The Red Brigades Return

PAULO FERRARI/AP

Victim: Marco Biagi feared for his safety

Union leaders had been touting Saturday's massive march on the capital as a "grand party." Rock bands, celebrities and local theater groups would add spice to the already fired-up movement arrayed against the labor reforms proposed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government. Though the crowds came, by most estimates well over a million people, the festivities were called off. Banners denouncing terrorism replaced union slogans calling for walkouts. Across the oval field at the ancient Circus Maximus, a strong wind whipped at red trade-union flags taped with the black borders of mourning. Once again in sunny Italy, a cold-blooded political assassination...

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