By ANDY COGHLAN - NEWSCIENTIST
Added: Wed, 30 May 2012 01:13:38 UTC

It's like something out of Kafka. Anti-science anarchists in Italy appear to be ramping up their violent and frankly surreal campaign. Having claimed responsibility for shooting the boss of a nuclear engineering company in Genoa, the group has vowed to target Finmeccanica, the Italian aerospace and defence giant.

The anarchist federation is also linked with eco-anarchist groups in Mexico that have targeted nanotechnology researchers, injuring two with a parcel bomb sent in August 2011 to the Monterrey Institute of Technology. Others were sent to nanotechnology researchers at the Polytechnic University of the Valley of Mexico and the Polytechnic University of Pachuca in Hidalgo.

In its letter to Corriere della Sera, the federation attacks science and technology, accusing it of serving capitalism at the expense of humanity, and turning everyone into mindless consumers of the world's resources. "In past centuries science had promised a golden era, but today it is being carried out toward self-destruction and more total slavery," it said.

TAGGED: SCIENCE, TERRORISM