The Resistance to Nazism and Fascism t

italy / switzerland | anti-fascism | opinion / analysis Thursday May 05, 2005 22:11 by various - FdCA

Italian anarchists on the anniversary

Sixty years after the Liberation of Italy from fascism and nazism, we anarchists will remember the date of 25th April so that we can keep alive the ideas of that struggle and the sacrifice which must never be forgotten. The contribution of the anarchists to the Resistance was fundamental: the anarchist and libertarian inspired partisan units, which saw the involvement of so many comrades from the South, were among the first to organize themselves in order to fight the nazis and fascists.

The Resistance of 1943-45 was not the only Resistance. The Resistance was also the long struggle against Nazism and Fascism that involved millions of people. Fascism and nazism were, in the words of Luigi Fabbri in 1922, the "preventive counter-revolution" designed to crush the mass movements against the capitalist structure which had received a boost in the years following the First World War, in that long batle that anarchists call the "class struggle". The most authoritarian regimes have always been in the service of economic forces which wage war on the emancipating struggles of the workers. They are a tool of capitalist domination. And this is something which was fully understood by all those who, united in struggle, fought in the resistance.

Anarchist Communists do not forget those who struggled against the terrible fascist and nazi dictatorships. In these days of celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Liberation, we remember those who fought and those who died, men and women fired by a libertarian spirit who engaged in the armed and unarmed Resistance for the true Liberation of Italy and Europe from Nazi-Fascism. The Liberation of Italy was the work of the people who rebelled against Nazi-Fascist domination, but who were stopped from bringing it to its completion and realizing a complete change in society by the occupying forces, by the political forces who were their allies and by the "democratic" compromises made by the Communist Party.

Today though, while we remember the struggles of the last century against the forces of reaction, struggles which the Resistance was an important part of, we are witnessing a new growth in Nazi and Fascist groups, hiding behind their business suits the desire to fight all those who hold dear the values of the Resistance, who even demand "parity" of recognition between the partisans and the "repubblichini", the fascist supporters of Mussolini's Italian Social Republic. The dead cannot speak, but we can speak for them and it is up to us to declare that they will not succeed.

Let it also be clearly understood by those who continue to call themselves "the left" but who were often the very ones who allowed the fascists to open up offices. Just a few days ago, the mayor of Pontedera closed down the offices of Forza Nuova for reasons of public order. The presence of fascist forces was inadmissible, he claimed. But who was it who allowed them to turn themselves into a regular party?

Today, just as yesterday, in order to defeat the plans of the reactionaries, we must:

* take up the internationalist, anti-capitalist struggle for the unity of the workers, Italian or otherwise, for the protection of individual freedoms in all areas, for the respect of all people of all social condition or origin;

* struggle united against the presence of all those forces who are inspired by fascist ideology until such times as they are defeated for ever;

* promote a class opposition which accepts no compromises and which demands and practises those values of opposition to the capitalist system for which men and women have sacrificed their lives;

* take up the tradition of the Resistance, which in practice means the class struggle for the realization of a world of free and equal people.

On the 25th April 1945, the men and women who marched through the streets still had in their eyes the vision of the brutalities of the fascist and nazi regimes they had so bitterly fought; but in their hearts they had the hope of a totally different world, where economic freedom and respect for the rights of all would be the basis of a new society.

Their struggle, our struggle, goes on.

Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici 25 April 2005

http://www.fdca.it/fdcaen

Text of joint FAS-FAI-FdCA Liberation Day leaflet - "Against Every Fascism"

Sixty years after the Liberation of Italy from fascism and nazism, we anarchists will remember the date of 25th April so that we can keep alive the ideas of that struggle and the sacrifice which must never be forgotten. The contribution of the anarchists to the Resistance was fundamental: the anarchist and libertarian inspired partisan units, which saw the involvement of so many comrades from the South, were among the first to organize themselves in order to fight the nazis and fascists. But anarchist opposition to fascism had already manifested itself years before in 1921 when the Arditi del Popolo, those fighters who organized for popular self-defence, stood up to the terrorist tactics of the fascist squads backed up by the Carabinieri and the Royal Guards. And more than once did they put the carabinieri and the fascists to flight, for example in Parma and Sarzana. And it was there, in the region of Carrara, that the anarchists were the first to break the "Gothic Line" of the Nazis during the Resistance.

For us anarchists, the Resistance was, and still is, part of a greater plan for social change which unfortunately did not come about, thanks to compromises made by the anti-fascist parties (the Italian Communist Party first and foremost) with the directives of the Allied Powers.

Opposition to fascism is something we understand as being part of the struggle against any form of authoritarianism, for whoever is an enemy of freedom is an enemy of ours.

Every day we watch as fascism and authoritarianism in various forms once again rear their ugly faces: we see it in the nature and in the actions of western governments who are destroying the rights and liberties of millions of people in the world. A world devastated by wars and an unbearable divide between those who have too much and those who have nothing.

Fascism is alive in the racist laws introduced in Italy by the centre-left government (the Turco-Napolitano Law) and by the centre-right government (the Bossi-Fini Law), laws which destroy the lives, the dreams and the hopes of immigrants who are denied everything, including the right to exist.

Fascism lives in the labour laws introduced in Italy by the centre-left (the Treu Packet) and by the centre-right (the Biagi Law) which have reduced work to a state of exploitation without future: precarity, flexibility and blackmail - these are the watchwords of the slaves of the new economy.

Fascism lives in the constant and intrusive interference of religion in the public arena: the Vatican and the ecclesiastic hierarchies continue to influence the dominant class, politics, laws and every area of social life from education to healthcare, poking its nose into the body of every woman and thretening the right to an aware maternity and in general to free, responsible and secular sexuality.

It is for all these reasons that for us, every day is the 25th April.

Resisting to free ourselves from injustice and authority is a daily need.

Fighting every day for a society based on equality, liberty, social justice, self-management and self-government means developing a revolutionary practice which we cannot and will not renounce.

Nucleo "Giustizia e Libertà" of the Federazione Anarchica Siciliana (FAS)
Some comrades of the Federazione Anarchica Italiana (FAI) - Palermo
Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici (FdCA) - Palermo Section

Translation by nmcn/ainfos