Arditi Del Popolo - Relations With The Workers' Movement and Organized Parties

Relations With The Workers' Movement and Organized Parties

Composed of socialists, anarchists and communists, the Arditi del Popolo was not supported by the socialist parties (neither by the Italian Socialist Party, PSI, nor by the Communist Party of Italy, PCI). The Arditi were criticized by the socialist newspaper Avanti! on July 7, 1921, following a demonstration in Rome the previous day.

On July 10, 1921, Lenin wrote in the Pravda an article praising the Arditi and criticizing the Bordigan tendency of the PCI which opposed militant anti-fascism. On August 3, 1921, the PSI signed a "pacification pact" (patto di pacificazione) with the National Fascist Party, while the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) and the PSI refused to officially recognize the anti-fascist militia. Furthermore, the PCI ordered its members to quit the organization because of the presence of non-communists in its ranks. The PCI organized by themselves some militant groups (the Squadre comuniste d'azione), but their actions were relatively minor and the party kept a non-violent, legalist strategy.

The Bordigan tendency was opposed by the Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci, and many communist activists, who supported the Arditi. In October 1921, the Comintern criticized the "sectarian policy" of the PCI, who threatened those of its members who supported the Arditi with disciplinary measures. However, after the alignement of Gramsci and of L'Ordine Nuovo to the PCI's direction, the anarchist Umanità Nova newspaper remained the sole mouthpiece of the workers' movement which supported the Arditi del Popolo.