9 - Escaping Pro-life Neo-fascism in Italy: Affirmative and Collective Lines of Flight

Summary

Introduction

Pro-life neo-fascists have returned to Italy; or have they always been there?

Beginning from the idea that the rise of pro-life neo-fascism in Italy did not begin with the last national political elections, this chapter attempts to show how neo-fundamentalist and misogynist fascism is rooted in a network of associations and movements that have operated for years, including in collaboration with the supposedly leftist governmental coalition. To pursue this aim I adopt the ever-effective methodology developed by Donna Haraway in The Promises of Monsters (1992). To move through neo-fascism to non-fascist life I use her ‘travel machine that also functions as a map’ (Haraway 1992: 304): the Greimas semiotic square. My semiotic square is titled ‘The uprising of bodies: through pro-life neo-fascism to non-fascist life’. In the first quadrant of the square, ‘Neo-fascism against Women’, I begin with an initial snapshot: the huge poster hung up on Gregorio VII Street in Rome by the organisation Pro Vita. Moving to quadrant B, ‘Fascism against Feminism’, I offer a second snapshot: the parade maxi-banner that Forza Nuova hung up outside the International Women’s House. In quadrants A and B we see how fascists and neo-fundamentalist movements opposed to abortion converge in attacking sexual and reproductive rights, only recently and partially obtained. The two snapshots are emblematic of this inauspicious convergence and help us to delve into the dynamic core of the issue at stake: our bodies/ourselves. In quadrant C, ‘Nation-state Reproduction’, I scrutinise the Fertility Plan campaign and conscientious objectors to abortion with the aim of highlighting how institutional politics are contributing to disseminating microfascist attitudes. Finally, I outline some of the affirmative politics that might constitute non-fascist lives. In quadrant D, ‘Collective Lines of Flight’, I explore the practices recently developed by feminist movements in Italy, such as the Sfertility Game created by the Favolosa Coalizione in 2016 and the protests and performances staged by Non Una di Meno in 2018. It is my hope that herein we will find actions in motion that resemble an uprising of bodies.

Neo-fascism against Women

On 3 April 2018 Pro Vita hung a huge poster up on Gregorio VII Street in Rome.