In the '20s the anarchists in Italy were a revolutionary force with which they had to deal, a force which had to deal with employers, government and the fascists. They had a newspaper, "Umanita’ Nova", that pulled fifty thousand copies, and numerous periodicals. USI, the union influenced by the revolutionary anarchist (that was secretary of the anarchist Armando Borghi), there were hundreds of thousands of subscribers.
After the failure of the occupation of the factories, the anarchists recognize fascism in the "preventive counter-revolution" (as he called it good Luigi Fabbri) with which the owners would try to prevent the recurrence of a pre-revolutionary situation, they threw all their energies into the fray against the young but sturdy child of capitalism. The will and the courage of the anarchists could not however be enough in front of the squads, equipped with powerful weapons and vehicles and backed by the repressive organs of the state. Especially as anarchists and anarcho-syndicalists were decisively lonley in some places and in some sectors.
defeatist policy
Unfortunately, the defeatist policy of the Socialist Party and CGL had already hindered the revolutionary development and thus contributed to the failure of the occupation of factories and sowed confusion and uncertainty in the labor movement at a time that already was in many aspects of the struggles of reflux. And this just in front of the proliferation and aggravation of fascist violence, especially after the '21.
Everywhere in Italy, Mussolini's gangs assaulted the political forums, news bureaus, the most active militants, all of the "stink" of "subversive". The liberal state was in direct complicity of both criminal activity by the entire political strategy of the common struggle against fascism in the militancy of the workers.
Despite being themselves victims of violence squad, the Socialists were limited to denounce the "illegal" fascist, without devoting all their energies to the fight against terrorism, the Revolutionary People's mansion. Not only that, but the PSI reached the point of concluding with the fascists a pact of Pacification (August 1921) which helped to disarm the workers' movement both physically and psychologically, at the very moment in which intensified violence squads (which continued to grow. .. in the long beards!).
What interests us is that, while political leaders and trade unions called for "calm" and non-violence, were the workers themselves, under the auspices of themselves, to give some historical lessons to the fascists. The uprisings of Sarzana (July '21) and Parma (August '22) are two examples of the validity of the policy supported by the anarchists, then, in the press and in the struggles: against the defeatism of bureaucracies and political union, the anarchists argued in fact the urgent need to break with the Anti-Fascist movement, stimulating the fighting spirit of workers.
Consistent with this program anarchists fought all the way without hesitation, and those that search for compromises that characterized the activities of the Socialists. Significant in this respect the different positions taken by Socialists and Communists on one side and the other anarchists, opposite to the movement of the Arditi del Popolo.
the arditi del popolo
This movement, founded in 1920 by initiative of heterogeneous elements, developed rapidly taking on characteristics strongly anti-fascist and anti-bourgeois, and was characterized by a marked decentralization of autonomous local organizations. The Arditi del Popolo and then took on political colors sometimes differ from place to place, but always their common awareness of the need to organize the people to violently resist the violence of black shirts. Anarchists joined enthusiastically to the formations of the Arditi and often they were the promoters individually or collectively, to keep the two incidents already mentioned just think that the majority of anarchists were the defenders of Sarzana, and in Parma, famous among the barricades to resist the assaults the squads of Balbo and Farinacci, there was one held by anarchists.
Completely different was the attitude of both the socialists and the communists (the latter started being established in January 1921). Despite the vast and spontaneous support of many of their militants to the Arditi del Popolo, both bureaucracies party distanced themselves and sought to sabotage the development of that movement. The central bodies of the newborn PCd'I went so far to require its members to avoid any contact with the Arditi, against which was also basted a media campaign based on falsehood and slander. Interviewed on television in the seventies, the communist Umberto Terracini was still trying to justify that policy choice. And today, as eighty years ago our comrades, we see that in their choice of a representative example of a consensus to make the fight against fascism to coincide with its sights on the hegemony of the labor movement. It is clear that this harsh criticism of the policy leaders of Left parties in the face of fascist violence does not involve the grassroots, which - although on a much different positions from us - they gave their contribution to fighting and bloodshed in the fight against fascism.
The socialist defeatism and communist sectarianism made impossible an armed opposition so widespread and effective to fascism and individual episodes of popular resistance could not merge into a winning strategy.
confinement and exile
The anarchists in the forefront of the resistance to fascism, were exposed generously without calculation of personal or party, suffered most severely than other anti-fascists (in proportion to the forces) violence squad before and then the legal ones. The fire of anarchist sites and USI sections, the ravages of printers and editors, to the murders, followed by seizures, arrests, internment ... For the survivors, the persecuted, the unemployed, provoked, spied on, had only to exile. It can be said that very few anarchists militants (except the ones imprisoned and confined) remained in Italy and those few were watched over and unable for the most part even clandestine activities.
Individual episodes of rebellion continue to testify, despite everything, the libertarian spirit of indomitability. Just a few examples.
On October 21, 1928, the anarchist Bulzamini Pasquale, Viareggio, on his way home, was attacked by a group of fascists and savagely beaten. In a cafe, had a little earlier, deplored the shooting of antifascist Della Maggiora. He died three days later in hospital.
On October 7, 1930, Comrade Giovanni Covolcoli shoots at the mayor and the secretary of his country - Villasanta (Milano) - who have long pursued him until he was interned in the asylum. Detected sane and released in freedom, he wanted revenge against his persecutors tough.
In April 1931, in La Spezia, the young anarchist Doro Raspolini fired several revolver shots against industrial fascist De Biasi to take revenge against one of the main culprits of the assassination of his father, Dante, an active anarchist, murdered in 1921 in Sarzana hit by several gunshots and 12 daggers, and then - even before he died, tied to a car - so dragged for several miles). Doro Raspolini Sarzana dies in prison as a result of suffering and torture inflicted by the fascists.
On April 16, 1931, the companions Schicchi, Renda and Gramignano are sentenced by the Special Court in Rome, respectively, at year 10, 8 and 6 of imprisonment. They were accused of being returned from abroad to carry out activities against fascism.
the Resistenza
The '43 and so sees the anarchists of the pre-Fascist generation scattered exile, confinement and prisons. Few traces remain of the anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist influence. The few free militants first and then continue with the former confined unchanged force their battle stations, those in the armed struggle, people in the organization of working-class resistance, who in illegal propaganda in the north and south areas to semi-clandestine "free" (so to speak), where the allies did not allow press freedom to the anarchists, concerned (rightly from their point of view) that the anti-German and anti-fascist struggle could become a social revolution.
As regards the participation of anarchist partisan in the armed struggle, it was mostly in politically mixed formations. Only in those few places where the presence of anarchists and sympathizers was nevertheless sufficiently large, the company arranges its own training, but also framed, often depending on local circumstances, divisions Garibaldi (controlled by Communists) Matteotti (Socialist) and Justice and Freedom (expression of "Liberal" Party of Action).
The lack of autonomy (which is almost always given the balance of power, meant dependence) from partisan party was due not only to small numbers of surviving almost general anarchist movement, but also to the fact that the Allies refused (again rightly, from their point of view) to supply weapons and ammunition to anarchist formations.
In this context, the value and often the ultimate sacrifice of so many anarchists were exploited by other political force s and were thus able to serve very little to the radicalization of the revolutionary partisan movement. Poor performances in the final political influence in the anarchic resistance, which was channeled by the anti-fascist parties (the liberals to the Communists) to the restoration of "bourgeois-democratic", which is still before our eyes.
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40 n. 357
Paolo Finzi