 to 61,689: an increase which was due to a rise in heroin consumption. Unlike countries like the United Kingdom—where the increase in heroin consumption in the 1980s was mainly due to its spread to areas most affected by the economic recession—the increase in Italy occurred in a period of relative prosperity. According to the study, this phenomenon struck northern Italy above all. Large cities such as Milan recorded the highest level of drug addicts coming from different social environments. See Rezza et al. (1992).
- 5.
The law of the Italian Republic n. 152 of 22 May 1975, Provisions for the protection of public order, was known as the ‘Reale Act’, a name derived from its promoter Oronzo Reale, who was minister of justice between November 1974 and February 1976. The law sanctioned the right of police forces to use firearms when necessary to maintain public order. The use of preventive custody in jail was extended even in the absence of flagrante delicto: the preventive detention could last for four days, within which the judge had to decree a validation by the judicial authority. The Reale Act, amended in 1977 by law 533, was widely contested because it was considered excessive, and was subjected to an abrogative referendum in June 1978: but 76.5% of voters decided not to abrogate the law. Later, over the years, the law underwent some changes and was partly ‘weakened’. In 1990, a research paper was published on the cases of death and injuries due to the introduction of the Reale Act: between June 1975 and mid-1989, 254 people were killed and 371 were injured. In 90% of the cases, the victims did not possess a firearm when confronted with the police. See Libro bianco sulla Legge Reale, curated by Centro di iniziativa Luca Rossi, available online at www.ecn.org/lucarossi/625/625/. Last accessed 1/9/2019.
- 6.
“On April 7, 1979, [Professor Antonio] Negri and other activists and former activists in Autonomia and Potere Operaio were arrested on orders from the Padua state attorney, Pietro Calogero. They were accused of being the leaders of the Red Brigades, and (through the legal front of Autonomia and Potere Operaio) of being the organizers and instigators of the wave of terrorism that had spread through Italy in the late ‘70’s. On the same day, Negri was also indicted by a Rome judge for the murder of Aldo Moro” (Portelli 1985: 6).
- 7.
Angela Valcavi, one of our interviewees, wrote an eponymous biographical novel on the punkzine Fame (Valcavi 2017).
- 8.
In May 1984. See chapter 1, note 3.
- 9.
- 10.
See Chap. 3.
- 11.
“Yes, Milan. The city of Amaro Ramazzotti. Milan that is born again every morning, that beats like a heart, positive, optimistic, efficient. The city of Amaro Ramazzotti, that was born here 170 years ago. And that today still takes this Milan to be lived, dreamt, relished. This Milan to be sipped”, is the full script of the spot. A portrait of the famous Italian advertiser Marco Mignani was published by the newspaper Corriere della Sera on 1 April 2008, on the occasion of his death. Available online at: https://www.corriere.it/cronache/08_aprile_01/mignani_creativo_ramazzotti_f0a020ee-ffc7-11dc-be96-00144f486ba6.shtml. Last accessed 1/9/2019.
- 12.
Founded in 1935, it’s a famous Milanese school of fashion and design.
- 13.
With the title Youth gangs in Milan: police interventions, the Italian press agency Ansa wrote on 26 May 1984: “It was probably a clash between rival youth gangs, but police checks in two areas of the city avoided accidents. An anonymous phone call to 113, in fact, caused a police intervention in San Babila square where, in front of a well-known bar, there were about 40 young people. Personal searches gave no results, but in some cars and garbage bins chains, knives, sprays, sticks and metal bars were found. All the youths were brought to the central police station for inspection. Meanwhile, in the Ticinese area, a flier campaign was announced by a group of punks who were apparently protesting against the recent closure of the squat in via Correggio, that has been occupied for 8-years. When the patrols to control the area arrived, there was a massive getaway and a police agent shot two bullets in the air for intimidating purposes. Eighty people were arrested and also in this case police found chains and other blunt objects. Everybody was brought to the central police station for inspection.”
- 14.
Corriere della Sera, September 22, 1985: “Tamarri and metallari hoovered up in the centre of the town. Parental reprimands remain unheard”.
- 15.
Ibidem.
- 16.
Bettino Craxi (1934–2000) was prime minister from 1983 to 1987, and leader of the Italian Socialist party from 1976 to 1993.
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Tosoni, S., Zuccalà, E. (2020). Der Himmel Über Milan: The City of Milan in the Early 1980s. In: Italian Goth Subculture . Palgrave Studies in the History of Subcultures and Popular Music. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39811-8_3
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