Founded 2003 Territory Italy | Years active 2003–present Rivals Government of Italy | |
Criminal activities Bombings, Arson attacks, Shootings | ||
Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI) (in Italian: Federazione Anarchica Informale) is an insurrectionary anarchist organization. It has been described by Italian intelligence sources as a "horizontal" structure of various anarchist terrorist groups, united in their beliefs in revolutionary armed action. Groups comprising the FAI act both as separate organizations and also under the FAI, and are known to format group campaigns. The group has its roots in Italy but since 2012 has begun organising and executing attacks in the United Kingdom.
Contents
Their ideology is opposed to both the current European order and Marxism, which they see as solely a replacement of one form of oppressive authority with another.
Structure
The organization is composed by the following groups:
These groups represent factions of the FAI. Beyond the organization, each group has also forged its own set of alliances. The New Red Brigades/Communist Combatant Party is an allied of the FAI. Collaboration between these anarchist groups and more established Marxist groups, essentially in opposition to the principles of the FAI, have been a subject of debate in both anarchist circles and within the Italian security community. These claims have been supported with claims of solidarity between the FAI and the newest incarnations of the Red Brigades.
In 2012 an official with the carabinieri ROS claimed that Italian intelligence had located the identities of at least fifty people belonging to the FAI, who are now in hiding.
History
In 2003, the group claimed responsibility for a bomb campaign targeting several European Union institutions. It had stated to target "the apparatus of control that is repressive and leading the democratic show that is the new European order". To address the situation, an order was issued to halt all packets addressed to EU bodies from post offices in the Emilia-Romagna region. Sources at the prosecutor's office in Bologna said that the packages mailed to Trichet, Europol and Eurojust contained books and photocopies of a leaflet from the Informal Anarchist Federation. The leaflet described the Italian group and talked about its "Operation Santa Claus." After the December attack on the Italian politician Romano Prodi, the FAI sent a letter to La Repubblica newspaper saying it was opposed to the European Union and claiming the attack was carried out "so the pig knows that the maneuvers have only begun to get close to him and others like him."
The MEP Nigel Farage said his party had predicted 10 years ago the path the EU was taking could end in civil unrest. He classified the letter bombs as the "price of forcing a political ideal on people". Speaking the day after Titley's wife suffered the attack, Farage said: "We can only hope that the EU comes to its senses and listens to the people." Titley reacted, saying: "I think it's outrageous to make a cheap political point out of a terrorist act. I am almost speechless with anger. I can't believe that they have done this - it is justifying terrorism and that's despicable."
In 2010, Italy’s postal service intercepted a threatening letter containing a bullet addressed to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. A large envelope containing a letter addressed to Berlusconi with the threat “you will end up like a rat” was discovered on Friday in a post office in the Libate suburb of the northern city of Milan. On 9 April 2013 an explosive device was sent by the group to the offices of La Stampa. It did not detonate. On 23 December 2010, credit for exploding parcels delivered to the Swiss and Chilean embassies in Rome was claimed by the Informal Anarchist Federation, though many news sources erroneously reported that another group, the Italian Anarchist Federation, claimed responsibility for the mail bombs.
On 31 March 2011, a mail bomb exploded at the Olten headquarters of Swissnuclear, the Swiss nuclear industry association, wounding two people. According to prosecutors, a letter delivered with the bomb claimed responsibility on behalf of the IAF.
A mail bomb, sent to Josef Ackermann, chief executive of Deutsche Bank, in Frankfurt am Main, was intercepted on 7 December 2011.
In May 2012, a group believed to be loosely related to the FAI claimed responsibility for the shooting of Roberto Adinolfi, an Italian executive at a nuclear company. The shooting (and continued threats against the Italian state tax collection agency) prompted the Italian Interior Minister Anna Maria Cancellieri to assign 18,000 police officers to security detail. On 13 June 2012, the Italian ROS conducted raids on forty people, arresting eight in Italy and sending two arrest warrants for individuals already incarcerated in Germany and Switzerland, Gabriel Pombo Da Silva and Marco Camenisch, as well as conducting multiple interrogations, some of which were in connection to Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei.
International activity
Although the Informal Anarchist Federation in Italy has existed for some time, in recent years several groups around the world have used the moniker to claim responsibility for their own attacks on government and corporate targets, including arson in Russia, Argentina and the United Kingdom. In May 2012, the FAI in the UK announced their intention to "paralyze the national economy" during the 2012 Olympics in London. This warning followed an attack by the British FAI May 22 Group on trainlines outside Bristol that succeeded in disrupting the rail system, and an arson attack against the Lord Mayor of Bristol, Geoff Gollop. On 3 January 2013 an FAI group set fire to a transmitter in Bath, resulting in television and radio outages to 80,000 homes. On 25 November 2014 a group calling itself the Informal Anarchist Federation claimed responsibility for setting fires that destroyed 5 luxury cars in the Bristol suburb of Long Ashton.
On 30 May 2012, four Bolivian youths were arrested in connection with a dynamite attack on a Bolivian military barracks and the bombing of a car dealership, both FAI claimed incidents.
During a security briefing regarding the FAI, an Italian intelligence official cited Greece, Spain, Mexico and Chile as other countries in which the FAI was spreading networks into. The similarities in ideology between the Italian FAI and a Mexican group involved in a parcel bombing that seriously injured two nanotechnology researchers has been noted elsewhere. In September 2012, an FAI group in Mexico claimed responsibility for the shooting deaths of three municipal police officers in Mexico City.
In addition, the Informal Anarchist Federation has ideological ties with Greek anarchist groups. FAI cells have named themselves after Olga Economidou, a currently imprisoned member of Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei, and Lambros Foundas, a member of Revolutionary Struggle who died in a shoot-out with Greek police in 2010. A document from imprisoned Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei members cites the Italian FAI as an inspiration for their own activity. Consequently, the FAI has praised Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei, stating "Conspiracy’s project, like ours, is based on the action and methods of revolutionary violence."