A Civil War (161 page)

Read A Civil War Online

Authors: Claudio Pavone

BOOK: A Civil War
12.99Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

61
See, for example, his report from the 1877 Gand Congress and the famous 27 July 1879 letter ‘Ai miei amici di Romagna', in the 3 August
La Plebe
. See A. Romano,
Storia del movimento socialista in Italia
, vol. III, Laterza: Bari, 1967, pp. 435–40, 447–53, and A. De Clementi, ‘Costa Andrea', in
Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani
30 (1984), pp. 128–44.

62
Gli scambi internazionali, la nazionalizzazione delle imprese ed i piani economici
, printed in Rome by the Movimento Liberale Italiano in June 1944 (though it is dated 15 January) and reprinted in Milan in 1945 by the Upper Italy Delegation of the PLI. The Labriola quote (p. 19 of the Milan edition) is taken from
Primo Saggio
, p. 476, n. 1. See F. Sbarberi,
Ordinamento politico e società nel marxismo di Antonio Labriola
, Milan: Franco Angeli, Milan 1986. Sbarberi holds that in his Marxism, Labriola was always opposed to a statist development of the future society, which, significantly, was conceived of as the ‘self-government of labour' (see pp. 13–60, 120–61).

63
PENTAD,
Remaking of Italy
, p. 268.

64
‘Notre programme d'action', in the first issue of
Libérer et Fédérer
, 14 July 1942.

65
Diena,
La rivoluzione minimalista
, pp. 15–17.

66
See ‘Aldi' (F. Venturi),
Socialismo di oggi e di domani
; ‘Pan't' (A. Spinelli), ‘Alcune osservazioni a proposito di “Socialismo di oggi e di domani” di Leo Aldi', in
Nuovi Quaderni di Giustizia e Libertà
, May–June 1944, 1, pp. 62–6; and L.A., ‘Postilla', on pp. 67–9 of the same issue.

67
‘Che vuol dire Stato socialista', in the 12 January 1944 Rome edition.

68
See, for example, a report by Raffaello Ramat on a visit to Figline Valdarno, 9 October 1944 (ISRT,
Carte Enzo Enriques Agnoletti
, folder 10, subfolder
PdA provincia
).

69
See paragraph 13 of the
Direttive programmatiche
of the Action Party, Tuscan section, June 1944 (
Quaderni dell'Italia Libera
, 3).

70
‘Nella società socialista', in
Bandiera Rossa
, 22 October 1943.

71
See Rossi-Doria,
Il ministro e i contadini
, p. 106.

72
Such was the request of the Teramo National Transport Institute, dissolved by the Allies, to the local CLN, which (according to its 7 August 1944 minutes), in agreement with the prefect, approved its being constituted as a cooperative (AS Teramo, CLN, envelope 1, folder 4/A).

73
The spontaneous cooperativist drive of the immediate post-war years gets little coverage in the large volume edited by F. Fabbri on cooperativism,
Il movimento cooperativo nella storia d'Italia
, Milan: Lega Nazionale Cooperative e Mutue and the Fondazione Feltrinelli, 1979.

74
A judgment expressed by H. Michel,
The Shadow World
.

75
Passerin D'Entrèves,
Un recente saggio sui problemi di storia della Resistenza
, p. 93.

76
Editorial ‘Liberalismo e assolutismo', in the April 1944 Piedmont edition.

77
R. Moro,
La formazione della classe dirigente cattolica (1929–1937)
, Bologna: Il Mulino, 1979, pp. 470–2, with reference to the FUCI and Laureati cattolici.

78
Inverni (V. Foa),
I partiti
, pp. 68–9, 46.

79
A defaced copy of the document is held in INSMLI,
CLNAI
, envelope 8, folder 12.

80
T. Ruoti,
La lotta per la libertà
, October 1943, p. 6.

1
Gobetti,
Diario partigiano
, pp. 190–1 (23 August 1944).

2
For example, the spell that certain aspects of this culture held over Pavese can help us better to grasp this writer's attitude towards anti-Fascism and the Resistance, around which a polemic – rarely of a high standard – lit up after the publication of some of the pages from his diary, edited by Lorenzo Mondo, in
La Stampa
of 8 August 1990.

3
I take these words from a typescript by Giampiero Carocci, first draft of a work in progress.

4
The future as ‘the present of another: of another individual, of another group, of another civilisation: is the first and exact meaning of the word “future”, and it is almost always the last we think of' (G. Noventa,
Futuro
, in
Opere complete
, vol. IV, ‘
Dio è con noi' e altri scritti
, Venice: Marsilio, 1989, p. 338).

5
The first of the two expressions is from Lanaro, the second from Miccoli: these, in my view, have a common root (see
Società rurale
, pp. 199–200).

6
See, on these themes, Moro's
La formazione
, chapter ‘Il dibattito sulla crisi della civiltà' (in particular p. 413).

7
‘La nostra ora', signed Guittone, in
Il Segno
, 1 March 1944.

8
Letter to Carlo Placci, from Faenza, 31 May 1897, in G. Salvemini,
Carteggi
, I,
1895–1911
, ed. E. Gencarelli, Milan: Feltrinelli, 1968, pp. 55–8.

9
Quoted in Moro,
La formazione
, p. 468.

10
‘Il sentimento democratico', in
Il Popolo
, Rome edition, 20 February 1944.

11
See Fogar,
Le brigate Osoppo-Friuli
, p. 294.

12
See Gorrieri,
La Repubblica di Montefiorino
, esp. pp. 634–5.

13
‘Prepararsi', in
Il Popolo
, Rome edition, 23 January 1944.

14
‘Sugli indirizzi della Democrazia cristiana',
Il Popolo
, Northern edition, 20 August 1944.

15
‘La Democrazia cristiana e il Fronte della gioventù' and ‘I gruppi democristiani confermano l'astensione dal Fronte della gioventù',
Il Popolo
, Northern edition, 31 May and 10 June 1945.

16
‘The most far-sighted policy of the party, which will reap further fruits for us, too, is the policy which, for the moment, prescinds from the party and transcends it; the policy of the freedom of the Italian people, the policy of unity for the complete emancipation of this martyred people.' Togliatti could not have put it better, except perhaps for the word ‘martyred' (see the article ‘Il comandamento dell'ora', in
Democrazia
, organ of the Lombard Christian Democracy, 9, undated, but after the establishment of the second Bonomi government, quoted in Bianchi,
I cattolici
, p. 266).

17
Bolis,
Il mio granello di sabbia
, p. 4.

18
Portelli,
Biografia di una città
, p. 289.

19
See Weber,
Economy and Society
, I, p. 26.

20
B. Baczko
Lumière de l'utopie
, Paris: Payot & Rivages, 1978.

21
Constant spoke thusly with regard to Rousseau: see
Discours de M. Benjamin Constant à la Chambre des Députés
, I, Pinard, Paris 1827, p. 211. My thanks to Franco Sbarberi for making me aware of this passage.

22
Testimony of Mario Conti, in Portelli,
Biografia di una città
, p. 18.

23
A paraphrase of one of the concepts used in Koselleck,
Futures Past
. See also G. Ambrosino, ‘Koselleck: quando la politica ha pretese di verità', interview in
Il manifesto
, 5 February 1987.

24
Passerin d'Entrèves,
Un recente saggio sui problemi di storia della Resistenza
, replying to Cotta,
Lineamenti di storia della Resistenza italiana
, p. 96.

25
‘1945, anno della vittoria', in
Stella garibaldina
, paper published by the 1
st
Piedmont Division, 15 January 1945. Pointing to the examples of the Soviet and Yugoslav partisans, the paper called on readers to emulate their ‘virtue'.

26
Testimony of Mario Filipponi, in Portelli,
Biografia di una città
, p. 297.

27
Testimony of the trade unionist Emilio Guglielmino, born 1911, in
A voi cari compagni
, p. 27. Soon before, Guglielmino recalled ‘There was a need to know, but also be to protagonists in some way, and above all to change ourselves and all society'.

28
Report on the activities of the Potente (Arno) Division, written by the political commissar Alessandro Pieri (ISRT,
CVL
, Comando militare toscano, envelope 5, folder 7). Pieri was a carpenter, a long-time Communist, jailed during the Fascist period (see Francovich,
La Resistenza a Firenze
, p. 330).

29
See the text of the fifteenth lesson of the commissars' course organised by the 1
st
Garibaldi-Osoppo Division (IZDG, envelope 272b, folder A/I).

30
Padoan (Vanni),
Abbiamo lottato insieme
, p. 145.

31
Testimony of Giuliana Fiorentino Tedeschi, in Bravo and Jalla,
La vita offesa
, pp. 363–4.

32
Editorial ‘La vittoria del popolo', in
Giustizia e Libertà
, Cuneo, 30 April 1945 (quoted in Giovana,
Storia di una formazione partigiana
, pp. 379–80).

33
On how confident expectations of great transformations clouds perceptions of those really under way, see Contini,
Operaismo e innovazione
.

34
‘Intervista sulla guerra partigiana', interview given to L. La Malfa Calogero and M. V. de Filippis. See Rossi-Dori's pamphlet
Il problema politico italiano e il partito d'azione
(
Quaderni dell'Italia libera
, July 1944, 6). On the ‘revolutionary conception, but only in the ethical sense of the word' subordinate to the ‘slow, empirical reformism' of Parri, see Valiani,
Tutte le strade
, p. 119.

35
Letter from Albero to the Lombardy triumvirate, on the Aliotta Division, 13 February 1945 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. III, p. 355); testimony of Vero Zagaglioni (Portelli,
Biografia di una città
, pp. 266–7).

36
Report by the commander Ninel on the situation in Val Nure, Milan, 25 January 1945 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. III, pp. 284–5).

37
Report by the general P. Neame, having escaped from an Italian prison camp, quoted in Absalom,
Ex prigionieri alleati
, p. 465.

38
Apart from what has already been mentioned in previous pages, see the report by Paolo ‘for the Communist Federation of Savona', 1 November 1944. (INSMLI,
CLNAI
, envelope 8, folder 2, subfolder 12).

39
Pesce,
Senza tregua
, pp. 174–6.

40
V. Ciaffi, ‘Colloquio davanti alla città (Annibale era ‘alle porte')', in
Sempre Avanti!
, 11 July 1948, cited in G. Quazza, ‘Tra cultura e politica: un latinista nel 1945–48', in
Rivista di storia contemporanea
XII (1983), p. 438.

41
Comment piece on the conference of the insurrectionary triumvirates held in November 1944, published in the 15 November 1944 northern edition of
L'Unità
, under the title ‘Serrare le file e vincere ogni difficoltà per la vittoria della insurrezione nazionale'.

42
Report of 7 March 1945 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. III, pp. 452–3).

43
Letter from Giovanni to ‘Dear G.', undated but soon after the Liberation of Rome (IG,
Archivio PCI
).

44
On the Florence press, see Francovich,
La Resistenza a Firenze
, pp. 166, 182–4, 198–9.

45
Circular from the Command of the 28
th
GAP brigade Mario Gordini, 15 July 1944, on the ‘functions of a political commissar' (‘Funzioni del commissario politico', IG,
BG
, 02309-12).

46
‘Colleghi della mensa, sveglia!' and ‘Lottare per la nostra dignità',
Il Lavoratore della mensa
, Turin, 22 December 1944. I base my remarks on the Barcelona barbers determined to smash the capitalist yoke on a conversation with Aldo Garosci.

47
Marcenaro and Foa,
Riprendere tempo
, p. 103.

48
See the exchange of letters between Giovana and Valiani, published in
Il Movimento di liberazione in Italia
89 (October–December 1967), p. 126.

49
These words appear in the Cuneo area GL proclamation of 29 April 1945; and see Bianco,
Guerra partigiana
, p. 147.

50
‘Prima di separaci', in
Lungo il Tanaro
, newssheet of the 10
th
Alpine GL Division, May 1945 (quoted in De Luna,
Storia del Partito d'Azione
, pp. 299–300).

51
Letters by Elli Voigt, 8 December 1944; Félicien Joly, 4 December 1941; Fernande Vorral, guillotined on 7 August 1944; and Henri Fertet, shot on 26 September 1943 (
LRE
, pp. 409, 289, 104, 318).

52
Letter by Pietro Benedetti, shot by Polizia Africa Italiana firing squad at Rome's Forte Bravetta on 29 April 1944. The PAI was one of many police squads in the service of the Italian Social Republic (
LRE
, pp. 515–16).

53
Letter by Paolo Braccini, GL (
LRI
, p. 55).

54
See T. Mann's preface to
LRE
, p. xiv.

55
Poster of the Piedmont regional union of the Action Party, directed ‘to the valorous partisans of the CVL', undated but ‘after twenty months of bloody struggle' (INSMLI,
CLNAI
, envelope 8, folder 12).

Other books

The Brimstone Deception by Lisa Shearin
Espial by Nikita Francois
Retribution by Regina Smeltzer
Rippler by Cindy
Coercion to Love by Reid, Michelle
A Dark Song of Blood by Ben Pastor
Sin City by Harold Robbins