A-Infos (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #12-26 - Let's Free Ourselves from Fascism (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The outcome of the referendum on judicial reform had sparked hopes in 
many quarters that the government would soon resign. A widespread 
assessment was that the polls had halted the fascist right's 
authoritarian project; this, combined with the "No Kings" demonstration 
on March 28 in Rome, could provide the basis for reviving the mass 
movement to bring down the Meloni government and restore the gains of 
the class movement usurped in recent decades.
Beyond the referendum result, there were the first economic and 
financial signs of a deepening crisis within the government, discontent 
within Confindustria, and tensions within the majority.

In reality, rather than the eve of April 25th, it feels like 1924, the 
day after the Matteotti assassination, with the opposition retreating to 
the Aventine Hill awaiting a move by the head of state to dismiss 
Mussolini's government.

Today, the opposition has not withdrawn from the chambers of parliament, 
but, as then, it seems to wait for the Prime Minister's corpse to be 
carried by the changing currents of parliamentary politics. During the 
Aventine era, that policy brought Italy twenty years of dictatorship and 
the destruction and tragedy of a lost war of aggression.

Faced with the passivity of the parliamentary opposition, faced with the 
deception of the ballot box, today as yesterday, it is up to the 
exploited classes to demonstrate their strength, giving life to a new 
April 25th.

Giorgia Meloni's January 3

On January 3, 1925, Benito Mussolini gave a speech before the Chamber of 
Deputies in which he assumed full responsibility for the violence 
committed by the fascists, before and after the Matteotti assassination. 
"If fascism is a criminal organization," said Mussolini, "I am its leader."

Mussolini managed to overcome the political crisis because the 
opposition political forces were afraid to appeal to the streets, to 
that popular mobilization that had been the target of fascist violence.

Today, as in the past, the crisis is the main ally of this government, 
which presents itself to the privileged classes and the political forces 
that represent them as the only barrier to the explosion of popular 
anger; a government that also presents itself as the only entity capable 
of allocating the scarce public resources available to guaranteeing 
corporate profits, rather than meeting the needs of the community.

This emerged clearly from Giorgia Meloni's statement to the Chamber of 
Deputies and the Senate. The Prime Minister reiterated an authoritarian 
vision of politics: her speech, in fact, overshadows the role of 
Parliament and assigns to the executive the task of making laws and 
constitutional reforms themselves. This is a very delicate step, 
because, as Mussolini did before her, the formal shell of the 
constitution is left intact, but it is being distorted through daily 
practice. While the referendum vote rejected a reform, it did not change 
the government's view on the abuse of its prerogatives, and therein lies 
the danger.

An important passage in the speech was when Giorgia Meloni asserted her 
role as a traveling salesman, engaged in purchasing hydrocarbons from 
Algeria and the Gulf monarchies. The prime minister clearly does not 
realize how much this statement undermines the narrative on 
globalization and the free market. In Meloni's reconstruction, it is the 
government that is concerned with finding resources deemed indispensable 
for Italy, even though it has a state-owned company, ENI, that should 
fulfill this very role. It is clear that ENI, like any capitalist 
enterprise, is too focused on maximizing profit to concern itself with 
the needs of the community.

The prime minister finally asserted the majority's commitment to due 
process, addressing the resignations of some government members. This 
guaranteeism, however, disappears when it calls for a naval blockade 
against shipwrecked passengers or the preventive detention of 
protesters: measures that hark back to a totalitarian conception of the 
state, unmistakably fascist in nature.

An Uphill Road

In reality, there is no alternative majority in Parliament, and the 
opposition forces themselves are targeting elections next year. The "No 
Kings" meeting on March 28th itself had the feel of a test run for a 
joint list led by the CGIL (Italian General Confederation of Labour) 
ahead of the upcoming elections. And even the political forces that are 
not in Parliament, but would like to be there, are gauging their street 
protests against the prospect of elections.

Fascists have never been afraid of ballot papers: they demonstrated it 
in the aftermath of the Socialist electoral victory in 1921, and they 
demonstrate it today by ignoring the referendum result.

Those who maintain that an electoral victory paves the way for popular 
mobilization have another opportunity to reconsider. If we want the 
exploited classes to regain their prominence and block the path to 
fascism, we cannot delude them into thinking that simply casting a 
ballot in the ballot box is enough.

History, after all, demonstrates this: eighty-one years ago, on April 
25, 1945, the fascist regime was overthrown thanks to a popular 
uprising, and some of the forces that had participated in the Aventine 
Hill also took part in that popular uprising. That popular uprising was 
undoubtedly united, as the fight against fascism must be united. 
Historical experience, however, teaches us that if the fight against 
fascism is not accompanied by the overthrow of capitalism, the abolition 
of class divisions in society, the privileged classes will return to 
supporting an authoritarian, militaristic, and racist solution, as they 
do today. Unity, then, but on the basis of class, on the basis of 
self-organization, on the basis of direct action.

Tiziano Antonelli

https://umanitanova.org/liberiamoci-dal-fascismo/
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