A Civil War (109 page)

100
‘Rapporto sulla situazione nelle fabbriche' by Giovanni, December 1943 (IG,
Archivio PCI
).

101
See Gibelli,
Genova operaia
, p. 47.

102
‘Istruzioni del PCI di Fornaci di Barga ai suoi delegati nel CLN locale e nella commissione di epurazione interna' (quoted in the laureate thesis of Giovanna Nannini, Università di Pisa, 1976, on the Resistance in Garfagnana).

103
See ‘Informazioni da Milano', 22 April 1945 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. III, p. 671).

104
Laureate thesis of Katia Sonetti, Università di Pisa, 1980, on post-war reconstruction in Piombino.

105
Quoted from
La Nuova Stampa
of 3 November 1945, in Quazza,
Resistenza e storia d'Italia
, p. 387. Quazza noted that the phrase does not appear in the version printed in Togliatti's
Discorsi di Torino
(pp. 38–62).

106
This argument was used to overcome the diffidence that Paduan workers showed towards engineering staff. See the record of the ‘Riunione dei rappresentanti di Partito' (‘Meeting of Party representatives'), in a Padua workshop, 18 March 1945 (IG,
Archivio PCI
; reproduced in part in
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. III, pp. 490–4).

107
INSMLI,
CLNAI
, envelope 8, folder 12, sub folder 4 (without date, presumably from March 1944).

108
See the meeting records published in the volume edited by P. Rugafiori (
Resistenza e ricostruzione in Liguria
): they demonstrate frequent but far-from-conclusive discussions on this theme, referring back to the decisions of other bodies.

109
See ‘Delibera sulle commissioni di epurazione', 26 October 1944, in
Atti CLNAI
, pp. 199–200.

110
See the 16 October 1944 remarks by the president of the commission, Cesare Merzagora, cited in Ganapini,
Una città, la guerra
, p. 178.

111
A principle enunciated, for example, in the Lombardy edition of
L'Italia Libera
, 9 June 1944, in the article ‘L'epurazione dell'industria'.

112
Something of this idea appears in Foa's ‘Introduzione' in Grifone,
Il capitale finanziario in Italia
, p. xvi.

113
‘Un po' più di dignità', in
Lavoranti chimici
, Turin, 23 December 1944.

114
The story of the episode is told in an anonymous report on the November 1943 strikes in Turin, entitled ‘Cause e sviluppi dell'agitazione' (IG,
Archivio PCI
).

115
Interview with Emilio Guglielmino in
A voi cari compagni
, edited by S. Tatò, Bari: De Donato, 1981, p. 27

116
ISRT,
CTLN
envelope II, folder 9 (17 September 1945); record of the 2 March 1946 meeting, featuring a discussion of a strike taking place in one Castelnuovo dei Sabbioni factory in protest against the readmittance of an engineer who had already previously been purged (ISRT,
Carte Francesco Berti
, envelope 1, folder 1).

117
Voce Operaia
, 16 December 1943.

118
‘Noi ferrovieri',
L'Unità
, Northern edition, 10 March 1944.

119
See the use of this expression in
Operai e contadini
.

120
Cicchetti,
Il campo giusto
, pp. 17, 34.

121
See the preface to B. Guidetti Serra,
Compagne
, Turin: Einaudi 1977, pp. XV; and V. De Grazia and L. Passerini, ‘Alle origini della cultura di massa. Cultura popolare e fascismo in Italia', in
La Ricerca Folclorica
, April 1983, 7, p. 24.

122
Interview, cited above, with the Engineer Brini, in Contini,
Memoria e storia
, p. 200.

123
Interview with Ugo Cellini, born 1911, in Contini,
Memoria e storia
, p. 296.

124
IG,
Archivio PCI
. Out of 14,000 workers at Mirafiori, seventy were Communists, in addition to those who entered the partisan bands, according to the ‘Rapporto sulla situazione dell'organizzazione di Torino e provincia', 25 December 1943, signed ‘Bianchi' (IG,
Archivio PCI
).

125
Testimony of Lucia Vernaccioni, in issue zero of
Orsa Minore
, summer 1981 (quoted in Portelli,
Biografia di una città
, p. 76).

126
Typewritten copy, signed ‘F.S.', in IZDG, envelope 534, folder III/B.

127
Testimony of Cornelio Giuseppe De Taddeo (Bravo and Jalla,
La vita offesa
, p. 232). Of course, there also exist reports of work done badly on purpose (pp. 216–17, 256).

128
Primo Levi,
The Drowned and the Saved
, p. 98.

129
‘Vita di Partito' in
L'Unità
, Northern edition, 21 June 1944.

130
Contini,
Memoria e storia
, p. 9.

131
Testimony of Arnaldo Menichetti, in Portelli,
Biografia di una città
, p. 300 and of Alfredo Mazzoni, born 1905, in Contini,
Memoria e storia
, p. 311.

132
‘Festa del lavoro all'Ilva', in the Naples
La Voce
of 18 May 1945, signalled that the workers had contributed in various ways to the reconstruction of Bagnoli, above all by means of offering their labour out-of-hours. A similar tale with regard to Alfa Romeo workers in Pomigliano d'Arco was published in
Il Risorgimento
of 12 August 1945, in the article ‘Com' è risorta un'industria' (I thank Gloria Chianese for having given me this information). However, this zeal was not always appreciated, even among workers who felt reconstruction to be their duty: see the testimony of Pietro Cornaglia, concerning Breda in Marghera, in
A voi cari compagni
, p. 97. For the other episode referred to in the text, see ‘Dichiarazione comune fatta dai cln aziendali riuniti il 1a giugno 1945 presso la sede del gruppo comunista di Busto Arsizio' (AS Varese, CLN, envelope 10).

133
Paolino Ranieri, cited in the laureate thesis of Chiara Federici, Università di Pisa, 1976, on post-war rebuilding in La Spezia.

134
See, for example, ‘Dichiarazione', a statement approved by the national council of the PSIUP held in Naples from 2 to 5 September 1944, with the participation of representatives of the occupied regions (
Il Partito socialista e la trasformazione politica e sociale del paese
, no date or location). In the first issue of
L'Avanti!
printed in Bari, it said that if the workers had to pay for reconstruction, this reconstruction could not but be socialist in character (‘Caos e ordine socialista', in the October 1943 edition).

135
Testimony of Ida Rovelli, from Milan, a PCI member since 1940, in
A voi cari compagni
, p. 71.

136
An expression used by Portelli with reference to the years 1919–22, in his
Biografia di una città
, p. 146.

137
Testimony of Fioravante Zannarini, from Bologna, a Communist from 1921, in
A voi cari compagni
, p. 68, and that of Nelia Benissone Costa, a working woman, a Communist from 1938, in Bruzzone and Farina, eds,
La Resistenza taciuta
, p. 57.

138
Testimony of Silvano Consolini, in
A voi cari compagni
, p. 79.

139
‘Politica e azione', in the Northern edition of 25 July 1944, part of the ‘Vita di Partito' series.

140
Letter ‘Cari compagni', January 1945 (IG,
BG
, 01755).

141
Report ‘Caratteristiche generali della zona', March 1944 (IG,
Archivio PCI
).

142
Commissar's report on the meetings held on 31 October and 1 and 3 November 1944 (IG,
BG
, 010286).

143
IG,
BG, Emilia-Romagna
, G.IV.3.3.

144
‘Annibale' to ‘Buloff [
sic
] and Falco', 5 December 1944, in Casali,
Il movimento di liberazione a Ravenna
, vol. II, p. 246.

145
‘Estratto da un rapporto da Milano', 15 December 1944, in Secchia,
Il PCI e la guerra di liberazione
, p. 708.

146
‘Relazione sull'attività di V. in O.', Liguria, April 1944 (?), where the ‘lively discussions' on this point dated back to the forty-five days under Badoglio before the armistice (IG,
BG
, 09977).

147
‘Avanti la gioventù socialista!', editorial of
Avanguardia. Giornale della gioventù socialista
, June 1944.

148
See G. and E. Varlecchi,
Potente
, p. 87.

149
G. and E. Varlecchi,
Potente
, pp. 35, 193–5.

150
As can be deduced from many of the interviews cited in this volume.

151
Artom,
Diari
, p. 98 (2 December 1943).

152
‘Notizie varie del 27 gennaio 1945', by the Command of the 8
^th
Asti Division, which speaks of the shooting of Tom (IG,
BG
, 05845); the last letter of Eusebio Giambone (
LRI
, p. 106);
Il Combattente
, 3–4, January–February 1944, on the shooting of Gino Bozzi.

153
‘It is more difficult to make it understood that this tomorrow is not in contradiction with the Party's policy today', continued Osvaldo Negarville's report from Turin, 12 January 1944, cited in Dellavalle,
Lotte operaie: Torino
, p. 230.

154
See, for example, the article ‘Collaborazione dei lettori' in
L'Unità
, Northern edition, 7 September 1944, on the responses to a questionnaire distributed by the Party's Milan federation. See also the series of articles ‘Per la formazione ideologica dei quadri' (‘For the ideological development of the Party's cadre') in the Rome edition. On the Marxist texts with the greatest circulation during the Resistance, see Ragionieri,
Il partito comunista
, pp. 400–1.

155
Scoccimarro to the Milan comrades, 20 December 1943, in Longo,
I centri dirigenti del PCI
, p. 267.

156
See M.A. and S. Timpanaro's introduction to G. and E. Varlecchi,
Potente
, p. 37 (see also p. 195).

157
See the letter from the Commissariat of the Val di Susa Divisions Group to the Command of the 17
^th
Brigade, 17 December 1944 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. III, pp. 102–4).

158
Unsigned letter, no date, ‘Al Comitato della zona di Faenza' (IG,
BG, Emilia-Romagna
, G.IV.3.2).

159
‘Linee programmatiche generali del Partito Comunista', in the 15 October 1944 edition. The paper also featured a letter from ‘a woman comrade' on the tasks of education ‘in a democratic or COMMUNIST system'.

160
Letter of 2 April 1945, in Secchia,
Il PCI e la guerra di liberazione
, pp. 1012–13.

161
Letter of 24 October 1944, to the Command of the 6
^th
Langhe Division. The authors recommend an attentive reading of the article ‘Responsabilità', published in
La nostra lotta
, vol. II: 17, 13 October 1944, pp. 14–15 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. II, pp. 480–2).

162
‘Verbale riunione COM-ORGA', Milan, 5 December 1944 (INSMLI,
CLNAI
, envelope 8, folder 2, subfolder 12).

163
Ibid.

164
Testimony of Anna Cinanni, in Bruzzone and Farina, eds,
La Resistenza taciuta
, p. 106.

165
Piergiovanni Permoli, ed.,
Lezioni sull'antifascismo
, Bari: Laterza, 1962, p. 285.

166
Many good examples of this mediating influence appear in Guidetti Serra,
Compagne
.

167
‘Serrare le file e vincere ogni difficoltà per la vittoria dell'insurrezione nazionale', an article filling almost the whole of the 25 November 1944 Northern edition of
L'Unità
.

168
‘Rapporto del compagno Do. sull'organizzazione della quale ha assunto la direzione' (IG,
Archivio PCI
).

169
‘Rapporto d'attività del mese di maggio', sent on 10 June 1944 from the Lombardy Delegation to the General Command (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. II, p. 23).

170
‘Storia dell'organizzazione sportivo-militare del Partito Comunista della provincia di Cremona', compiled by the Command of the SAP Brigade F. Ghinaglia, dated 1 November 1944 (IG,
BG
, 011242). Varese and Como provided a similar story.

171
‘Relazione del compagno Bruno al Centro regionale del PCI sulla situazione in Benecija', 13 September 1944 (
Le Brigate Garibaldi
, vol. II, pp. 327–30).

172
‘Appunti sull'organizzazione di …', 8 December 1943 (IG,
Archivio PCI
).

173
‘These young people', the document proceeds, ‘love the Communists and want to become Communists' – ‘Rapporto di Giordano sul lavoro militare nel Biellese', 19 January 1944 (IG,
BG
, 05081).

174
‘Informazioni da Milano', 15 December 1944 (IG,
Archivio PCI
; it appears in part in Secchia,
Il PCI e la guerra di liberazione
, see p. 709).

175
Salvati,
Il Psiup Alta Italia
, p. 78: ‘The material on trade-unions in the [Basso] archive confirms how far behind the Party was organisationally'.

176
See the ‘Circolare al comitato cittadino e al comitato provinciale', a letter to the city and provincial committees of the P. (Padua?) federation of the PCI – undated, but from after the Salerno Turn (IG,
Archivio PCI
).