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Introduction to the history of the Mondo Beat Movement

In the 1960s, youth movements arose which did not seek political power but criticized the politics of the world's major nations, as humanity had entered the nuclear age and politics had to adapt to this reality. In the West, ordinary people understood the messages of these movements and political ideologies began to decline, since it would no longer be a question of whether or not to replace the system of Western democracies with that of communist or fascist dictatorships, but it would be a question of how to improve our system, that is, how to affirm civil rights and protect the environment and how to prepare not for wars but for the integration of the different civilizations of the world.
The movements which opened these new scenarios were:

Free Speech Movement

This American movement was characterized by acts of protest against authoritarianism in the educational system, against racism towards African Americans, against participation in the Vietnam War. The Free Speech Movement has influenced youth in the United States and in countries throughout the Western world.

Mario Savio, the most original and effective intellectual of the 1960s
Mario Savio was the most original and effective intellectual of the 1960s. At the University of California he promoted the student revolt on the Berkeley campus, from which the Free Speech Movement was born.
In one of his original remarks, he said that it is much easier to be aware of the oppression that others are experiencing and react with verbal anger than to be aware of the oppression we ourselves are subjected to and rebel against it.

Provobeweging (Provo Movement)

A Dutch movement, characterized by forms of provocation which reached their peak on the day that Crown Princess Beatrix Orange-Nassau married Claus von Amsberg, a German who had been part of the Hitler Youth.

Bernhard de Vries was the most charismatic character in the Provo Movement
Bernhard de Vries was the most charismatic figure of the Provo Movement. He was the first to throw a smoke bomb into the horses' legs during the wedding procession of Princess Beatrice, who had to take refuge in a hotel lobby together with her husband, due to the numerous smoke bombs thrown by other Provos. As unpleasant as this action may seem today, one must understand the resentment that then still existed in the Netherlands due to the Nazi occupation of the country during World War II.
Nor was the action of the Provos limited to this episode, since their movement highlighted the themes of pacifism and ecology and strongly motivated European youth.


Movimento Mondo Beat (Mondo Beat Movement)

The Mondo Beat Movement was characterized by forms of contestazione (contestation), i.e. nonviolent mass actions aimed at affirming civil rights and protecting the environment.
The American Free Speech Movement and the Dutch Provobeweging had already raised awareness among young people and intellectuals in the Western world but since history has some recurrence, an Italian movement was destined to raise awareness among the masses. In fact the Mondo Beat Movement was born in Milan and developed there, in the same places where Fascism had previously been born and developed and the Contestation, i.e. the Mondo Beat model, would have become the antidote to Fascism and any kind of racist dictatorship.
The impact of the Contestazione in Italy would have been such that, to contain the masses, the establishment had to resort to the explosion of bombs in banks, railway stations, squares crowded with people.
The power of the Vatican would have suffered an irreversible decline due to the Contestazione, which can be understood considering that a female activist entered St. Peter's Basilica with a large sign "The womb is mine and I manage it" ("L'utero è mio e lo gestisco io").
Having spread from Italy to France, the nuclear polluter, General Charles de Gaulle, was overwhelmed by the Contestation and had to flee the Élysée Palace.
After France, the Contestation has manifested itself in many parts of the world, more recently in Islamic societies, and it is evident how the Contestation has become a new constant in History, since the will and availability of ordinary people to mobilize spontaneously to affirm and protect civil rights today conditions established power everywhere.

The founders of the Mondo Beat Movement and Mondo Beat magazine
The founders of Mondo Beat. Umberto Tiboni, Gunilla Unger, Melchiorre Gerbino, Vittorio Di Russo.

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I will now produce some documentation so that the reader can understand how the Mondo Beat Movement acted.

Since the Establishment was obstructing the distribution of Mondo Beat magazine, which was a regularly registered magazine, 200 young people from the Mondo Beat Movement paralyzed the center of Milan during the two hours of busiest evening traffic on a working day. An event of this kind was unprecedented in the history of Italy (and the world, I presume).


An event of this kind, like the Demonstration to Contestate the Establishment, had no precedent in the history of Italy
Demonstration to Contestate the Establishment - Milan, March 7, 1967.

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On the other hand, Mondo Beat has appealed to the Court against the Milan Police Headquarters, denouncing the unconstitutional behavior with which the police acted towards the Beats. Given the widespread media coverage of the event, ordinary people would have understood that the police institution was also subject to the law.

Mondo Beat's complaint against the Milan Police Headquarters was the first of this kind in history.
Mondo Beat's complaint against the Milan Police Headquarters - April 3, 1967.

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As for the commitment to the environment, the young people of the Mondo Beat Movement were the first to rush to Florence after the flood of November 1966, to rescue a heritage of universal value. Due to their generous commitment, they were baptized Mud Angels (Angeli del fango) by the media. Following their example, other young people, from Italy and other countries, flocked to Florence by the hundreds.

Our young and young foreigners form human chains to extract precious works from the mud. 200 volunteers at the National Library.
They descend in the darkness of the mud for love of books and Florence. Our youths together with young foreigners form human chains to extract precious works from the mud. 200 volunteers at the National Library.

Many young foreigners, having fraternized with the Beats in Florence, have later come to Milan to participate in the Mondo Beat Movement and their participation was of great significance for the contribution they gave to designing the models of the Contestazione and testing them on the field.
The journalist Guido Boursier, from the Gazzetta del Popolo of Turin, attested to how young French, German and English people participated in the Demonstration to Contestate the Establishment. Guido Boursier had interviewed many young people before the event, then followed it.

Guido Boursier had interviewed many youths before the demonstration and then he had followed it.
Milan is the reference city of the Italian «Beats».
Guido Boursier: "The local ones have been joined by Beats arrived in Milan from all over Italy - Romans, Bologneses, Turineses, Southerners, Sardinians - and also Frenchmen, Germans, Englishmen."
Here is the original article by Guido Boursier.

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To conclude with this introduction, I want to say briefly about the formulation of the linguistic models of the Contestazione.
At the end of February 1967, the Milan Police Headquarters decimated the Mondo Beat Movement by ordering young people who did not have a legal residence in Milan to leave the city and imprisoning those who did not obey the order. In the document of the injunction to leave Milan, it was written in large capital letters SI CONTESTA (It is notified) followed by the terms of the order.
As this SI CONTESTA obsessed us, at one point it was spontaneous for Melchiorre Gerbino to paraphrase it and to the old lady with the doggie, who asked him "Why you people are protesting?", Gerbino replied "Madame, we are not protesting, we are contestating".
Hence the slogan "l'inserito protesta - il beat contesta" (the one integrated into the system is protesting - the Beat contestates) and this slogan was successful because people realized that we were acting in a more radical way than protesting and from this slogan, the terminology of the Contestazione was born and developed.
It is therefore impossible to use the term "protest" when translating the term "contestazione" from Italian into English. Nor would it be appropriate to use the term "protest" to describe what happened to General Charles de Gaulle, as it would give a reductive image of what actually occurred.
So allow me to suggest how the term "contestazione" and its derivatives should be introduced into English, as I am the one who formulated them in Italian.
I will summarize in one sentence all the neologisms which I will use in English in the current reconstruction of the history of the Mondo Beat Movement:
"The Contestation is made by contestators who contestate the Establishment with contestatory attitudes and actions."

Note.
Due to a paradox, Grand Hotel magazine was the first publication to quote the term "contestazione".
What a paradox?
Since Mondo Beat never asked for money to grant an interview and granted it to any publication who askied for, Melchiorre Gerbino accorded the interview to Grand Hotel on condition that the text which Grand Hotel would have published was previously agreed with Mondo Beat. This, because Grand Hotel was a magazine which published the most sentimental love stories (...then Rossana met a young doctor who had lost his wife in a car accident...) and Melchiorre Gerbino feared that Grand Hotel would depict the Beats in romantic moonlight scenes.
Thus, paradoxically, Grand Hotel, the magazine of love sighs, was the first publication to announce one of the most radical events, the Contestazione.

This article appeared on May 6, 1967 (1)

This article appeared on May 6, 1967 (2)
Grand Hotel magazine was the first publication to quote the term "contestazione" as formulated at Mondo Beat.
Here is the question which Dina Vallino, the Grand Hotel journalist who interviewed Melchiorre Gerbino, asked him: "What is the purpose of your protest?" (Cosa vi proponete di ottenere con la vostra protesta?)
Here is Melchiorre Gerbino's answer: "More than a protest, our is the contestation of a system of life... (Più che una protesta, la nostra è una contestazione di un sistema di vita...).
This was the first time that the term "contestazione" appeared in a publication. Wherever the terms "contestazione", "contestation", "contestación"... have appeared in publications, the date will be later than May 6, 1967.
The terminology of the Contestazione, which in May 67 had already started to spread in the Italian language, a year later, in May 68, would have spread in French ( la Contestation) and thereafter in other languages... And, alongside with the terminology, also the ideology and methodology of the Contestazione would have spread throughout the world

Other neologisms formulated in Mondo Beat were "strumentalizzare" ("to instrumentalize") and "strumentalizzazione" ("instrumentalization").

Mondo Beat NumeroUnico, page 2
Mondo Beat Numero Unico, page 2
In the editorial of the first issue of Mondo Beat magazine, Melchiorre Gerbino introduced the neologism "strumentizzare", which soon after he would have turned into "strumentalizzare".
The neologisms "strumentalizzare" and "strumentalizzazione", first spread in Italian, later in French, Spanish, English... great having been the impact of the Contestation in Western culture.

Additional notes.
Since the terms "hippy" and "hippie" didn't exist at the time of Mondo Beat (they appeared later in the United States), these terms are not appropriate to define a youngster from the Mondo Beat Movement. The youngster from the Mondo Beat Movement was called "beat" or "capellone" (longhair) by the people and the media, so let's keep using these terms.

Finally, I will not use the verb "to contest", referring to the Contestation, but the neologism "to contestate".


History of Mondo Beat - Chapter 1