The 1st National Congress of the ORA was held in Bari in 1978, grouping anarchist communists from the regions of Emilia, Lombardy and Campania, and later Marches, Veneto and Piedmont. The ORCA became the ORA's Nocera Inferiore branch.

In 1980, a national assembly of the ORA was held in Modena. This was the occasion of a split, with the Modena and Nocera Inferiore branches leaving the ORA to set up the Italian Anarchist Party (PAI - Partito Anarchico Italiano). The PAI would later dissolve into the ranks of the Rainbow (Arcobaleno), an environmentalist group which also participated in elections.