Narrative
Narrative of the Organization's History
Narrative of the Organization's History
Leadership, Name Changes, Size Estimates, Resources, Geographic Locations
Ideology, Aims, Political Activities, Targets, and Tactics
First Attacks, Largest Attacks, Notable Attacks
Foreign Designations and Listings, Community Relations, Relations with Other Groups, State Sponsors and External Influences
Mapping relationships with other militant groups over time in regional maps
NAP sought to impose a classless society through violence. The group focused in particular on recruiting prison inmates, viewing them as the ultimate victims of capitalist repression, and saw prisons as a potential "school of communism" from which class revolution could originate.[28] NAP did not have a consistent program regarding the prison system or freeing prisoners, however. In separate documents the group called alternately for the penal system to be reformed or destroyed entirely.[29]
NAP's ideological leaders were influenced by the writing of anti-colonial theorist Frantz Fanon. The LC Prison Commission that would later give birth to NAP named its manifesto "Liberate All The Wretched of the Earth," borrowing part of its title from Fanon's best-known work. NAP also borrowed ideologically from the writings of George Jackson, an imprisoned member of the U.S. Black Panther Party whose shooting death by a prison guard sparked prison riots in the U.S.[30]
There is no observable evidence that this group has engaged in political activity.
NAP carried out targeted killings and kidnappings, and relied more on explosives than did other left-wing terrorist groups.[31] NAP's attacks on prisons distinguished it from most other left-wing terrorist groups, but NAP also attacked popular left-wing targets such as the police, magistrates, and the parliamentary parties Italian Social Movement (MSI) and the Christian Democrats (DC).[32]
NAP was one of only five groups to conduct kidnappings out of over twenty Italian militant organizations.[33] It was a distant second to the Red Brigades (BR) in its use of the tactic, conducting three over the course of its lifetime in contrast to 18 attributed to the BR. Two of these, conducted in its first year, were fundraising ventures. NAP's third and final kidnapping was the political abduction of a Supreme Court justice the following year. The group released him in exchange for a prisoner transfer.[34]
Disclaimer: These are some selected major attacks in the militant organization's history. It is not a comprehensive listing but captures some of the most famous attacks or turning points during the campaign.
July 25, 1974: NAP members kidnapped a university student in Naples. They released him in exchange for ransom the same day. (0 killed).[35]
October 1, 1974: NAP members staged simultaneous explosions outside of prisons in Naples, Milan, and Rome. The explosives were rigged to loudspeakers that self-destructed after transmitting a NAP communiqué. (0 killed).[36]
December 18, 1974: NAP members kidnapped a liquor producer in Naples. They released him in exchange for ransom four days later. (0 killed).[37]
May 6, 1975: NAP members kidnapped a Supreme Court judge in Rome. They released him five days later in exchange for the transfer of three prisoners, two of them NAP founders, to other prisons, and the radio broadcast of a NAP communiqué. (0 killed).[38]
December 14, 1976: NAP members opened fire on police officers from a van in Rome. One police officer and one member of NAP died in the firefight; two police officers, including a deputy commissioner, were wounded. (2 killed, 2 wounded).[39]
March 22, 1977: A NAP member killed a police officer and a zoo guard in Rome. The victims had been trying to arrest another NAP member who had escaped from prison (2 killed).[40]
April 15, 1978: NAP members staged an explosion outside of the Christian Democratic Party offices in Mestre, near Venice. (0 killed).[41]
This group has not been designated as a terrorist organization by any major national government or international body.
There is no publicly available information about the relationship between this group and community in which it resides.
Like many other left-wing terrorist groups, NAP emerged from Italy's legal left-wing organizations, which had formed as alternatives to official left-wing political parties and whose members sometimes engaged in violence. NAP's founders were members of the legal group Struggle Continues (LC), from which the terrorist group Front Line also originated. Some of NAP's founders had decided to take up arms against the Italian prison system after serving on an LC commission investigating prison conditions in Naples.
Different branches, or “nuclei,” of NAP conducted attacks under different names, including October 29 Nucleus, Sergio Romeo Nucleus, and Without Cease for Communism.[42]
In 1976, NAP forged an alliance with the Red Brigades, Italy's largest left-wing terrorist group, and conducted joint attacks with the BR.[43] Much of NAP's membership in Rome was arrested the same year, and NAP ceased to exist as an independent organization two years later.[44]
The mobilization of prisoners in Italy that directly preceded NAP's formation borrowed from the model of the U.S. prison riots sparked by the death of George Jackson, a member of the Black Panther Party who was shot dead by a prison guard.[45]
[1] Pisano, Vittorfranco S. Terrorism and Security : the Italian Experience : Report of the Subcommittee On Security and Terrorism of the Committee On the Judiciary, United States Senate. Washington: U.S. G.P.O., 1984. p. 75.
[2] National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). (2011). Global Terrorism Database [Data file]. Retrieved from http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd Incident 197804150002. Available: http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/IncidentSummary.aspx?gtdid=197804150002
[3] Ferrigno, Rossella. Nuclei Armati Proletari : Carceri, Protesta, Lotta Armata. Napoli: La città del sole, 2008. pp. 173, 233.
[4] Ferrigno, Rossella. Nuclei Armati Proletari : Carceri, Protesta, Lotta Armata. Napoli: La città del sole, 2008. p. 56.
[5] Ferrigno, Rossella. Nuclei Armati Proletari : Carceri, Protesta, Lotta Armata. Napoli: La città del sole, 2008. p. 57.
[6] Ferrigno, Rossella. Nuclei Armati Proletari : Carceri, Protesta, Lotta Armata. Napoli: La città del sole, 2008. p. 66.
[7] Ferrigno, Rossella. Nuclei Armati Proletari : Carceri, Protesta, Lotta Armata. Napoli: La città del sole, 2008. p. 67.
[8] Pisano, Vittorfranco S. Terrorism and Security : the Italian Experience : Report of the Subcommittee On Security and Terrorism of the Committee On the Judiciary, United States Senate. Washington: U.S. G.P.O., 1984. p. 75.
[9] "Nuclei Armati Proletari (NAP) - Italia." Archivio '900. Available: http://www.archivio900.it/it/sigle/sigl.aspx?id=781, and Gnosis Rivista Italiana di Intelligence. "I Nuclei Armati Proletari ovvero carcere e mitra." Il terrorismo in Italia negli anni Settanta. 2/2006. Available: http://www.sisde.it/gnosis/Rivista7.nsf/ServNavig/21
[10] Pisano, Vittorfranco S. Terrorism and Security : the Italian Experience : Report of the Subcommittee On Security and Terrorism of the Committee On the Judiciary, United States Senate. Washington: U.S. G.P.O., 1984. p. 13.
[11] Gnosis Rivista Italiana di Intelligence. "I Nuclei Armati Proletari ovvero carcere e mitra." Il terrorismo in Italia negli anni Settanta. 2/2006. Available: http://www.sisde.it/gnosis/Rivista7.nsf/ServNavig/21
[12] Barbato, Tullio. Il Terrorismo In Italia Negli Anni Settanta : Cronaca E Documentazione. Milano: Bibliografica, 1980. pp. 27 -28.
[13] Weinberg, Leonard, and William Lee Eubank. The Rise and Fall of Italian Terrorism. Boulder: Westview Press, 1987. p. 64.
[14] Ferrigno, Rossella. Nuclei Armati Proletari : Carceri, Protesta, Lotta
[15] Ferrigno, Rossella. Nuclei Armati Proletari : Carceri, Protesta, Lotta Armata. Napoli: La città del sole, 2008. pp. 100-101.
[16] Ferrigno, Rossella. Nuclei Armati Proletari : Carceri, Protesta, Lotta Armata. Napoli: La città del sole, 2008. p. 94.
[17] Ferrigno, Rossella. Nuclei Armati Proletari : Carceri, Protesta, Lotta Armata. Napoli: La città del sole, 2008. p. 92. Ferrigno, Rossella. Nuclei Armati Proletari : Carceri, Protesta, Lotta Armata. Napoli: La città del sole, 2008. p. 91.
[18] Progetto Memoria. La Mappa Perduta. Roma: Sensibili alle foglie, 1994. p. 68.
[19] Barbato, Tullio. Il Terrorismo In Italia Negli Anni Settanta : Cronaca E Documentazione. Milano: Bibliografica, 1980. p. 27.
[20] Pisano, Vittorfranco S. Terrorism and Security : the Italian Experience : Report of the Subcommittee On Security and Terrorism of the Committee On the Judiciary, United States Senate. Washington: U.S. G.P.O., 1984. p. 75.
[21] Gnosis Rivista Italiana di Intelligence. "I Nuclei Armati Proletari ovvero carcere e mitra." Il terrorismo in Italia negli anni Settanta. 2/2006. Available: http://www.sisde.it/gnosis/Rivista7.nsf/ServNavig/21
[22] Ferrigno, Rossella. Nuclei Armati Proletari : Carceri, Protesta, Lotta Armata. Napoli: La città del sole, 2008. p. 173.
[23] Barbato, Tullio. Il Terrorismo In Italia Negli Anni Settanta : Cronaca E Documentazione. Milano: Bibliografica, 1980. p. 27.
[24] Weinberg, Leonard, and William Lee Eubank. The Rise and Fall of Italian Terrorism. Boulder: Westview Press, 1987. p. 64.
[25] Weinberg, Leonard, and William Lee Eubank. The Rise and Fall of Italian Terrorism. Boulder: Westview Press, 1987. p. 64. and Jamieson, Alison. The Heart Attacked: Terrorism and Conflict In the Italian State. London: M. Boyars, 1989. p. 295.
[26] Barbato, Tullio. Il Terrorismo In Italia Negli Anni Settanta : Cronaca E Documentazione. Milano: Bibliografica, 1980. p. 28.
[27] Weinberg, Leonard, and William Lee Eubank. The Rise and Fall of Italian Terrorism. Boulder: Westview Press, 1987. p. 65.
[28] Gnosis Rivista Italiana di Intelligence. "I Nuclei Armati Proletari ovvero carcere e mitra." Il terrorismo in Italia negli anni Settanta. 2/2006. Available: http://www.sisde.it/gnosis/Rivista7.nsf/ServNavig/21
[29] Gnosis Rivista Italiana di Intelligence. "I Nuclei Armati Proletari ovvero carcere e mitra." Il terrorismo in Italia negli anni Settanta. 2/2006. Available: http://www.sisde.it/gnosis/Rivista7.nsf/ServNavig/21
[30] Gnosis Rivista Italiana di Intelligence. "I Nuclei Armati Proletari ovvero carcere e mitra." Il terrorismo in Italia negli anni Settanta. 2/2006. Available: http://www.sisde.it/gnosis/Rivista7.nsf/ServNavig/21
[31] Gnosis Rivista Italiana di Intelligence. "I Nuclei Armati Proletari ovvero carcere e mitra." Il terrorismo in Italia negli anni Settanta. 2/2006.fckLRavailable: http://www.sisde.it/gnosis/Rivista7.nsf/ServNavig/21
[32] Gnosis Rivista Italiana di Intelligence. "I Nuclei Armati Proletari ovvero carcere e mitra." Il terrorismo in Italia negli anni Settanta. 2/2006.fckLRavailable: http://www.sisde.it/gnosis/Rivista7.nsf/ServNavig/21
[33] Pisano, Vittorfranco S. Terrorism and Security : the Italian Experience : Report of the Subcommittee On Security and Terrorism of the Committee On the Judiciary, United States Senate. Washington: U.S. G.P.O., 1984. p. 25.
[34] Gnosis Rivista Italiana di Intelligence. "I Nuclei Armati Proletari ovvero carcere e mitra." Il terrorismo in Italia negli anni Settanta. 2/2006. Available: http://www.sisde.it/gnosis/Rivista7.nsf/ServNavig/21
[35] ^ Pisano, Vittorfranco S. Terrorism and Security : the Italian Experience : Report of the Subcommittee On Security and Terrorism of the Committee On the Judiciary, United States Senate. Washington: U.S. G.P.O., 1984. p. 75.
[36] National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). (2011). Global Terrorism Database [Data file]. Retrieved from http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd GTD IDs 197410010001, 197410010002, and 97410010003. Available: http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd.
[37] Pisano, Vittorfranco S. Terrorism and Security : the Italian Experience : Report of the Subcommittee On Security and Terrorism of the Committee On the Judiciary, United States Senate. Washington: U.S. G.P.O., 1984. p. 75.
[38] Pisano, Vittorfranco S. Terrorism and Security : the Italian Experience : Report of the Subcommittee On Security and Terrorism of the Committee On the Judiciary, United States Senate. Washington: U.S. G.P.O., 1984. p. 76; Gnosis Rivista Italiana di Intell.
[39] Pisano, Vittorfranco S. Terrorism and Security : the Italian Experience : Report of the Subcommittee On Security and Terrorism of the Committee On the Judiciary, United States Senate. Washington: U.S. G.P.O., 1984. p. 76 and Associazione Italiana Vittime.
[40] Pisano, Vittorfranco S. Terrorism and Security : the Italian Experience : Report of the Subcommittee On Security and Terrorism of the Committee On the Judiciary, United States Senate. Washington: U.S. G.P.O., 1984. p. 76 and Associazione Italiana Vittime.
[41] National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). (2011). Global Terrorism Database [Data file]. Retrieved from http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd Incident 197804150002. Available: http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/IncidentSum.}
[42] Ferrigno, Rossella. Nuclei Armati Proletari : Carceri, Protesta, Lotta Armata. Napoli: La città del sole, 2008. pp. 89, 91. and "Nuclei Armati Proletari (NAP) - Italia." Archivio '900. Available: http://www.archivio900.it/it/sigle/sigl.aspx?id=781
[43] Pisano, Vittorfranco S. Terrorism and Security : the Italian Experience : Report of the Subcommittee On Security and Terrorism of the Committee On the Judiciary, United States Senate. Washington: U.S. G.P.O., 1984. 14.
[44] Weinberg, Leonard, and William Lee Eubank. The Rise and Fall of Italian Terrorism. Boulder: Westview Press, 1987. p. 65.
[45] Ferrigno, Rossella. Nuclei Armati Proletari : Carceri, Protesta, Lotta Armata. Napoli: La città del sole, 2008. pp. 62, 67.