Introduzione. Un convegno, una canzone, un disco politico (con Jacopo Tomatis)

Antagonist Discography: Italy, 1958-1980 by recounting the unusual circumstances of its concluding conference, held outside the occupied University of Turin after the interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla. The episode is framed through the unexpected return of Palestina!, a song written in 1972 for the Milan Student Movement and revived during the pro-Palestinian demonstrations of 2025-2026. Its history exemplifies the forms of political circulation, oblivion, rediscovery, and digital remediation investigated by the project. Starting from this case, the article introduces the contributions collected in the issue: a theoretical discussion of the record as a historical, ethnomusicological, and material source; an analysis of the Dischi del Sole sound archives and Gianni Bosio’s technological utopia; studies of communist song groups (canzonieri) in Emilia-Romagna and Christian youth dissent; an examination of «singing communities» that recover and reactivate militant repertoires; and an interview with Alessandro Portelli on recorded sound as a political instrument. The introduction thus connects the material history of political records with their continuing capacity to create collective memory, identities, and public action across changing historical contexts.