Bertolo
Thought and practice Anarchism as logos, praxis, ethos and pathos
The story of this militant life, which stretches from the post-war period to the current day, is not just the existential journey of one of Italy's most important anarchists, but a highly unusual story of dissent in Italy. This biographical interview – running from the first post-war political kidnapping of a Francisco Franco's diplomat and the effective counter-information during the bloody time of the fascist bombs and the seditious plots whithin the Italian State), up to the patient construction of a composite mosaic that makes intelligible the multi-faceted anti-authoritarian culture, transcends the singularity of who it recounts to become a collective story. Far from official accounts, this "grassroots" story follows an existential course always moving "against the current", one made of encounters and confrontations, of joyous libertarian creativity and tough resistance to "the world as is." Full of irony and self-criticism, free of rhetoric and self-justification, this choral story narrates with passion and disenchantment the rushed advances and dead-ends that have characterized Italian dissent over the last six decades. The narrator is clearly aware of having failed to bring about his utopia, nonetheless he is also well aware that his life has been unusual intense and successful in some way, that is capable of realize – as the editorial project elèuthera shows – as much anarchy is possible in the here and now.
Milanese-born with Friulian roots, Amedeo Bertolo (1941-2016) taught Economics for a living at Milan University's Department of Agriculture. But anti-authoritarian social action was, no doubt, at the heart of his existential choices. During the decades he also founded a number of Italian and international publishing projects, as the monthly «A rivista anarchica» (1971), the quarterly «Interrogations» (1976) and «Volontà» (1980) and the publishing houses Edizioni Antistato (1975) and elèuthera editrice (1986), an intense editorial activity that he would continue for the rest of his life.