The article discusses the Italian radical/revolutionary left of the 1960s and 1970s, which enriched leftist thought theoretically as well as practically. It examines the impact that workers‘, student and social movements had on the emergence of the »new left« and its break―which could already be felt in the 1950s, but was finally acknowledged with the »historic compromise« in the 1970s―with the so-called »old left«. I discuss the activities in the field and the recomposition of the working class. I also explore the delicate question of political violence, not only on the left, but on the right as well. I try to consider the Red Brigades and other leftist urban guerilla groups and demonstrate the fact that the strategy of tension that tied together a part of the state apparatus with the far-right was one of the key methods of the struggle against the parliamentary and extra-parliamentary left. The historical era being discussed is key to the understanding of radical (political) struggles, and provides valuable insight into the present and (possibly) the future.
