The Case of Bonanno & Stasi & An Attempted Expropriation in Italy…
From ‘Endless Struggle’, No.12, Spring/Summer 1990, Vancouver, BC
For all our talk of International Solidarity, there has been one glowing example of a case in which we’ve been too silent; that of Alfredo M. Bonanno & Pippo Stasi, two Italian anarchists arrested on Feb. 2/89 for an attempted robbery. In Oct./89 the two were sentenced, Bonanno to 5 and a half years & Stasi to 4 years 8 months. Their appeal has been set for March 1990.
The two were arrested during an attempted robbery of a jewellers shop in the Italian town of Bergamo. After a few hours of the regular police hospitality, the two were charged with armed robbery & assault, and, after their identities were discovered & that they were anarchists, the two were informed they would be “fit up” with some unsolved robberies, one of which included a murder. This frame-up would consist of charging the two with an April 7/87 robbery & resulting murder, & another on March 9/85, both in Bergamo. But against this legal facade, the two declared they had attempted the robbery “exclusively for personal reasons…” & because they “didn’t have jobs & needed the money”. From the immediate outset the two anarchists placed their attempted expropriation firmly into the context of the broader social clash, & that they considered the redistribution of wealth in a society based on social & economic inequality to be a practise concurrent with revolutionary struggle. From the very beginning the two made no attempt to deny their attempted expropriation, & refused any defense committees or legal manouevres moving the the situation from one of a “guilty or innocent” question to that of being part of a much broader class struggle.
Accompanying the threatened police frame-up was the usual attempt to paint the anarchists as “terrorists”. This began with the bourgeois media faithfully reproducing the innuendo put forward by the kops; charges of terrorism & hinting that the two belonged to the “gotha of Italian terrorism”. To the attempted frame-up, Bonanno & Stasi denied any involvement in the unsolved robberies dragged up from the police archives of unsolved “crimes”. Comrades in Italy & internationally organised demos, pickets, leaflets & actions in solidarity with the two, demanding their release & showing that two were not isolated, or that the legal farce would have resistance. No doubt all this was a contributing factor so that during the October trial, the frame-up charges weren’t introduced. However, adding to the “terrorist angle” that had been presented, kops carried out raids on anarchist houses & offices throughout Italy, the most recent of which was in Dec. 5/89.
Both Bonanno & Stasi have been involved in the revolutionary movement for a number of years, contributing theoretically to the Anarchismo and ProvocAzione papers in Italy, & the paper lnsurrection in England, & practically to the struggle by their involvement in various areas of conflict. Stasi was particularly well-known in Palermo, where he was involved in the anti-nuclear & anti-militarist struggles & as a member of the Palermo Anarchist Group. Bonanno was known for his longtime involvement & especially his contributions to the development of a coherent revolutionary practise, an example of which can be seen in his book From Riot to Insurrection (published by Elephant Editions in London), & a number of other pamphlets & essays. It was these writings which led to his being arrested & persecuted in the past; “Instigation to revolt”, “condoning criminal offenses” etc.
To portray this incident as one of a robbery plain & simple would be to ignore the context that Bonanno & Stasi themselves placed the action in, & it would be an ignorant negation of the revolutionary practise of our own history. But in fact, this has already been done by some anarchists! Bonanno was aware of this tendency, & wrote, in the introduction to Anarchism & Violence: Severino Di Giovanni in Argentina that “there have always been comrades who include the methods of direct action, armed struggle, & expropriation in the struggle against exploitation. On the other hand there have always been those who are against these methods, in favour of propaganda & libertarian educationism alone”.
There has indeed been some confusion from various corners of the anarchist movement, causing them to view the expropriation as an actual “crime”, their conclusions being that thievery & robbery are not part of revolutionary struggle. Expropriation happens every minute of everyday in every store & boutique in the world.
Shoplifting, welfare frauds, cheque frauds, fencing, robbery, food riots, these have always been methods by which the exploited class have attempted to take that which is denied them by capital. It is a method of survival that sometimes takes on repressive means (too much force, gangs, syndicates, sometimes the poor are mistakenly robbed etc.) but in general it is a natural reaction to the vast economic exploitation inherent in the capitalist society. In short it is taking back the wealth stolen by the capitalists who use more “sophisticated” methods.
In this way, the logic of the legal apparatus is exposed and we can see clearly why expropriation carried out by the proletariat is “illegal”, & the everyday robbery that occurs in the workplaces, in the wage-slave logic, is “legal” & seen as a good thing. And we can see clearly in whose interests the laws are designed to protect. Against this, like a brick against a bank window, Bonanno & Stasi re-affirm the revolutionary practise of expropriation, shattering the social peace that accommodates the everyday robbery of the factories, mills, etc. It was in this same way that anarchists struck in the 1920’s & ’30’s; Durruti, Ascaso, Sabate, Roscigna, & Di Giovanni, expropriating large amounts of money which was put into building resistance, purchasing weapons, explosives & for publishing magazines & books, in the case of Di Giovanni, it was his fortnightly Culmine.
“Legal” or “illegal”, these are questions posed by capital’s judicial apparatus. An apparatus prefigured to benefit a certain class. For us, there can only be total solidarity with the two militants, Bonanno & Stasi.
“The right to life isn’t begged for, it’s taken.” Alex Jacob, France 1905
Ad also from ‘Endless Struggle’, No.12, Spring/Summer 1990
Expropriating the Jewels
Italian Anarchists Arrested
From ‘Ecomedia: Building Resistance’, No. 6, May 1989, Vancouver, BC
On February 2nd, 1989 anarchist comrades Alfredo Bonanno and Guiseppe Stasi were arrested following an expropriation from a jewellery shop in Bergamo Italy. The charges are armed robbery, grievous bodily harm, and resisting arrest. In a declaration on Feb. 6th, they stated that the robbery was carried out due to the personal need for money and that this follows the anarchist tradition of redistributing wealth in a society based on social and economic inequality. Raids on the homes of other Italian anarchists have followed in Milan, Bregamo and Catania.
Apparently the state is attempting to create a massive armed underground structure as it tries to include other activists in its searches, intimidations, and attacks. A “massive armed underground structure” that does not exist but if it did would allow the Italian state to strike at other revolutionary groups and persons.
A fund has been opened to meet trial costs and contributions can be sent to the current postal account 16464950 in the name of Carmela Di Marca, Catania, in Italian lyre. Alternatively send it to Vancouver Ecomedia and we’ll pass it on. Local Vancouver anarchists have also collected a small bit of money in solidarity with Bonanno and Stasi.
Comrades Arrested During Expropriation
Republished in ‘No Picnic’, Spring 89, Vancouver, BC
Anarchists Alfredo Bonanno and Guiseppe Stasi were arrested on Thursday 2 February 1989.
The arrest took place following an expropriation in a jeweller’s shop in Bergamo. The comrades were then transferred to prison in via Gleno 61-Bergamo, Italy.
The accusations against them are: armed robbery, grievous bodily harm and resistance against arrest.
On Monday 6 February the comrades were interrogated by the instructing judge. They declared that the robbery was carried out due to the personal need for money and that, as anarchists, they consider the redistribution of wealth in a society based on social and economic inequality to be just, a position that historically anarchists have always shared.
The comrades specified that any attempt by the judicial authorities to attribute other similar actions to them, or to presuppose, starting from this specific incident, the existence of a phantomic armed organisation, will be considered a frame-up intending to strike comrades actively engaged in the social struggle against exploitation and oppression daily more heavily.
In fact, the instruction is still open, and the phantomatic constructions of the repressive organs remain to be seen,
To start with, on the same day as the robbery took place, a series of raids was carried out (obviously with no result) in the homes of anarchist comrades in Milan, Bergamo and Catania,
We intend to combat any attempt to isolate the comrades, and express our revolutionary solidarity with Guiseppe and Alfredo. We also mean to spread the maximum information on the case. We will mobilise against any attempt by the judicial-police organs to construct frame-ups of any kind,
In the general: meeting held in Rome on 11 February 1989, it was decided to open a fund to meet trial costs. Whoever desires to contribute to it can do so through the current postal account 16464950 in the name of Carmela Di Marca, Catania.
The anarchists present at the meeting in Rome
Bonanno & Stasi
From ‘Open Road’, Issue No.25, Winter 1990, Vancouver, BC
BERGAMO — Alfredo Bonanno and Guiseppe “Pippo” Stasi are still in prison in Bergamo, Italy. They were arrested during a robbery of a jeweller’s store in Bergamo more than two years ago.
Alfredo was sentenced to five years and six months, and Pippo was sentenced to four years and eight months. Other accusations were laid against them in reference to a murder that took place in Bergamo in April 1987 and another robbery which took place in March 1985. These latter charges are completely unfounded and were only laid to further criminalize the two men, both active and outspoken anarchists.
On appeal their sentences were reduced: Pippo’s to four years, and Alfredo’s to four years and eight months. A year ago now, Alfredo was sentenced to a further eight months by the appeal court for “instigation of a crime and apology for a crime” as a result of articles that appeared in the anarchist journals Anarchismo and Provocazione, which he edits.
The comrades can be contacted at the Carcere de Bergamo, Via Gleno 61, 24100 Bergamo, Italia.
See also:
The Revolutionary Project, by Alfredo M. Bonanno (layout by Fugitive Distro)
Intro to Insurrectionary Anarchism, by M.Gouldhawke (2022)
A Project of Liberation, by the Insurrectionary Anarchists of the Coast Salish Territories (2004)
Squatting in Vancouver: A Brief Overview, by M.Gouldhawke (2002)
Against Imperialism: International Solidarity and Resistance, by Endless Struggle (1990)
Breaking out of the Ghetto, by Jean Weir (1988)
NATO Fighter Planes Invade Innu Territory, from Open Road (1987)
At home in the house of the Lord, from Open Road (1984)
How We See It, by The Vancouver Five (1983)
Protect the Earth, by the Free the Five Defense Group (1983)
Italian Cops Trample Flowers, from Open Road (1980)
Martin Sostre and the Open Road Interview (1976)
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