Eugenio Curiel - Joining The Communist Party

Joining The Communist Party

Curiel's fascination with Steiner's philosophy diminished with time, as he gradually developed an interest in the dominant currents of idealist philosophy, in particular Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Benedetto Croce and Giovanni Gentile. At the same time, he was drawn into the study of more practical philosophical issues through a reading of the works of Georges Sorel and anarchic syndicalism. He pursued these studies at the Institute of the Philosophy of Law, where he became friends with Ettore Luccini and Enrico Opocher. But, during his sojourn in Padua at this period, a decisive event was his renewal of acquaintance with his childhood friend, Atto Braun, with whom he shared lodgings. Braun was a clandestine member of the Communist Party and through his influence, Curiel read Marx and Engels's Communist Manifesto, the Antidühring, and Lenin's What to do?. In 1935 Curiel became a member of the small communist cell at Padua University, which was led by Braun, Guido Goldschmied and Renato Mieli. He contributed articles on union issues from 1937 onwards for the magazine Il Bò, the university newspaper. It was edited both by young fascists who had begun to feel disaffected by the orthodoxy of the regime and by antifascists such as Braun.

The Communist party tried to infiltrate union and student organisations run by the fascists in order to subtly reorient them towards an attitude critical of Fascism. This was one reason behind Curiel's trip to Paris, the site of the party's foreign offices, in March, 1937. He formed contacts with Emilio Sereni, Ambrogio Donini and Ruggiero Grieco. To this period may be dated an article he wrote under the pseudonym of Giorgio Intelvi, entitled Our economic and union work with the masses and the struggle for democracy, which appeared in the review The Workers' State. Curiel maintained that it was necessary to pressure students, by means of university publications, to get them to abandon the still residually corporative ideology of 'left-wing fascism', and have them recognize the 'class struggle'. Persuasion of the elected representatives of factory workers was also important, in order to build among them 'clandestine groups' that would then be able to exercise a political influence on the shop floor workers. The article was subject to some criticism - Egidio Gennari took exception to its abstract character and economism - but Curiel won Gennari's confidence nonetheless, for his intelligence, culture and willpower. Encouraged, he returned to Padua to continue his work there, while keeping up his contacts in Paris.

In early 1938 Curiel was ordered by the president of the Confederation of Italian Unions, Tullio Cianetti to present himself there. Cianetti had no idea of Curciel's real political sympathies, but invited him to be more prudent, given that his articles were being cited in the antifascist press abroad. He was asked to pay attention to attempts by 'subversives' to infiltrate fascist organisations.