Prima Linea

Prima Linea (Italian: "Front Line") was an Italian Marxist–Leninist terrorist group of the 1970s. It was formed in 1976 by members of hard-line factions within the far left, extra-parliamentary organization Lotta Continua, which disbanded that year, together with members of Potere Operaio and of other far left groups. By 1982 it had carried out more than twenty assassinations.

Prima Linea was the second terrorist organization in Italy, second only to the Red Brigades, in membership and influence. The Italian Service for Democratic Information and Security classified Prima Linea as both an organisation of "Movimentismo" and "Militarismo", activism and militarism. Members and collaborators amounted to some one thousand.

The leaders were Roberto Sandalo, Marco Donat-Cattin, Sergio D'Elia, Michele Viscardi, Enrico Galmozzi, Fabrizio Giai, Sergio Segio, Susanna Ronconi, Diego Forastieri, Roberto Rosso, Maurice Bignami, Bruno La Ronga, Giulia Borelli, and Silviera Russo.

The organization used other names for their operations, including Comitati Comunisti Combattenti, Brigate Comuniste Combattenti, Ronde Proletarie.

923 members of Prima Linea and 149 members of Comitati comunisti per la liberazione proletaria (COLP) were questioned. Some members remained unidentified.

The groups coming from Lotta Continua began to organize as a separate secret structure in 1974-1976. After starting its activity under different definitions, the organization adopted the name "Prima Linea" from 30 November 1976. Prima Linea was active particularly in Lombardy, Tuscany, Campania and, above all in Turin (the birthplace of Donat-Cattin) and Piedmont.

The first assassination officially attributed to Prima Linea was that of Enrico Pedenovi, a member of the post-fascist Italian Social Movement. He was killed on 29 September 1976 in Milan in the occasion of the first anniversary of the death of Sergio Ramelli, who had been in turn murdered by Avanguardia Operaia. On 12 March 1977 Prima Linea assassinated in Turin Giuseppe Ciotta, a policeman. In the following April the Prima Linea members met at San Michele a Torri, near Florence, to define its statute and its internal organization. In July of the same year they damaged a weapon store at Tradate, in the province of Varese, in response the killing of one of its members, Romano Tognini.

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