UNIVERSITÀ DI BOLOGNA

The final essay of History of Contemporary Italy

Professor: Bruno Settis

Antifascism
“Most important antifascist organizations, the important role of Bologna in
the struggle against the fascism”

Student: Dina Yousef Mohammad Aldasouqi

1
Table of Contents
- Introduction 3
- Most important antifascist organizations and movements 4
- The Antifascists ....................................................................................................................... 8
- Bologna against the Fascism …………………………………………………………………………………….………. 9

2
 Introduction
The contemporary history of Italy could be described as distinctive especially during the
period of 1900-1950. It contained elements that changed the fate of Italy that did not exist
in the history of other European countries in the region. The most important reason of
making the Italian contemporary history so different is the Fascist Regime that governed
Italy from 1922 until 1943.
Benito Mussolini, Il Duce, was a zealous socialist and worked from 1912 until 1914 as an
editor of the party newspaper, Avanti!. When he expressed his opposition of the World War
I, he was expelled by the party. In 1919 he organized his political group named Fasci di
combattimento (“fighting bands”) that marked the beginning of the fascism. 1
The Fascist squads (also called Blackshirt) attacked the local population in the Po Valley and
Puglia. They arrested the socialists and burned the union and the party offices. The
Blackshirts squads, with the help of landowners, raided local government institution and
prevented the Left Party from taking power. At the end of 1921 the Fascists controlled large
parts of Italy, and the Left collapsed. In 1922, in a gathering of 40.000 Fascists in Naples,
Mussolini threatened “Either the government will be given to us, or we will seize it by
marching on Rome.” 2 On 31 October 1922 Mussolini became the youngest Prime Minister
in the history of Italy.
Mussolini’s rise to power was a bad event for those who were against his ideology; the
antifascists. The Fascist regime used the anti-fascist as a term to describe his opponents.
Everyone who does not support the Regime was considered antifascist. They fought against
the violent Blackshirts and the rise of the fascist leader Benito Mussolini.
Antifascism as a known political movement played a major role in changing the history of
Italy and other European countries. A small group of the fascists themselves built the
concept of the antifascism. They started to group under the denomination ‘antifascists’.
However, the concept gained concreteness in the following years against the new political
fascist power that started to govern Italy in 1922 and it was forced to be clandestine or to
work in exile.3
This essay is going to mention the most important antifascist groups; how did they start
their resistance against fascism? From which cities did they start? Who were the most
important antifascists? What role did Bologna play in that period? Who were the most
important and effective Bolognese antifascists? What role did the Bolognese women play in
the struggle?

1
Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopedia (2020, May 2). Benito Mussolini summary. Encyclopedia Britannica.
https://www.britannica.com/summary/Benito-Mussolini
2
Editors of Encyclopedia, Christopher Hibbert. (s.d.). Rise to power of Benito Mussolini. Tratto da Britannica:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Benito-Mussolini/Rise-to-power
3
Rapone, L. (2006). Antifascismo. Tratto da Treccani: https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/antifascismo_
%28Enciclopedia-Italiana%29/

3
 Most important antifascist organizations and movements

After Mussolini’s rise to power, many political parties (communists, socialists, republicans) were
banned to continue their work in Italy so they did it in exile or clandestinely.4 And the organized
antifascist groups remained weak and illegal. The communists were the most powerful.
They had underground organization and some Russian support. They had only 7000
members and they had difficulties in spread their propaganda in Italy. Apart from the
communists, the Justice and Freedom, an alliance of republicans, democrats, and reformist
Socialists founded by Carlo Rosselli and others in 1929, could build up a clandestine
organization and with strong branches abroad in France and Switzerland.5
Giustizia e Libertà (Justice and Freedom) 1929-1945, it was an Italian clandestine antifascist
movement founded in Paris in 1929. It was founded by Carlo Rosselli and others of the antifascist
emigrants. The movement's members held various political beliefs but shared a belief in active and
effective opposition to fascism. It raised as a revolutionary organization that brings together left-
wing republicans, liberals and socialists in the struggle for the freedom, the republic, and social
justice. Emilio Lussu, Alberto Tarchiani, Alberto Cianca, Fausto Nitti are
part of the foundation group with Carlo Rosselli. 6

The movement was established by them after they had been imprisoned
on Liparo. On 27 July 1929, they escaped together. Once they reached
Paris, they began to organize resistance against Italian Fascism, forming
clandestine groups in Italy and setting up an intense propaganda
campaign, publishing under Lussu's maxim: (Rebel! Revive!). 7
The movement was directed by a central committee in Paris, while in Italy
it was about having only small groups especially in the large cities of the
North, with their center in Milan, which maintain the connection with the
Paris group.8 Emblem of Giustizia e Libertà
The movement wanted to adopt a militant action to fight the Fascist regime, it tried to be
revolutionary movement rather than a political party. The movement considered Benito Mussolini as
a murderer who deserved to be killed as punishment. In the 1930s, the movement designed various
schemes to assassinate Mussolini, one of them was a plan using an aircraft to drop a bomb on
Mussolini's residence in Piazza Venezia. 9

The movement’s political and militant activity will not stop here, but will transfer into a form of
political party that will appear later in the 1942, The Action Party, which will be discussed later in this
essay.

4
Rapone, L. (2006). Antifascismo. Tratto da Treccani: https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/antifascismo_%28Enciclopedia-
Italiana%29/.
5
Anti-Fascist movements. (s.d.). Tratto da Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/place/Italy/End-of-the-regime.
6
Bonsanti Marta, Borgia Claudia. (2020, 05 22). Giustizia e libertà - GL. Tratto da SIUSA:
https://siusa.archivi.beniculturali.it/cgi-bin/siusa/pagina.pl?TipoPag=prodente&Chiave=49001.
7
Giustizia e Libertà. (s.d.). Tratto da Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giustizia_e_Libert%C3%A0#cite_note-4
8
Bonsanti Marta, Borgia Claudia. (2020, 05 22). Giustizia e libertà - GL. Tratto da SIUSA:
https://siusa.archivi.beniculturali.it/cgi-bin/siusa/pagina.pl?TipoPag=prodente&Chiave=49001.
9
Giustizia e Libertà. (s.d.). Tratto da Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giustizia_e_Libert
%C3%A0#cite_note-

4
 It is so important to focus on a movement that it considered to be the first organized against the
fascist regime, the Arditi del Popolo. It is a spontaneous Italian militant anti-fascist movement that
was created against fascist violence that was born in the spring of 1921 outside the parties. It was
founded by Argo Secondari, a war lieutenant of anarchist
tendencies. Also, the republicans, socialists and communists
shared this formation of the Arditi del Popolo.10

According to information from the Rome police headquarters,

the movement already had 800 members on 8 July 1921 and was
extended to various regions: Liguria, Emilia, Tuscany and Lazio.
The Arditi del popolo gained the interest and coordinated the
pre-existing anti-fascist organizations, among them the Arditi
rossi, the revolutionary action groups, and the anti-fascist action
squads.11
Logo of the Arditi del Popolo

The parties reacted differently with the movement. The parties of the left had a cautious and
contradictory attitude. The main support came from the republican and anarchist left. In an article
published in “Il seme”, the Livorno weekly newspaper of the Italian Anarchist Union, was written:
"The Arditi del Popolo, who arose from the fraternal reconciliation of the Roman revolutionaries,
they are of our blood and of our flesh. We have to help them, encourage them, and imitate them."
While the attitude of socialists and communists was ambiguous. In the second half of 1921 and in
the first months of 1922, the Arditi del Popolo were engaged in conflicts with the fascists, both to
defend demonstrations and workers' organizations, and with offensive actions. 12

In Bologna, as a very important city in the resistance events, the police arrested, on several
occasions, hundreds of the Arditi accused of carrying out revolutionary activities. The main
exponents were Edmondo Lelli and Vindice Rabitti, two anarchists arrested on August 18, 1921.
Between August and December 1921, the police denounced 81 Arditi to the judiciary. Most were
acquitted in the preliminary investigation and released. On December 28, 1921, 29 arditi were sent
to trial. On 21 July 1922, 27 arditi were sentenced to prison for a period of 5 to 10 months. 13

The armed formations of the Arditi had a mixed character everywhere, and because of the different
elements that came together, with various if not opposite political experiences behind them, that
was the main reason behind their ending. The Arditi del Popolo had a short and troubled life. At the
end of 1922, the movement ceased to operate throughout the country.

Another important anti-fascist organization that contained various anti-fascist components is the
Concentrazione Antifascista Italiana (CAI; The Anti-Fascist Concentration). This one, as many
others, forced to work in exile, in France. It operated there between 1927 and 1934 by the
revolutionary trade unionist, journalist and politician Alcide De Ambris,
at that time President of LIDU (Italian League of Human Rights), and by

10
Caponetto, P. (2020, Giugno 7). GLI ARDITI DEL POPOLO. Tratto da Litis.it: https://www.litis.it/2020/06/07/gli-
arditi-del-popolo/
11
Same source as above.
12
Same source as above.
13
Arditi del popolo . (n.d.). Retrieved from Storia e memoria di bologna: https://www.storiaememoriadibologna.it/arditi-
del-popolo-250-organizzazione

5
the anti-fascist journalist Luigi Campolonghi, Secretary of LIDU. They aimed to share a common
platform for the fight against the authoritarian fascist and Mussolini's regime. These intentions were
exposed by Campolonghi during an informal meeting at Nérac.
The first anti-fascist activity committee was formed on 6 December 1926 in Paris, composed of
republican and socialist exponents, to ascertain the importance of creating a stable organization,
albeit in the presence of components coming from different backgrounds, to unite,
programmatically and ideologically, all the anti-fascist forces. 14
Badge of a CAI member
As a result, the organization was established on March 28, 1927 in Paris. It characterized by a rather
moderate program that was published in the press organization "La Libertà", directed by Claudio
Treves. Later on, for reasons related to movement plans and its way of revolt, it limited itself to keep
the links between the anti-fascist components in confinement and constantly (in vain) waiting for a
possible intervention by the king to "dismiss" Benito Mussolini and thus definitively put an end to
fascism. In the following years, there were conflicts within the CAI and between the CAI members,
and the best-known Italian anti-fascist movement (Giustizia e Libertà) caused its dissolution on May
5, 1934.15

One of the parties that was born to revolt against fascism was the Partito d’Azione (PdA) Action
Party. It was born at the end of 1942 and worked until 1947. The
proposal was raised by Mario Vinciguerra and not by Ugo La Malfa, as it
is thought. The Action Party consisting mainly of militants of the Giustizia
e Libertà, mentioned before, which was based on liberal-socialist, anti-
fascist, social-democratic and republican assumptions, whose experience
will continue.16

It aimed to fight fascism and overcome the antithesis of liberalism and

socialism. At the birth of the party, the founding document contained the
seven programmatic points of 1942 among which; the division of powers,
administrative decentralization, the nationalization of financial groups,
land for associated farmers, and the European federation). 17

In Bologna, the PdA was born at the end of 1942 from the union of anti-fascist groups from the
liberal socialist area. It was promoted by Massenzio Masia, an anti-fascist from Como, who was
assigned to the post office in Bologna. After 8 September 1943, numerous republican militants
entered, who had not accepted the line of the Italian Republican Party. The party's main leaders
were Mario Bastia, Mario Jacchia, Masia, Armando Quadri and Luigi Zoboli, they all died in the
struggle. After the shooting of Masia and the death of Bastia on 20 October in the university battle,
the management of the PdA sent Enrico Giussani to Bologna. With Giuseppe Barbieri and Romolo
Trauzzi, Giussani headed the party until the Liberation. In the administrative offices of March 24,
1946, the PdA received 1,200 votes in Bologna city.

14
Concentrazione Antifascista. Tratto da Storia e Società:
https://dizionariostoria.wordpress.com/2013/06/28/concentrazione-antifascista/
15
Same source.
16
Partito d'Azione. (n.d.). Retrieved from museoTorino.
17
Partito d'Azione. (2011). Tratto da Treccani: https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/partito-d-azione_
%28Dizionario-di-Storia%29/

6
In November 1947 the Bolognese Federation of the PdA decided, by a large majority, to join the
Italian Socialist Party.18

The last movement will be mentioned in this essay which is still operating until now against the
remained fascist ideology is the ANPI: Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d'Italia (National Association
of Italian Partisans). The National Association of Partisans of Italy
(ANPI) was established in Rome on June 6, 1944, while Northern
Italy was still undergoing the Nazi-Fascist occupation, by volunteers
and former soldiers who had taken part in the partisan war in the
regions of Center of Italy. After the Liberation, it spread throughout
the country: even in Southern Italy, but there were also members
from Yugoslavia, Greece, and France. In Bologna, the ANPI has
always represented and still represents the great majority of the
partisans.19

The Anti-fascists

Those important movements and organizations were created by strong and brave figures who left
their imprints in the Italian history. They came from different backgrounds and cities but worked for
one reason; eradication of fascism.

18
Onofr, N. S. (n.d.). Partito d'Azione. Retrieved from storiaememoriadibologna:
https://www.storiaememoriadibologna.it/files/vecchio_archivio/seconda-guerra/p/PdA.pdf
19
"Chi Siamo". Website. ANPI.it. Archived from the original on 2011-05-02. Retrieved 2011-04-14.

7
I will start with the founder of the most important anti-fascist organization; Giustizia e Libertà. Carlo
Alberto Rosselli, was born in Rome, on 16 November 1899 in a wealthy Jewish family from Tuscany.
When they transferred to Florence he started to enter the socialist environment. He participated in
the First World War, as a second lieutenant. After the war, he resumed his studies in political science
and met Gaetano Salvemini, from whom he was strongly influenced. In 1921 he graduated in
political science with the thesis "Syndicalism". In 1922, fascism conquered power and began a
difficult period for the fate of the anti-fascists. He tried hard with a group of intellectuals to resist
against the fascism from the moment it governed Italy, and that was a reason behind sending him in
exile. In 1929 in Paris, he founded Giustizia e Libertà, inspired by Gaetano Salvemini. The movement
meant to be “the soul of the liberating revolution of tomorrow”. 20
On 9 June 1937 he was killed with his brother Nello in Bagnoles de l'Orne by some assassins sent by
Mussolini.

Argo Secondari, the founder of Arditi del Popolo, as mentioned above, was an Italian anarchist. He
was born in Rome into a middle-class family. During his war experience, starting as a simple soldier,
he reached the rank of lieutenant in a battalion of the Arditi and was decorated with three medals
for military valor. After the war he was one of the founders of the National Association of Arditi of
Italy (ANAI) and was part of the revolutionary fringe of the association. 21

The Italian syndicalist, Alceste De Ambris. He was a part of the socialist party but in 1898 he was
expatriated. When he went back to Italy in 1903, he carried out an intense trade union and
journalistic activity, adhering to the revolutionary syndicalist orientation. In the postwar period he
was close to Mussolini and then to D'Annunzio. By the end of 1920 he took clearly anti-fascist
positions and became an opponent of Partito Nazionale Fascista and later Mussolini's dictatorship.
For this reason, after the march on Rome he had to exile in France. There he was among the
promoters of the Concentration of anti-fascist action. He was connected with the anti-fascist Arditi
del Popolo. In the last days of his life he wrote Dopo un ventennio di rivoluzione. His citizenship was
withdrawn in 1926, by the decree of March 26, 1926, and he had to flee for France. He continued
attacking the regime through his writings (published as Lettere dall'esilio - "Letters from exile"). 22

Antonio Gramsci, the famous Italian intellectual and politician, the founder of the Italian communist
party. Because of his ideas that were against the Fascist regime, he was imprisoned by Benito
Mussolini. During his imprisonment, he wrote Quaderni del carcere.23

Bologna against the Fascism

By moving to the last part of the essay, I will discuss the role of Bologna in resisting against the
fascism. Bologna used to be always an important and effective contributor to all important events
about national issues. In the twentieth century, it made a huge contribution to the fight against the
fascist dictatorship first and then to the war of liberation. The contribution of blood and sacrifices

20
Biografie Carlo Rosselli. (s.d.). Tratto da storiaXXIsecolo: http://www.storiaxxisecolo.it/antifascismo/biografie
%20antifascisti7.html
21
Claudia Piermarini, I soldati del popolo: Arditi, partigiani e ribelli: dalle occupazioni del biennio 1919-20 alle
gesta della Volante Rossa, storia eretica delle rivoluzioni mancate in Italia, Red Star Press, 21 luglio 2016.
22
alceste-de-ambris. (s.d.). Tratto da Treccani: https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/alceste-de-ambris/
23
Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopedia (2022, January 19). Antonio Gramsci. Encyclopedia Britannica.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Antonio-Gramsci

8
paid by the Emilians and the Romagnoli was very high. During World War II, Bologna’s male and
female partigiani (partisans) earned the Gold Medal of resistance fighting against Benito Mussolini.
It’s so important to mention that Bologna also suffered after the fall of the fascist regime. In 1980,
the famous fascist attack, when fascist terrorists bombed the city train station killing 85 people.

In the last part of the essay the following questions are going to be answered:
- How did the fascist regime suppress the Bolognese antifascists?
-What kind of struggle was born in Bologna?
-Who were the most famous Bolognese antifascists? What was the role of Bolognese women in this
struggle?

The fascist government used different ways to affect the antifascist movements. One of them was
the Anti-fascists deprived of citizenship. To crush the activity of the democratic parties that had
reorganized in exile - in France, in particular - in 1926 the fascist government decided to deprive
some of the most authoritative exponents of the anti-fascist world of citizenship. With the decree of
March 26, 1926, "the loss of Italian citizenship with the confiscation of any property possessed" was
inflicted on Vincenzo Vacirca, Angelo Tonello, and Francesco Frola. Vacirca was a militant of the PSI
(Socialist Italian Party) born in Sicily and elected deputy in 1919 in Bologna. Tonello was a Venetian
teacher, also a member of the PSI, who had carried out an intense political activity in Bologna in the
first twenty years of 1900.24
According to the kind of struggle that was born in Bologna, one of the most important Bolognese
antifascist organizations was The Single military command Emilia Romagna, (CUMER). In the spring
of 1944, Comitato di liberazione nazionale Alta Italia (CLNAI) gave birth to the Corpo volontari della
libertà (CVL), the military organization of the anti-fascist movement that waged the war of liberation.
The CVL became the leader of the armed struggle, to which belonged the various regional
commands.25

Bologna was and still full of antifascists. Among the most important Bolognese antifascists and those
mentioned by history, we have the great intellectual Pier Paolo Pasolini who was so brave to spread
different political and social ideas, Enzo Biagi and Irma Bandiera. However, for focusing more on the
role and the sacrifice of Bolognese women in the antifascist struggle is going to be highlighted the
life of the partisan Irma Bandiera.

Irma Bandiera was born in Bologna on 8 April 1915, in an anti-fascist family. She joined the
Liberation movement in Bologna in 1944. When the partisans assassinated a German officer and a
commander of the fascist Black Brigade on 1944, the Germans arrested Irma at her uncle’s house,
and she was locked up in the school of San Giorgio. Her family searched for her for days, and then a
person told them that her body was found on cobbled street nearby the ICO factory, a manufacturer
of cleaning supplies. She was buried at the Certosa by her family and close friends. The Bolognese
Federation of the PCL (Partito comunista dei lavoratori) on 4 September 1944 published an angry
letter, printed in secret, to tell about Irma’s sacrifice to instigate Bologna to intensify the fight
against the Nazis. She was recognized as a partisan at the end of the war and was decorated with the
Gold Medal of Military Valor together with 18 other partisans in Italy. Different streets in Bologna
were dedicated to her in Argelato, Castel Maggiore, San Giorgio of Piano, Malalbergo and Molinella.
She had a short life, but it was full of victory sacrifices.

References

24
Gli antifascisti, i partigiani e le vittime del fascismo nel Bolognese (1919-1945). (2005). Istituto Storico Ferruccio
Parri Emilia Romagna.
25
Same source

9
1. Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopedia (2020, May 2). Benito Mussolini summary.
Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/summary/Benito-Mussolini

2. Editors of Encyclopedia, Christopher Hibbert. (s.d.). Rise to power of Benito Mussolini. Tratto
da Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Benito-Mussolini/Rise-to-power

3. Rapone, L. (2006). Antifascismo. Tratto da Treccani:

https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/antifascismo_%28Enciclopedia-Italiana%29/

4. Anti-Fascist movements. (s.d.). Tratto da Britannica:

https://www.britannica.com/place/Italy/End-of-the-regime

5. Bonsanti Marta, Borgia Claudia. (2020, 05 22). Giustizia e libertà - GL. Tratto da SIUSA:
https://siusa.archivi.beniculturali.it/cgi-bin/siusa/pagina.pl?
TipoPag=prodente&Chiave=49001

6. Giustizia e Libertà. (s.d.). Tratto da Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giustizia_e_Libert%C3%A0#cite_note-4

7. Caponetto, P. (2020, Giugno 7). GLI ARDITI DEL POPOLO. Tratto da Litis.it:
https://www.litis.it/2020/06/07/gli-arditi-del-popolo/

8. Arditi del popolo . (n.d.). Retrieved from Storia e memoria di bologna:

https://www.storiaememoriadibologna.it/arditi-del-popolo-250-organizzazione

9. Concentrazione Antifascista. Tratto da Storia e Società:

https://dizionariostoria.wordpress.com/2013/06/28/concentrazione-antifascista/

10. Partito d'Azione. (n.d.). Retrieved from museoTorino.

11. Partito d'Azione. (2011). Tratto da Treccani: https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/partito-d-

azione_%28Dizionario-di-Storia%29/

12. Partito d'Azione. (n.d.). Retrieved from museoTorino.

13. Onofr, N. S. (n.d.). Partito d'Azione. Retrieved from storiaememoriadibologna:

https://www.storiaememoriadibologna.it/files/vecchio_archivio/seconda-guerra/p/PdA.pdf

14. "Chi Siamo". Website. ANPI.it. Archived from the original on 2011-05-02. Retrieved 2011-04-
14.

15. Biografie Carlo Rosselli. (s.d.). Tratto da storiaXXIsecolo:

http://www.storiaxxisecolo.it/antifascismo/biografie%20antifascisti7.html

16. Claudia Piermarini, I soldati del popolo: Arditi, partigiani e ribelli: dalle occupazioni del
biennio 1919-20 alle gesta della Volante Rossa, storia eretica delle rivoluzioni mancate in
Italia, Red Star Press, 21 luglio 2016.

17. alceste-de-ambris. (s.d.). Tratto da Treccani: https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/alceste-

de-ambris/

18. Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopedia (2022, January 19). Antonio Gramsci. Encyclopedia
Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Antonio-Gramsci

10
19. Gli antifascisti, i partigiani e le vittime del fascismo nel Bolognese (1919-1945). (2005).
Istituto Storico Ferruccio Parri Emilia Romagna.

20. Gallimbeni Oscar, Rossi Clara e Bettocchi Lorenzo, Liceo Ginnasio Luigi Galvani. (2017/2018).
Bandiera Irma. Retrieved from STORIA E MEMORIA DI BOLOGNA.

11