Lama graduated in Political Sciences at the University of Florence under the name of Boris Alberti, since he had to remain anonymous because he refused to join the Republic of Salò.

[1] When he was very young, Lama joined the Italian Socialist Party and took part in the resistance movement, contributing to free the city of Forlì from the Nazis.

He left his seat when he joined the Italian General Confederation of Labour, being elected Secretary-general of the trade union in 1970.

[2] On 17 February 1977, Lama was violently contested at the University of Rome by a group of young people, who adhered to extra-parliamentary positions.

[3] In January 1978, in an assembly at the EUR in Rome, Lama proposed to the workers a politics of sacrifice, aimed at healing the Italian economy.