by Mark Dyal
This use of ‘native’ philosophy and theory took me far beyond our scholarly traditions and normalized interpretative frameworks. Nietzsche and Evola were read alongside the Ultras’ own words. By engaging all three together, I found similar criticisms posed to all three — they promote division, discrimination, violence, and a frightening vision of the world from a certain perspective.
Although it has been important since the late-1960s to study not only the physical act of violence but also the ‘assaults on personhood, dignity, and value’ (i.e. symbolic violence) that come in its wake, the anthropological study of violence is still largely indifferent to discourses and ethics of violence as subjects of study.357 The ‘value’ I have given Sorel’s ‘ethics of anti-bourgeois violence’ is inconceivable within the current focus of anthropology on (the victims of) war, terrorism, and gender violence.358 Likewise, the Nietzschean ideal, taken up by the Ultras, of using violence (and a repudiation of the ethics of benevolence) as a way to create distance between themselves and the modern bourgeois form of life, would be dismissed as ‘barbaric and unsustainable’ by scholars such as Douglas Fry, recent author of The Human Potential for Peace.359
And yet, the ‘meaningful world’ is ‘fluid and ambiguous, a mosaic of narratives,’ even when those narratives are discomforting to our own bourgeois assumptions about the content of theory and the values of our research subjects.360 I have placed ethnographic writing in this context as well, being forced to contend with sources and ideas that are beyond the bourgeois norms of the American Academy. Valentine Daniel explains that violence is difficult to study because it cuts to the heart of objectivity by way of creating victims with whom we readily co-identify. Violence, he explains, is, by nature, ‘morally illegitimate’.361 As an American reader, it is obvious that violence is something of negative value. Daniel himself begins his study of Sri Lankan political violence with a discussion of identity and difference, seeking to place violence within the context of an always-constructed reality. He does so in the hopes of diminishing the vitriolic arguments of essential difference between Tamils and Sinhalas. His role as an anthropologist, then, goes beyond attempting to understand native conceptions of violence, seeking instead to establish the grounds for a cease-fire of sorts.
By understanding the Ultras’ justifications for violence, I was forced to acknowledge their awareness of both Sorel and the concept of revolutionary violence. Later, when mild instances of violence occurred in my presence, or in the aftermath of the 2007 killing of Gabriele Sandri, I was able to comprehend both it and the ‘imaginative horizons’ made knowable by their complex statements on violence.362 While studies by Crapanzano (2004) and Strathern and Stewart (2006) point to the terror done to ‘various intra-personal fields’ — including the imagination — of the perpetrators of violence, the Ultras seemed instead fully aware of the implications of their actions and competent in the ways they understood them.
While this in no way is meant to dismiss or demean the victims of ‘wife beaters, sexual abusers, and torturers,’ it does point to a void in the acceptable subjects of research amongst anthropologists.363 While Scheper-Hughes and Bourgois invoke Malinowski and his denunciation of the imperial legacy to remind us that we carry a heavy responsibility against racism and the ‘imperial gaze,’ there seems to be less of a concern to unpack the equally culture-specific and epistemological tendency to create victims and be aghast at violent behavior.364 In other words, there seems to be a lack of critical awareness of our operative bourgeois ethic against violence amongst many scholars working within the anthropology of violence.
I was similarly beyond the limits of the acceptable in my approach to the Ultras’ and Romans’ political approach to local particularity, having demonstrated the need to understand the native inhabitants of European places in their own terms when it comes to issues of globalization, immigration, and multiculturalism.
I am reminded of a quote attributed to Jean-Marie Le Pen in which he equated Europeans to Native Americans in the contemporary processes of demographic relocation, pointing to a shift in moral/altruistic identification in an argument that usually forces Europeans to defend themselves against charges of racism and xenophobia from those speaking on behalf of non-European immigrants. This study does not assume the Romans to be natives as much as people with something to lose in the process of globalization. Too often, the neo-liberal economic assumption that immigration is a positive force for the West creep into our anthropological studies of the situation, which argue not only that the West has a democratic responsibility to the Third World but also its own demographic opportunity to ‘globalize’ while maintaining marketplace stability.365
To compound the issue, my use of Counter-Enlightenment and radical sources of political philosophy as a challenge to the ‘pure reason and enlightened self-interest’ found in nineteenth century (Enlightenment) philosophy, certainly moved me beyond the realm of State-sponsored anthropological thought. Nietzsche, Sorel, Evola, and others like Carl Schmitt combined to form a useful critique of modernity and the bourgeois form of life, not only for me but also the Ultras. These thinkers questioned the value of egalitarianism, democracy, the prohibition of violence, and a life without (political) enemies. Any such vision amongst modern men and women will not only lead to castigation for noncompliance with our bourgeois multicultural ideals, but also willful incomprehension by those still ensconced within the comforts of the bourgeois form of life.
Indeed, it is in a complex intellectual environment that we must demand to understand those who, like the Ultras, are fighting to celebrate and protect local cultures and traditions. These men and women — among them the European New Right, the more radical elements of the Italian Slow Food movement, and, of course, the nationalist neo-Fascist organizations of Western and Eastern Europe — are unknowable in the terms of the dominant intellectual and conceptual apparatuses of the contemporary bourgeois world. Indeed, this points to the very dear need for a derelict anthropology — one that serves the needs of those on the most radical and critical edges of modernity instead of the States and capitalists that seek the homogenization of human diversity and eradication of extremism.
Additionally, the epistemic situation points to the need of phenomena like the Ultras to present an alternative to the becoming-universal of bourgeois human. While this can only happen in a context created by a coterminous experiential relationship between the human and forms of sociality, those in revolt against the bourgeois human must have the audacity to exist in a parallel/derelict space. For instance, against the truth and morality making functions of the liberal State and capitalist media there is a belief amongst the groups that the children being courted by the industry of soccer to consume the game without aggression will be enamored enough with the Ultras and their form of life that they will reject the bourgeois model. They believe this because the same thing happened to them; and it happened to them because others had stood against the State and the bourgeois form of life.
While we have seen the potential of AS Roma’s Ultras to formulate and maintain a radical form of life — one whose violence moves it far beyond the proclivities of bourgeois conservatism — we have yet to either connect them with other Italian Ultras, or fully contemplate what actually makes them Ultras. With an eye toward both of these problems, I will conclude this unique examination of one of the West’s most confounding and exhilarating phenomena.
AS Roma’s Ultras and Italian Ultras in General
This study is so deeply rooted in the worldview of the AS Roma Ultras that it might not make sense to Ultras in other Italian cities. The Ultras are much like the songs they sing. Even though various curvas might share the melodies of popular Italian songs from the Fascist hymn ‘Faccetta Nera’ to Pooh’s ‘Chi Fermerà la Musica,’ they all change the lyrical content to match their context. What’s more, the curvas will also borrow liberally from the folk songs of their city, such as Curva Sud Roma’s singing of
popular Roman songs ‘La Società dei Mangaccioni’ and ‘La Canzone di Testaccio.’ Clearly, the content is more important than the melodies borrowed.
There are foundational and elemental characteristics that are shared by Italian Ultras wherever they are found. Maurizio Stefanini (2009) has identified these broadly as identità (identity), politica (politics), and violenza (violence). Instead, using the language already established in this study, I identify these broadly as performance or style of fandom, agonism, and politics. It is with these three groupings that I will place AS Roma’s Ultras in the context of Italian Ultras in general.
Performance
The Ultras’ in-stadium performances act as a framing device that demarcates the curvas they inhabit from the other parts of the stadium. This is because there is no reason that the other fans do not participate in their revelry and rivalry — other than that they are not Ultras. It is the songs, bombs, flares, smoke candles, and flags that separate the Ultras from the non-Ultras. As we have seen, every curva in Italy, at least until the death of Raciti, was marked by incessant singing, occasional bombs, timely flares (such as during pre-game rituals like AS Roma fans singing ‘Roma Roma,’ the club’s anthem), smoke candles, and constant flag waving.
Bromberger (1993) was one of the first anthropologists to study Ultra performances. Being a structuralist, he discerned in them an entire cultural universe of meanings and oppositions. His most vivid case study was the dichotomy between the northern, modern, and efficient FC Juventus of Turin and the southern, pre-modern, and artistic SSC Napoli of Naples. Not only did he contrast the fans and their devotion to either modern rationality (Juventus) or pre-modern superstition and faith (Napoli), but also the playing styles of two teams were said to match the characteristics of the fans.
Figure 18. Game day in Curva Sud, 2007.
Instead of a structuralist reading of the Ultras’ style of fandom, I probed the rationality of their choices, linking them to the context that propelled them. For the Ultras of AS Roma this meant studying banners and the content of choreographies. It meant, more occasionally, studying the content and history of songs. Armstrong and Young studied soccer chants and songs as ‘a collective expression of social and cultural identity’ that often takes the form of a new poetry or folklore.366 Aside from deriding the occasional ‘racist’ content of the songs, the Italian media is fond of referring to them as a form of folklore. Indeed, I frequently heard the same Romans of Monteverde who chastised me for involving myself with the Ultras humming and signing the songs of the Curva while they worked. As Armstrong and Young determined, the songs from the stands become just as integral to the experience of the game as the play on the field.
In the highly-policed stadiums of 2007–2008, songs were used to insult or intimidate the opposing Ultras in a way that pre-game fights or shows of aggression would have done in the past. For the big rivalry games of AS Roma, Curva Sud would spend more than half of a game’s ninety minutes singing against the opponent. In special cases, like the AS Roma-SSC Napoli game of 2007 (described in Chapter Four), the curva sang against Napoli and Naples for close to the full ninety minutes. For AS Roma-SS Lazio of that season, the curva debuted a new anti-Lazio song; a reworked version of ‘Old MacDonald Had a Farm’ called ‘O Bastadro Bianco-Blu.’ The Ultras sang this song for a twenty-minute stretch of the game. Afterward, Augusto, an SS Lazio Ultra who worked in a Monteverde pizzeria, told me how incensed Lazio’s Curva Nord had been by the song and the length of uninterrupted singing by Curva Sud.
For less important games, Curva Sud Roma, just like other curvas, might use standardized songs against their opponent. These include stating the opposing city’s name and ‘vaffanculo’ (go fuck yourself) or stating ‘Odio’ (I hate) and the city’s name. Sometimes these became synonymous with certain cities, like ‘Odio Napoli’ or ‘Roma Roma Vaffanculo,’ so that every curva would sing them even when not facing SSC Napoli or AS Roma.
The bombs used by Italian Ultras are usually homemade, or made by a few people in each curva and sold amongst their peers. They take the form of a pipe bomb although they are made with cardboard and paper. They are long and skinny tubes filled with blasting powder and have a long fuse. The flares used in each curva are quick burning emergency flares that are purchased online or in auto supply stores. The smoke candles are also purchased online and can be procured in a wide variety of colors (whichever are appropriate to one’s team). The point of each of these is to create a spectacle that will shock, awe, and intimidate outsiders. The bombs, flares, and smoke candles, however, were also used as weapons during fights with the police, which is why the State banned them in the wake of Raciti’s death.
Each Italian curva will also have a measure of flags, representing individual groups, the team, the curva, the city, or now the region. In Curva Sud Roma, group, team, and city flags dominate, each one predominantly yellow and red, the colors of both AS Roma and Rome. In Milan, one sees flags of the teams (red and black for AC Milan and blue and black for Inter Milan) and the red and white cross of Saint Ambrose, the patron saint of Milan. Amongst other intra-city rivals this is not the case. Neither FC Torino nor FC Juventus display their city’s flag. In Genova, only Genoa CFC displays that city’s flag, which is identical to Milan’s. Because the flag is incorporated into the crest of Genoa CFC, the city’s other team UC Sampdoria does not display it during games. In Rome, SS Lazio’s Ultras are never seen with the Rome city flag for similar reasons. In Lega Nord cities like Verona, Brescia, and Bergamo, that party’s flag is often seen in the curvas.
Likewise, the materials used in Ultra choreographies are similar from curva to curva. 8.5" by 11" colored paper or cardboard squares often suffice to turn a curva into a backdrop for the message of a choreography, which is usually printed or painted onto large industrial rolls of paper. Designs are discussed and finalized by the group or groups paying for the choreography. Each group would then be responsible for producing their portion of the design, which is either created by the group members themselves or by neighborhood design shops. Perhaps it is an industry driven by Ultra and political activism, but each Roman neighborhood seems to have an abundance of print shops. Certainly, Monteverde has its fair share. It is rare for curvas to display choreographies that involve props or materials beyond paper and cardboard.
If the songs, bombs, flares, and flags are the frames by which Ultras are distinguishable from non-Ultras and these are removed, then what remains? If the Ultras are dispossessed of soccer, yet still amass in piazzas are they still Ultras? Stefanini (2009) points to Ultras’ style or mode of sociality as the template for radical political actors like the anarchist Black Block and All Whites (Tutte Bianche), yet these cannot be said to be Ultras. On one level this points to the importance of the mentalità as it allows an identifiable essence of ‘being Ultra.’ However, it also leads us to wonder about the future of the Ultras. If they are dispossessed of the stadiums, is remaining together in the form of a movement enough to have any relevance as Ultras?
The importance of soccer to the Ultras must not be underestimated. If the Ultras take their performances out of the stadiums do they still have the same importance or impact? If they amass at Campidoglio and sing hymns to the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius or to Castor and Pollex would this suffice? In fact, they have done so, most recently following AS Roma’s victory over AC Parma to clinch the 2001 Italian Championship. But this merely underscores the fact that their performances beyond the stadiums are still motivated by momentous AS Roma victories and thus by soccer. It should be clear that I am arguing that the Ultras are far more than their in-stadium performances. In turning now to agonism and politics I will demonstrate why.
Agonism
Just as with performance, I believe that the form of Ultra agonism I explained in Chapter Five to be common to all of Italy’s Ultras. It is the content that differs from place to place and curva to curva. Dal Lago and De Biasi studied the Ultra phenomenon as a single cultural en
tity, but struggled to find many unifying cultural elements. The one they did identify was a worldview centered on ‘war’.367 It was with this in mind that I identified agon and agonism as the central elements of the Ultras’ form of life. Not only does agonism incorporate both the natural, territorial, soccer-based rivalries of the Ultras, but also and meta-natural rivalries made of the state and the media.
The idea that soccer is interconnected with the political and social contexts in which it is played is common to Italy’s Ultras. Although the media and the bourgeois fans of the game are intent to have it be somewhat displaced from the regional and political divisions so important to Italian society and history, the Ultras make of these the very rationale for their involvement with soccer. Just as AS Roma’s Ultras have a visceral hatred for the Ultras of SSC Napoli, AC Livorno, Inter and AC Milan, SS Lazio, FC Juventus, Brescia Calcio, and Atalanta BC, these clubs’ Ultras return that hatred for AS Roma. Some of these rivalries are local and historical, like SSC Napoli and SS Lazio, and others are more recent and political, like AC Livorno, Brescia Calcio, and Atalanta BC. These latter teams are based in Brescia and Bergamo, two centers of support for the Lega Nord. The two Milan-based clubs are hated for different reasons. AC Milan is hated because their Ultras killed AS Roma Ultra Antonio De Falchi in 1989, and Inter Milan is hated because it is a sister club to SS Lazio. Each of these teams has a long-standing political rivalry with AC Milan, which is traditionally a club of the political Left. And so, it continues, until the Ultras make of soccer a web of rivalries and hatreds.