A-Infos (en) Italy, Umanita Nova #24-25 - Posters of the FAI 1945-2025 (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The FAI posters on display in Carrara - Opening Sunday, October 5 at 11 
a.m., ex Paretra space, Via Beccheria 5 ---- This exhibition, dedicated 
to the posters of the National Congresses of the Federazione Anarchica 
Italiana (FAI), seeks to highlight the 80 years of a political 
organization that remains fully active, having carefully preserved its 
founding principles. ---- Of course, the posters shown - a sample 
selection of subjective sources and self-representations - do not 
capture the entirety of the "propaganda" carried out throughout the 
FAI's long history. Yet they offer an effective overall picture of the 
militant work of a federalist and libertarian organization that entrusts 
its congress assemblies with the definition of its political strategy.

The Federazione Anarchica Italiana was founded at the Congress of 
September 1945 in Carrara, after uncompromising opposition to fascism 
waged by anarchists during the regime, in antifascist exile, in the 
Spanish Civil War, in internment, in prisons, and finally in the 
Resistance against Nazi-fascism. In postwar Italy, it faced an entirely 
new situation: with the advent of the republic and the democratic 
system, the end of decades-long anti-monarchist struggle, and the Cold 
War strongly limiting the political space and activity of libertarian 
forces.

The FAI descends directly from the Unione Anarchica Italiana of 1920, 
founded by Errico Malatesta and Luigi Fabbri, adopting its Anarchist 
Program and much of the Associative Agreement, thus proposing a social 
and organizing anarchism.

The exhibition also includes posters related to historical study 
conferences promoted in recent decades - including one on the Unione 
Anarchica Italiana - reflecting the organization's strong commitment to 
preserving its memory in order to understand the past in relation to the 
near future.

In the postwar period, the FAI was rooted throughout the country with 
several hundred groups and circles, numerous regional and provincial 
federations, about a dozen periodicals and magazines, and two weeklies: 
Il Libertario (Milan) and Umanità Nova (Rome). This presence allowed for 
wide dissemination of its political vision aimed at social 
transformation in a communist and libertarian sense, with an 
internationalist perspective, while maintaining a coherent relationship 
between means and ends in collective action.

The posters from 1945 to the late 1950s show the FAI's commitment 
against imperialist blocs, denounce reactionary government policies, and 
illustrate strong mobilizations against dictatorships: both the 
Francoist regime in Spain and the Stalinist regimes in Eastern Europe, 
culminating in the 1956 invasion of Hungary.

During those years, the FAI also waged a significant struggle to defend 
the immediate interests of working-class people and, more broadly, 
individual and collective freedoms attacked by repression and the 
obscurantism of established powers. Its political proposal was based on 
direct action and self-organization of struggles, "outside any electoral 
illusion," reaffirming the revolutionary abstentionism valued by 
anarchists. It is worth remembering that the poster - alongside the 
rally - was the primary tool of political propaganda in the postwar era, 
thanks to its captivating visual language.

The second group of posters spans from the mid-1970s to the present, 
marking the transition from text-based to illustrated posters. It was 
precisely the libertarian '68 and the creative '77 that gave the 
political poster a new, highly effective image both graphically and in 
its slogans.

With its continued militant presence over time, the FAI has made 
extensive use of this powerful communication medium, publishing numerous 
posters on various libertarian themes: counterinformation on the strage 
di Stato and Giuseppe Pinelli, the cases of Giovanni Marini and Franco 
Serantini, the movements of the 1970s, '80s and '90s, Genoa 2001, and 
all ecological, anti-militarist, feminist, and anti-authoritarian 
initiatives of the last 25 years.

Prominent artists, illustrators, and graphic designers contributed to 
these "golden years" of the political poster, making these works small 
paper masterpieces - both valuable and sought after. Some of these 
authors are featured in the exhibition, including Chicco Aiello, Matteo 
Guarnaccia, Nani Tedeschi, and Stefano Raspa; the latter illustrated 
both the poster for this exhibition and that of the study conference 
"Anarchism. A Global and Italian History (1945-2025)" celebrating the 
FAI's 80th anniversary, Carrara, October 11-12, 2025.

Archivio Libreria Fai Reggiana (Reggio Emilia)
Archivio storico della Federazione Anarchica Italiana (Imola)

https://umanitanova.org/manifesti-della-fai-1945-2025/
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