| Reggio revolt | |
| Partof: | Years of Lead |
| Date: | 5 July 1970 – 23 February 1971 |
| Place: | Reggio Calabria, Calabria, Italy |
| Causes: | Decentralization and the choice of Catanzaro as the region capital |
| Goals: | Recognition of Reggio Calabria as capoluogo (regional capital) |
| Methods: | Strikes, street rioting and road and railway blockades |
| Side1: | |
| Side2: | |
| Leadfigures1: | Francesco Franco Alfredo Perna Giuseppe Avarna Fortunato Aloi |
| Fatalities: | According to official figures of the Italian Ministry of the Interior there were 3 dead; other sources mention 5 dead |
| Injuries: | According to official figures of the Italian Ministry of the Interior there were 190 policemen and 37 civilians wounded; other sources mention hundreds of wounded |
| Arrests: | Arrest and imprisonment of the revolt's leaders, like Francesco Franco |
The Reggio revolt occurred in Reggio Calabria, Italy, from July 1970 to February 1971. The cause of the protests was a government decision to make Catanzaro, not Reggio, regional capital of Calabria.[1] The nomination of a regional capital was the result of a decentralization programme of the Italian government, under which 15 governmental regions were concretized and given their own administrative councils and a measure of local autonomy.[2]
Protest in Reggio Calabria exploded in July 1970 when the much smaller town of Catanzaro (with a population of 82,000 against 160,000 in Reggio) was chosen as the regional capital of Calabria. The people of Reggio blamed their rivals' success on "the Red Barons" in Rome, a group of influential centre-left Calabrian politicians from Cosenza and Catanzaro, including Deputy Prime Minister Giacomo Mancini.[2]
On July 14, a general strike was called and five days of street fighting left one dead and several policemen injured.[2] [3] A force of 5,000 armed police and Carabinieri agents was moved into the area. The national government ordered state-owned RAI TV not to report on the insurrection. Nevertheless, the revolt steadily picked up steam and sympathy.[2]
Drawn out road and railway blockades damaged the entire country. Strikes, barricades and wrecked railway tracks forced trains from the north of Italy to halt two hours short of Reggio. Italy's main north-south highway, the Autostrada del Sole (Highway of the Sun), was closed off. When the port of Reggio was blocked, hundreds of lorries and railroad freight cars were forced to remain on the other side of the Straits of Messina.[2]
The revolt was taken over by young neo-fascists of the Italian Social Movement (Movimento Sociale Italiano, MSI) allegedly backed by the 'Ndrangheta, a Mafia-type criminal organisation based in Calabria,[4] [5] [6] the De Stefano 'ndrina in particular.[7] Francesco Franco, a trade union leader from the National Italian Workers' Union (CISNAL) close to the neo-fascist movement became the informal leader of the rebel Action Committee and of the revolt. "Boia chi molla"