A-Infos (en) Italy, Umanita Nova #23/25 - The Birth of the Italian Anarchist Federation (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

When this issue of Umanità Nova is published, it will be eighty years 
since the founding of the Italian Anarchist Federation. In 1945, from 
September 15th to 19th, anarchist organizations (federations, groups, 
and clubs) representing the vast majority of the Italian-speaking 
anarchist movement met in Carrara to create the FAI. To commemorate this 
event, and above all to raise awareness of the challenges the Federation 
faced at its inception, we have decided to publish an excerpt from Gino 
Cerrito's book "The Role of Anarchist Organization."

Regarding the Italian anarchist movement in particular, it must also be 
taken into account that it had suffered under the fascist dictatorship. 
During the twenty-year period, the exiles-despite the destructive 
polemics that characterized every political emigration-had undoubtedly 
had useful experiences, but they remained detached from the real life of 
the country, where they returned around 1945, nurturing dreams that were 
often far from the objective possibilities of the movement. Those who 
remained, under surveillance, tried, sentenced to prison and forced 
residence, were sometimes induced by the struggle to join communist 
cells and "Giustizia e Libertà" groups, thus experiencing necessarily 
authoritarian experiences that alienated many from anarchism and 
impoverished the anti-authoritarian legacy of others. Conspiracy, after 
all, is an authoritarian phenomenon that leaves undeniable scars on 
those who endure it, attenuated only by contact with the exiles and then 
with the exiles.

The reconstitution of the movement was initially the work of those who 
remained in the country, particularly the exiles. For this reason, it 
occurred significantly later than that of the other political parties. 
As is well known, one of the effects of the collapse of the Mussolini 
regime was the release of political prisoners. The anarchists, by order 
of a superior, remained in prisons and on the islands for several more 
months; and they were released around September 1943, piecemeal, often 
through acts of force

committed collectively or individually. Under these conditions, any 
reunion of comrades to reconstitute the groups seemed difficult.

In the South, the groups resurfaced amidst enormous difficulties, and 
with them, as early as 1944, a few periodicals printed in Naples 
appeared. That same year, several local conferences were held; and 
finally, in September, delegates from the Calabrian, Apulian, and 
Campanian groups met in Naples and came to define an anarchist 
orientation, which was influenced by the fear of falling into the 
authoritarian revisionism of the parties. The reasons for this fear 
stemmed from the recognition of the degeneration of the trade union 
movement, from disgust with the gregarious spirit cultivated by the 
regimes of Mussolini and Stalin, from the isolation in which many of 
those present had remained during the twenty-year period, and from an 
understandable reaction against the influx of even anarchists into the 
Communist Party. All this fostered a profound distrust of a committed 
organization of the type that existed in 1920, which the congress 
members uncritically deemed outdated. Regarding the problem of the labor 
movement, the congress condemned the reconstitution of the CGIL at the 
helm by the governing parties; and without even attempting to 
reconstitute a free workers' organization (how many of the congress 
participants had actual contact with workers and peasants?), it called 
on the comrades in Rome to expressly revoke anarchist participation in 
the CGIL's Board of Directors, which had been requested by Bernardino De 
Dominicis, a former leader of the Italian Trade Union Union. Sicilian 
anarchists, soon afterward, took a similar stance, admiring the 
individualist Paolo Schicchi of Palermo as an example to emulate.

The position of anarchists in central and northern Italy was 
substantially different, where they actively participated in the 
Resistance and suffered numerous casualties. Periodicals, one-offs, and 
propaganda posters were published sporadically in Florence, Genoa, 
Turin, Milan, Ravenna, and elsewhere; while after April 1945, virtually 
every city in central and northern Italy had its own press.

It is clear that, as early as 1943-44, these publications were the 
expression of groups and federations formed under various names. In 
Rome, for example, where during the Resistance numerous anarchists had 
been shot, three of them right at the Fosse Ardeatine, a Libertarian 
Communist Federation was born immediately after May 1944, thanks to the 
work of comrades of different orientations. After the distribution of a 
few one-off issues, in December it began the weekly publication of 
«Umanità Nova». In Florence, the first substantial anarchist conferences 
were held in April and May 1943, with the participation of delegates 
from various cities in Tuscany,

Liguria, Emilia, and Lazio. They formed the "Italian Anarchist Communist 
Federation," led by the late Pasquale Binazzi of La Spezia and 
particularly active in Livorno, Florence, and Pistoia. It was here, in 
1939, that two anarchist youth groups had emerged, some of whose members 
had ended up before the "Special Tribunal for the Defense of the State" 
or the "Provincial Commission for the Assignment of Police Confinement" 
in 1940. On September 10, 1943, comrade Lato Latini, however, advocating 
individualist positions, printed issue 343, year III, of "Umanità Nova," 
an anarchist newspaper, an expression of the rebirth we have discussed. 
The paper was then continued clandestinely, for another 13 issues, 
during the summer of 1944 and the autumn-winter of 1944-45, under Allied 
administration, by Lato Latini, Augusto Boccone, and E. Puzzoli.

During the Nazi occupation, various interregional meetings were held in 
Genoa, Milan, and Turin, and joint initiatives were decided upon. These 
were then communicated to comrades in the localities that had been 
unable to send delegates through the usual means of traveling vendors 
and traveling railway and postal personnel. At times, in some towns, due 
to local needs and the allianceist beliefs that had been spreading 
during the twenty years, comrades participated as full members of the 
"National Liberation Committees" and then, after the liberation, even 
became involved in the reconstruction of local public 
administrations[two examples of this occurred in Balsorano (AQ) and 
Bucchianico (CH), where Bifolchi and Fedeli respectively assumed the 
office of mayor in 1945 - editorial note]with the illusory hope that a 
new situation would emerge that required a more "realistic" commitment 
from the anarchists. It was the first time in Italy that anarchists had 
participated, as such, albeit briefly, in the administration of public 
affairs, convinced that they could not shirk this "duty." Undoubtedly, 
they were influenced not only by the partisan war with its obvious 
compromises, but also by the activities of the preceding conspiratorial 
period and the Spanish events themselves, the problems of which-as 
mentioned-we hadn't had time to adequately explore. Ideological and 
tactical confusion generally characterized the entire movement, which 
despite everything seemed truly united and whose general situation, at 
the time of liberation, was clearly on the rise in the South and very 
promising throughout central and northern Italy.

In the country's industrial capital itself-which was notoriously the 
stronghold of legalitarian socialism-large groups of partisan factions 
and industrial workers were leaning toward anarchist extremism. Thus, in 
Milan, the "Libertarian Communist" organization numbered several 
thousand members. Anarchism's position was even more solid in Livorno, 
Ancona, Genoa, and particularly in Carrara and the marble-producing 
area, where libertarian traditions are well known. Thus, when the 
anarchists of "Northern Italy" met in Milan in June 1945, 14 federations 
and 8 non-federated groups were represented, representing tens of 
thousands of members, as was precisely what was stated.

For the most part, these organizations had replaced the old name of 
Anarchist Federation with that of Libertarian Communist Federation. The 
reasons seem obvious: first, the anarchists had reconstituted the 
federations and groups during and immediately after the war, and they 
knew they had gross traditional prejudices and aversions against them; 
second, they believed it useful to define their program also in the name 
of the reconstituted groups, contrasting it with the authoritarian name 
of the Communist Party; finally, it is perhaps not to be ruled out that 
what drove them to the new name was the belief in the imminent social 
revolution (a common belief in our country at the time) and, at the same 
time, the need to open the movement's doors to the multitude, which 
their old comrades intended to develop over time. The new name certainly 
harked back to the Malatesta program, but it didn't convey the sense of 
ideological rigor. Indeed, to bind to the movement the many young 
members who had turned to anarchism

driven by contingent enthusiasm, by distrust of traditional political 
parties-whose policies they were otherwise unfamiliar with either their 
flaws or their potential merits-and by a desire to engage in combat, 
membership cards and badges were adopted, which caused scandal among the 
intransigents.

The adoption of the law of numbers, which had been the basis for the 
reconstitution of the Iberian Anarchist Federation in July 1937, was 
accompanied by other equally interesting and revealing resolutions. The 
discussions and conclusions of the Conference perfectly reflected the 
character the movement had assumed in the North. The hope was for the 
establishment of a homogeneous and effective national anarchist 
association. Moreover, the very name given to the Northern movement 
heralded the formation of a tendentious organization, which revived and 
strengthened the characteristics of the one established in Bologna in 
1920. Those present also recognized the need for trade union unity and 
for anarchists' participation in the labor movement, in order to impress 
libertarian "directives" on the working masses. They tasked a special 
committee with contacting the Northern Italy National Liberation 
Committee, so that "our comrades would be guaranteed the right to join 
all committees where our membership was deemed necessary and useful for 
the purposes of revolutionary control and preparation." Finally, they 
advised the anarchist press to adopt a plan of renewal: discussing the 
vital problems of society and transforming itself from a tool reserved 
for the already "convinced" into a means of penetrating the masses. This 
was precisely what the editorial staff of the weekly of the Lombard 
Libertarian Communist Federation, led by Mario Mantovani, did. "Il 
Comunista Libertario," which in 1946 became "Il Libertario," was 
certainly the most modern and relevant periodical to the issues of the 
moment, for almost the entire period of its publication, which ceased in 
September 1961.

These were the (not so clearly defined) groups that participated in the 
First Postwar National Anarchist Congress, held in Carrara in September 
1945.

However, the ideological coherence of the Northern Italian anarchists, 
that is, the "libertarian communists," was undermined by the existence 
among them of a group of delegates who presented themselves with the 
intention of radically revising anarchism, transforming the movement 
into a Marxist-based party. Thus, those who feared a "committed" 
organization as the beginning of an offensive against the "purity" of 
the Ideal found a fitting justification for their extreme "puritanism." 
They were, admittedly, not many: however, they drew their strength from 
the sporadic, uncertain, and wavering membership of all those who, while 
calling themselves anarchist communists, harbored a deep and sometimes 
unconscious aversion to the organization, which they accepted for the 
needs of the struggle and as a compromise with principles.

In Carrara, in addition to numerous individuals and the editors of 
libertarian periodicals, delegates from 25 regional or provincial 
federations and 36 non-federated groups, representing all the regions of 
Italy, were present. The atmosphere was revolutionary and one of a 
"united front." All the congress members seemed formally in agreement, 
at least in their conclusions, not to break that inspiring unity, made 
up of embraces between veteran fighters and revolutionary intentions. 
After the initial skirmishes, not even the group of revisionists 
mentioned above could withstand this climate. Indeed, the Congress did 
not approve any ideological program, since a uniform ideological program 
would undoubtedly mean a split; and is therefore linked to the 
movement's oldest associative initiatives, stretching from the distant 
Saint-Imier Congress of 1872 to the Amsterdam Congress of 1907. Thus, 
the Congress will formally unite its component tendencies, in an 
association that will give organizers of varying degrees the illusion of 
having

created an efficient and functional instrument, while, on the contrary, 
reassuring anti-organizers about the meaning of that functionality. Each 
group therefore understands things in its own way and considers itself 
practically or almost satisfied with the results achieved, with a few 
marginal exceptions. And no one asks why in Carrara it is deemed 
necessary to impose a new name on the entire Italian anarchist movement, 
that of the Italian Anarchist Federation (F.A.I.); given that it is 
clear that the F.A.I. perfectly identifies with the movement as a whole, 
representing respectively those tendencies and groups fighting for 
anarchism, based on formally-but only formally-identical fundamental 
principles and fairly common goals. It is clear, however, that since 
anarchists oppose the leadership of majorities and the subordination of 
minorities, the ongoing and fundamental internal disagreement between 
the tendencies will soon explode, capable of thwarting numerous 
initiatives, compromising all the action of the Italian Federation at 
the national and local levels. Unless a substantial tolerance, which 
should be the fruit of an extraordinary understanding of the ideology, 
fails to fuse everything into a "synthesis" that prevents conflicts from 
hindering effective collective action.

This approach of the F.A.I. Movement obviously gives rise to its 
organizational rules; in reality, these-with their quibbling and naive 
specifications regarding the periodic meetings of member bodies, 
etc.-serve the organizers' demands, while with their gaps regarding, 
among other things, the duties of the Correspondence Commission, they 
respond to the orientation of the anti-organizers. There is a notable 
difference in tone between the 1920 U.A.I. Pact and the "directives" (an 
interesting slip of the pen of Cesare Zaccaria, an exponent of 
congressional "purism") of the F.A.I., which reveal the belief that 
organization is accepted as a necessary evil, rather than a guarantee of 
freedom. Rather than emphasizing the moral obligation to honor 
commitments, the "directives" symptomatically reiterate the concept of 
unlimited autonomy, or-as Malatesta would have said-without the 
necessary integration or guarantee of autonomy itself, which consists in 
the moral obligation to honor the association's commitment, perceived 
rather as a right. Given this situation, it is clear that the 
"directives" cannot establish that the general resolutions of the 
congresses commit the entire FAI both materially and morally. The 
Correspondence Office itself, now the National Council, is charged only 
with overseeing the organization in accordance with the congress 
resolutions-but it is not explained how-and with ensuring liaison 
between the groups; while expenses are to be covered through voluntary 
subscriptions, excluding the criterion of fixed contributions. This is 
more important than it might seem at first glance: a systematic 
political activity that requires regular expenses and that wishes to 
remain connected to an entire formation must avoid depending on 
occasional contributions from individuals and groups. Since political 
activity left to the occasional generosity of individuals or groups 
risks failure, at least as a continuous activity, it would not be 
impossible for it to fall under the more or less effective ideological 
control of individuals and groups. It is also clear that the fixed 
contribution is a kind of constraint that is repugnant to many 
anarchists, for whom

commitments are respected as long as one continues to agree with them. 
This conviction, perfectly legitimized by the principles to which it 
refers, and no less anarchically consistent with that regarding 
associative commitment and moral obligation as a guarantee of freedom 
and an affirmation of ideological maturation, demonstrates the need for 
distinction and differentiation of the movement's tendencies. This 
demonstrates the impossibility-at least currently-of a "synthesis" 
anarchist organization, and perhaps the possibility of a series of 
federal bodies based on their respective shared ideological and tactical 
convictions, and their convergence in a sort of confederation that also 
includes autonomous groups and offers the possibility of periodic 
meetings to exchange opinions and reach agreements for joint action[...].

On other issues, the Carrara Congress adopted a series of resolutions, 
some of which are truly pertinent: it took a stand against the National 
Liberation Committees, considering them authoritarian manifestations; 
Establishes a "Trade Union Defense Committee" tasked with coordinating 
the work of the Trade Union Defense Groups already incorporated by 
anarchists into the CGIL, with the task of encouraging workers to adopt 
the method of direct action. It excludes any permanent agreement with 
political parties and the organizations they control. It reaffirms 
anarchist anti-parliamentarianism, even in the face of the upcoming 
Constituent Assembly elections and the institutional referendum. It 
affirms the need to raise the issue of the freedom of the Spanish 
people, to fight against the myths of communist Russia, liberal England, 
and America as a free people.

Gino Cerrito

https://umanitanova.org/la-nascita-della-federazione-anarchica-italiana/
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