Contribution short abstract:

This paper focuses on personal narratives of 'ordinary people' becoming 'Black Bloc' in the No TAV movement in Italy. Revisiting anthropological 'subjective turn' accounts of activist radicalization, I argue the process of becoming activists is embodied, reiterative, and always unfinished.

Contribution long abstract:

This paper focuses on the personal narratives of a handful of activists in the No TAV movement in Val di Susa, Italy. In its thirty-year history, the movement, opposing the construction of a transalpine high-speed railway, has been able to mobilize some of the largest demonstrations in Italian history and, sometimes, defeat the 'forces of order'. One strategy by the authorities seeking to contain it has been to narratively split the movement into a 'peaceful' and a 'violent' Black Bloc part. The movement has countered that by publicly declaring, 'We are all Black Bloc'. But the majority of its activists are 'ordinary' people from the local villages: farmers, pensioners, as well as middle-class white-collar workers. The paper attends to some of these people's personal stories of 'becoming Black Bloc': learning to dress black to avoid recognition, use gas masks, and engage in skirmishes with the police. The irony of the contrast between the image of the Black Bloc and their own lifestyles, or even physical abilities, is not lost on these activists. Indeed, they weaponize that irony to make state accusations against the movement look ridiculous. All of this leads me to revisit anthropological accounts of activist 'becoming' associated with the so-called 'subjective turn'. I argue that the process of 'becoming' activists, or militants, is embodied, reiterative, and always unfinished. It is also like mimetic magic: though the activists do not aspire to full identity with the imaginary Black Bloc, through imitation they nonetheless attain some of 'its' powers.