Luciano Lanza (Milan, Italy, 1945) began working as an accountant for a famous Milanese firm in the mid-1960s, where he remained employed for a dozen years. At the same time, he began his political militancy by joining first the Sacco and Vanzetti Circle and later the Bandiera Nera [Black Flag] group, and the Federated Anarchist Groups (GAF). From that moment, he took part in all the main events that mark the history of the GAF, one of the three national anarchist federations active in that period. In particular, he was active in the counter- information campaign that marked the turbulent historical period known as the ‘strategy of tension’, during which repeated terrorist attacks were carried out by neo- fascist groups with the connivance of certain sectors of the Italian secret services. Years later, in 1997, he devoted a book-investigation – Bombs and Secrets – to that crucial period of Italian history.
In 1977 he left the profession of accountancy and became a bookseller, opening the Utopia bookshop in Milan, which rapidly became a point of reference for the Milanese anarchist milieu. After a few years, he embarked on a career as an economic journalist, working for top Italian newspapers and in particular for the weekly Il Mondo, where he also served as editor- in- chief. He co-founded and took part in various editorial and cultural initiatives set up by the GAF, namely the journals A/Rivista Anarchica and Interrogations, the Centro Studi Libertari/Giuseppe Pinelli Archive and, above all, the journal Volontà, of which he had editorial responsibility until its closure in 1996. In 1999 he founded the quarterly journal Libertaria, which was published until 2017.