Milan, November 19 - December 31, 1966
- "Rally of Handcuffs" -
- Death of Gennaro De Miranda -
- Merger Mondo Beat/Onda Verde/Provos -
- "Rally of Flowers" -
- The clandestine printing of the second issue of the magazine Mondo Beat -
- The European Conference of the Anarchist Youth.
On November 20, ie the day after Vittorio Di Russo was arrested by the police, Umberto Tiboni and Melchiorre Gerbino decided to
stage a public event for the release of him. For the purpose, they contacted the youths of Mondo Beat and the Milanese radicals
and anarchists.
Between the 21 and the 26 of November, the three groups are coordinated to prepare the event and on the morning of Sunday 27
they stage a rally in Piazza San Babila, in the heart of Milan. It was the first time that such an event happened in Italy.
Called "Rally of Handcuffs" (Manifestazione delle Manette), it had a huge media coverage. The daily Il Giorno broke the
news on the front page.
The echo of the Rally of Handcuffs attracted youth from Turin and Genoa, who came to Milan to meet the youths of Mondo Beat,
consequently, the Movement has widely spread in the northwest of Italy.
On December 1, in the Milanese section of the radicals, Gunilla Unger and Melchiorre Gerbino are introduced to Gianfranco
Sanguinetti and Andrea Valcarenghi, two of the founders of "Onda Verde" (the Italian equivalent of the American
"Green Wave"). In that occasion, it is considered how to coordinate Onda Verde with Mondo Beat. To speak fully of this,
the four meet again on December 4, at Gianfranco Sanguinetti's home. On that occasion, Melchiorre Gerbino explains how the youths
of Mondo Beat, who are from all social classes and all parts of Italy, are characterized by the refusal to live in the family,
to attend school, to bend to wage labor. He explains how the objectives that they intend to achieve, are achieved from the very moment
when they refuse to live integrated, because, since then, they live in the anarchist dimension realized by themselves. Gerbino
says that Mondo Beat has 200 people, putting into account those who are engaged in Florence and those who are in jail for failure
to comply with mandatory expulsion orders... Gianfranco Sanguinetti and Andrea Valcarenghi are youths in the last year of high
school. Together with their peers, Antonio Pilati and Marco Maria Sigiani, have founded Onda Verde, a group of twenty or so
students, who are engaged in nonviolent provocations, staged with the purpose to wake up the mass of students to the major
themes of pacifism and ecology. They are children of the most enlightened Milanese bourgeoisie and are committed to the
affirmation of civil rights in Italy. Of course, Gerbino can't propose to them to be absorbed by Mondo Beat, therefore, proposes
a merger of the two groups, which could be formalize in the next issue of the magazine Mondo Beat.
They find the agreement without unnecessary skirmishes and decide for a meeting mid-December at the home of Andrea Valcarenghi,
to ratify the merger.
All four are convinced that the merger will benefit both groups, Mondo Beat, because prestigious articles by Antonio Pilati and
Marco Maria Sigiani will enrich the magazine Mondo Beat, so it can take roots in schools, and will benefited Onda Verde, that
can integrate into a historic movement that occupies the squares and fills the jails.
On December 12, we have heard a terrible news. We have learned from newspapers of the death of Gennaro De Miranda, a member of
the editorial staff of the magazine Mondo Beat.
Gennaro De Miranda killed by a pirate of the road
On December 13, while I am in the morgue in Cinisello Balsamo to identify the body of Gennaro De Miranda, I am introduced to
Ezio Chiodini, a young journalist of the daily Il Giorno, who is interested in following the events of Mondo Beat.
On December 15, there is a meeting at Andrea Valcarenghi's home, to ratify the merger Mondo Beat, Onda Verde, Provos.
To represent Onda Verde, there are Antonio Pilati, Gianfranco Sanguinetti, Marco Maria Sigiani and Andrea Valcarenghi.
For Mondo Beat, there are Gunilla Unger, Umberto Tiboni and Melchiorre Gerbino.
For provos Sacco e Vanzetti, who have also joined to the merger, there is Giuseppe Pinelli, who proposes to stage a rally, in the
purpose to strengthen the merger.
On the afternoon of Saturday, December 17, led by Giuseppe Pinelli, the rally is held from Piazza Cordusio, through Piazza Duomo,
until the courtyard of the Police Headquarters, where those who participate in the rally deliver themselves to the cops.
This event was very spectacular, and had a huge media coverage. It was called "Rally of Flowers" (Manifestazione dei
Fiori) since flowers were given to the cops.
Pictures from left to right
(1) Provos Sacco e Vanzetti moving towards Piazza Duomo;
(2) Sit-in Piazza Duomo;
(3) Carlo De Paoli offering a flower to a cop, who tries to lift up Gianni Scarpelli from the ground.
(Agency Franco Sapi - December 18, 1966)
In this picture, Roberto Pieraccini, a radical leader of the early days, is the first on the left, the one with hat,
glasses, moustache
(L'Unità - December 18, 1966)
(Corriere della Sera - December 18, 1966)
Cops against "provos"
Fifty people "arrested" for
an uproar of "Provos"
(L'Unità - December 18, 1966)
(Il Giorno - December 18, 1966)
(Il Giorno -
December 20, 1966)
With a flower against the attacks of the police
Let us arm the police with flowers
The Provo provocation
- - - - -
On the evening of December 23, Umberto Tiboni, Stefano Mondo and Melchiorre Gerbino went to the office where Umberto Tiboni
worked, to print clandestinely the second issue of the magazine Mondo Beat. In that office there was an electric mimeograph which
issued dry sheets at high speed. For printing, they had time from the evening of the 23 until dawn of the 27, ie the period when
the office was closed for Christmas holidays.
They had to do a heavy job, since it had been decided to print 5,000 copies of this issue.
They worked throughout the night of the 23 and all the 24, only stopping every now and then, the time to drink a coffee and eat a
sandwich. On the evening of the 24, Melchiorre Gerbino convinced Umberto Tiboni to load the mimeograph in his car and carry it to
the apartment where Gerbino lived, to work in a more comfortable situation. There, Gunilla Unger helped in the work. They ended
printing in the evening of the 26.
Meanwhile, in the same days 24, 25, 26, there was the European Conference of the Anarchist Youth, in the premises of the anarchist
section Sacco e Vanzetti. The four who printed the second issue of the magazine Mondo Beat, did not have time to attend.
("Il Giorno" - December 27, 1966)
("L'Unità" - December 27, 1966)
"Provos" with a garrota against the Caudillo
A garrota in front of the Spanish Consulate
On the night of the 29, Gunilla Unger and Melchiorre Gerbino collated and stapled 5,200 copies of the second issue of the
magazine Mondo Beat.
On the same night, Vittorio Di Russo rang the doorbell, asking if he could hide in their apartment. He arrived
from the city of Latina, where he had been accompanied under military escort after he had been released from prison. If the
police find him again in Milan, he will be sentenced to three months in prison.
Melchiorre Gerbino and Gunilla Unger welcomed Vittorio Di Russo with brotherly affection.
*
The month of December 1966 consecrated the success of the Movimento Mondo Beat. Just two months after its foundation, hundreds of
boys and girls, from all over Italy and from all social classes, were escaping from their families and coming to Mondo Beat.
In addition to Italians, also youths from other countries were arriving to Mondo Beat, especially from France. The lure of Mondo
Beat was irresistible, since the youths intuited that Mondo Beat was producing a change that would transform society, therefore,
they wanted to participate. Young people couldn't go wrong. They understood that the revolution promoted by Mondo Beat was primarily
a sexual revolution, so they understood that it was a true revolution.
Among the articles that are reproduced below, there is the unbelievable story of a young Sardinian thief, who has donated to the
beats the jewels that he stole in hotels.
In these articles, the faces of the youths are sad, because the pictures were taken in police stations, where they were led
before being returned to their parents or sent to jail.
(Various newspapers - December 1966)
"Moms, give your children to the cause!" - was a famous slogan of the Movimento Mondo Beat.
