Filippo Turati-Herald of the New Italy
Modigliani, G. E.
Filippo Turati—Herald of the New Italy Socialism's Hero, Foe of Fascism, Leaves an inspiring Story for the Workers of the World By G. E. Modigliani FILIPPO TURATI was born at Canzo near Como...
...And Turati was forced to accept the offer of the young people, Rosselll, Parri, Oxilla and Porting who, at the risk of his life and their own, crossed the sea In a small boat on a stormy night and brought him to Corsica, In order that he might take up again In France the work of acting as standard-bearer and mouth piece for the combined anti-Fascist forces...
...But there was one who braved the exaggerations of the one side and the weakness of the other: Turati, who did not cease to defend the democratic method against the Government which denied it and against extremism which ridiculed it...
...For Turati was better than a "Duce...
...At all times and in all his tasks, the most bumble and the most difficult, in the days of glory and the days of danger, at his desk and on the tribune, in prison, in Parliament and )n exile he never spared himself, he never submitted and he never retreated...
...In July, 1899, Turati re-commenced the publication of the "Critica So•clale" with an article whose title is significant: "Heri dlcebamus" (We have returned to the fray...
...His whole life, all his work sprang from the faith (which survived so many disappointments...
...He had already made a name as a writer and poet when be proved himself as a sociologist in "Le delit et la question aociale" Shortly afterwards, however, the young lawyer became convinced by the truths of Socialism...
...The rhythm of his hymn* beats time to the tread of the army Is its new march on Rome...
...They win still surge) and break upon the coast guarded by bayonets...
...But when war came and the Idol fell, rotted by corruption and betrayal, and loyal servants were once again needed for a difficult cause It was FDlppo Turati again who took up the flag, unfurled It and held It aloft in the class struggle against the capitalist war and for the peace of the peoples...
...True...
...Filippo Turati—Herald of the New Italy Socialism's Hero, Foe of Fascism, Leaves an inspiring Story for the Workers of the World By G. E. Modigliani FILIPPO TURATI was born at Canzo near Como in Italy on November 26th, 1857...
...It was necessary to swim against the tide, and what a tide...
...he has been the soul, the great soul of an entire movement, and, at times, of sn entire country...
...that that which is good and just cannot do otherwise than triumph...
...A boat nears...
...Hii f ml ••ill, su compagnl...
...See, he steps forth and with his hurrying steps, his somewhat swaying gait, his head so like a fawn's, with his gentle eyes, he resumes his path over Italian soil...
...It was now necessary to lead the Workers' Party (the party of the "horny-handed" which had just been founded by Marti, Lazzari and Onocchi Viani) and the "Revolutionary" Socialism inspired by Andrea Costa, the former lieutenant of Bakunin and later a deputy to Marxism...
...Between 1880 and 1890 the era of Marxian Socialism began...
...It was necessary to consolidate this great victory...
...A reformist...
...It is true that one might reproach him for not having desired the defeat of his country In order to shorten the war and he has* Indeed been overwhelmed with reproached on this score...
...It was Turati'a proposals which set the seal upon the union between the Workers' Party and the Milanese Socialist groups in 1886...
...Between Two Fires 1900...
...And when in 1011 the Italian bourgeoisie, after having sought to purchase the complicity of the Socialists by the bait of an electoral reform, desired a war to make colonial conquests, Turati became once again the guide and the mouthpiece of the movement—threatening the King, denouncing the execution of the alleged rebels in Tripoli...
...Ololitti, the minister who gave his name to the new policy, had felt the lash of Turatl's polemics in the past, but despite this Turati supported him against the reaction...
...Born in a lower middle class family he had already obtained his doctorate in law at 10 years of age...
...And what of his work since then...
...the Bolshevist radlcallzatlon of the Italian masses after the war, the destruction by Moscow of the unity of the Italian working class, the Fascist march on Rome and the heroic, miraculous re-construction by Matteottl of the Social-Democratic organization...
...The praetorians of Fascism seized the word to adorn their chief...
...Alas...
...Fascism is aware of this and as a beginning it has almost prohibited Turatl's death being made known in Italy...
...Moral values had such a hold upon him that be found It difficult to understand why they did not produce the results he expected of them...
...For even after collaboration of any kind with the Government had become impossible, the Socialist movement succeeded (between 1906 and 1908) at rooting out the virus of pseudo-revolutionary demagogy, just as it cast out in 1010 the degenerate version of Turatl's reformism, a reformism which had become Incapable of feeling— which went so far as to deny— the class struggle...
...The "Reformist" Turati In 1891 Turati and Anna ICuJiscloff founded the "Critica Soctale" and this review which stood godfather to the Socialist Party of the Italian Workers formed in 1892 was—until Its suppression by the Fascists—for 36 years the intellectual centre of the Italian Socialist movement...
...But who but Turati would have been capable of making the speech which he made after the defeat at Gaporettc—"Which the Parliamentary stenographers were forbidden to record—in order that the crimes of Italian militarism should not be placed in the pillory for posterity to judge, as Turati alone was capable of placing it...
...Somewhat later it was he who gave the signal for the break with traditional democracy .when its leaders lost all sense of "proportion in the fight against the Workers' Party...
...He died In Paris on March 30th, 1032, and for 50 years his life was identified with that of the Socialist movement of his country...
...He began to waver, gave way and finally made a pact with the Catholics...
...But the Exceptional Laws of Crispfs era brought him a score of condemnations for Press offenses, and when, In 1898, the reaction again had recourse to the state of siege in order to suppress the revolts inspired by hunger and despair, FllIppo Turati, deputy though he was, was nevertheless condemned to twelve years' penal servitude...
...Let them keep It...
...Bind, bind the waves with chains...
...At that time we called Turati the 'Duce...
...Especially In the early years Turati built up in Its columns a body of Socialist doctrine which, whilst being strictly Marxian in its critical aspect, did not overlook the lessons of reality as far as practical policy was concerned...
...The insurrectionary attempts of the Bakuninist period of the First International—which he had had an opportunity of witnessing at the University of Bologna—had come to an end...
...Their strikes are no longer met at the very start with the fusillades of the police...
...Not more than the three lines of a telegram ot an agency under the control of the State were allowed to be published In Italy, and than not In the whole of the Press...
...setting in opposition to the policy of adventure and blood the protest of the Italian workers...
...A wave of revolutionary syndicalism broke over the masses...
...For he was above all things a great soul—the Mahatma of Italian Socialism...
...M. Gioilttl did not stand...
...The whole world has followed It and will not forget It It may be summed up In the following sentence: through this work and In it Turati re-discovered his faith in the campaign to such an extent that all who desired to act, all thefts who desired to units their efforts were able to count on him...
...And finally Turati won the day...
...I am firmly convinced that Turati believed that this Parliamentary secession of the Left would overthrow Fascism...
...Herald of The New March There was a period In which the political life of Italy had already become very difficult...
...All who persisted in opposition wars swept •way...
...Turati was then in the minority in the Party, for there was a revival of demagogy in the Party at that time which is best characterized by the fact that Mussolini was made its idol...
...And when the signed telegrams of the "Old Guard" of Italian Socialism begsa to pour In from Italy, bearing witness to a solidarity which cannot be broken, the Fascist censor cut the communication...
...This was the historic task of Turati and his unforgettable friend, Anna Kuliscloff...
...Su, venlte In fltta scttlerA...
...The others will not forget his diatribes in a hurry...
...Before long, however, this policy of "collaboration" was to re-awaken the fundamental intransigence of the Italian Socialist movement, which was still not very ripe...
...On the contrary, It strengthened Its relations with the monarchy and large-scale capital until these relations became firm...
...despits the fact that during the period of the "Aventlno" he gave of the best of his great soul, despite the fact that the "J'accuae" of the "Aventlno" bears the Impress of his personality strong and clear like the man himself, Fascism did not slacken its hold...
...As for myself, I see the day when in a liberated and restored Italy the yoang will read Turati— his hundreds of articles, and speeches—to learn to write, to speak and to think as Italians and as Socialists...
...It is characteristic, however, that even when his guiding conception of being a "constructive" Socialist led him towards1 reform his articles and speeches were inspired by a realization of the class struggle which sprang, one felt, from the deepest of convictions, and, 1 might add, from the very trend of his whole Ufe...
...The reaction is overthrown and the Italian peasants have ceased to be serfs...
...But despite Innumerable condemnations and the dissolution of all toe political organizations of the Left i * year sufficed—at that time-to overthrow the reaction...
...then came his assassination and it was Turati, the great one, who came forward as the accuser, who, on the third day after the crime and in the first session of the "Aventlno," lifted his voice in a passionate and avenging speech against the assassins...
...It Is the boat of Parri and Pertlnl and It brings the Great Exile to shore...
...It has been said of him that'he was too much of a poet to be a great politician, and if politics consisted of nothing but the little daily manoeuvres, of the artifice and monotony of petty gains, It would set be otherwise than possible to subscribe to this eulogy of the great poet which Turati was all the days of his life...
...The Escape from Fascism And then came the events of yesterday which are known to the whole world...
...And the young lawyer— for he practiced law for some time—often appeared at the bar in defense of political prisoners and the flotsam and jetsam of life...
Vol. 13 • April 1932 • No. 17
