Toward Italian democracy
Gualtieri, Umberto
Toward Italian democracy By Umberto Gualtieri Vice-President, Umttini Secietg WhILE Bonomi's Cabinet cannot be regarded as a representative government, for it is not the offspring of a popular...
...third, the calling of a Constitutional Assembly which shall determine the form of the new government...
...Churchill will do his best to help him, while Mr...
...I have just been reading Racine and Dickens because I have had no new books for years, but they are new to me because they are eternal...
...Santayana said...
...second, the omission of the oath of allegiance to the Crown and the obliteration of the King's power...
...The National Committee of Liberation has already achieved three fundamental aims: first, the complete elimination of fascist elements from the government...
...It is therefore no exaggeration to say that the anti- Badoglio trend resulting in the ousting of the Marshal must be regarded as a Communist setback...
...ort hreathtd e ugh of relief that iht ptopoult tit so modtittt and don't envittge tag ihanj/t in tht ifrucfur* of industry or ttgimentetion of private tnttrptite, beyond 'inducements' that indutttial'utt cooperate u'lih the Government in local - ing new indutlritt end in regulating thtir rapitel expenditure according lo trade < busmen) rgelet...
...British reaction, however, is totally different...
...Writing on June 14, Rosen stated: ! "A remark made by ' Marshal Badoglio June 10 i indicates that the Commu' nist leader Minister of "' State...
...But one thing seems to me clear: if there is any Italian who was to any extent prominent when fascism was in^the making and who has no share of responsibility for it, I never heard of him...
...If the King tries to make a military uprising against the Italian free government, he will perhaps be supported by British bayonets, but there is a limit to everything...
...In the meanwhile, the king has had to stick to his part of the bargain and his son has been snubbed...
...The solid nucleus of both the Bonomi and the Badoglio Cabinet is the sixparty coalition and the presence of men who, because of their intellectual and moral stature, are far above politics, like Croce and Sforza.«Jn the previous combination, the six parties accepted to cooperate with a few men who had fallen into sins of commission during the fascist era...
...It must be conceded, meanwhile, even by the irreconcilable anti-fascist old guard, that the political character of the new Cabinet is a victory for democracy...
...The really important feature of the situation is the maintained cohesion of the six parties and the unqualified support that their participation in the government has received front the resistance movements in northern Italy...
...Moreover, Communist spokesmen in Naples alluding to Marshal Badoglio's leadership, stated recently that a popular front without the conservative element* represented by him would be a political torso without a head...
...Something, I think, is being born in Italy of which all those who love that country will ultimately be glad and proud...
...Santayana was found in a convent in Rome, "hardly aware that there is a war on and Rome conquered again...
...There has been so much killing and so much suffering in the world's history...
...In the present combination the six parties are cooperating with a few men who had fallen into sins of omission during the years when fascism was in the making...
...I think it is right that there...
...No one can doubt, after the actual experience of the last few months in liberated and occupied Italy, that the people wanted a nonfascist government...
...should be new movements suitable to new generations and periods...
...But the Italian air force and the Italian navy, no matter whether there is a Badoglio or a Bonomi, are doing their job well...
...It will be justified and vindicated, let's hope, by what the new Ministers will do with the little power that they have assumed...
...The British White Paper What* the Hullobo/oo 4boiir...
...Reteaick T HE recent change of government in Rome is, I think, a rather important step on the long road that leads to the reintegration of Italy...
...Charles de Gaulle...
...In fact Bonomi's refusal of oath to the monarchy is a blow to Mr...
...The trouble with applying fascism to Italy is thnt the people are undisciplined...
...Churchill found it witty to compare Italy to a "hot coffee pot" and Italy's King to the "handle" which he, Churchill, wanted to hold firmly in his hands, while the Italian people and political parties were less than a simple "dishcloth...
...It is always the same...
...They often make «ood Fascists from 18 to 28, but after that they become individualists again...
...It is true that although they intend to be ) 'for the people,' they end up by being for those who are running the State...
...Santayana'* political views may come as a shock to * some persons...
...Since there is no way of answering this question till a general election, one has to accept for practical purposes the certificate of approval issued by the Committee of Liberation to the Cabinet members, and follow with reserved judgment the modus operandi of the Bondmi's Government...
...The immediate task of the present government is to help the Allies in winning the war...
...Only a few months have passed since Mr...
...For the present Italians have demonstrated that they are something more than a dishrag— that they intend to shape their own destiny...
...They shock and disturb those who are attached to the old instituions, but they are not meant for thorn...
...Churchill will regret such words...
...The Italian people have shown they know what that limit is...
...But Santayana said: "Doubtless there are good things in both (Communism and Fascism) as well as bad things...
...It justifies and vindicates the preceding step, the formation of the Badoglio all-party government on April 21...
...Now they have assumed the symbols of power and of government that they will keep until younger men emerge, strong enough to give back to these, symbols their full reality...
...There is something that could be said against Badoglio and there is something that can be said against Bonomi...
...The Wove of the Past A n intellectual ghost talked this week—the ghost ol George Santayana, the Harvard philosopher who left the U. S. in 1912 and has been living abroad since...
...It is gratifying to see that they are still getting around, hale and hearty, according to the reports...
...Unquestionably, the members of the National Committee of Liberation, from which the present government derives its moral and political authority, expressed the general feeling of the people when they threatened to deny their support to any "government made of men who compromised with Fascism...
...It understands the patience, the responsibilities that are imposed by this great war of liberation where the destiny of Italy is being decided with very little participation of Italian armed power...
...This applies particularly to Bonomi and the old-timers whom he has brought into his new Cabinet...
...On* can say that thwy arc not on a high enough social level to become Fascists...
...If Humbert is a nonentity, Victor Emmanuel is a shrewd and malicious old man...
...Perhaps the best report is the London cable by the H«// SI- Journalt British correspondent, George Ormsby, in the June ft issue: Cabled Ormsby: "Political and business circles here are surprised at the vehemence of some American criticisms of the British Government's plan for combatting postwar slumps...
...i . "This Communist supj port for the Marshal is not surprising since the Ir*i r n r ii_l r» *o 111 in U II• 1 S I S • in North Africa made a similar move in behalf of Gen...
...Right-wing comments...
...Palmiro Togliatti, was vt-m king in behalf of '• Marshal Badoglio and that I the Marshal was more than ] s u r p r i s e d when Signor • Togliatti turned against i him after it had become ! apparent that the Rome , Committee of Liberation j was anxious to keep the 8 former Premier out of the I Government...
...Churchill as well as to the King of Italy...
...Anti-fascism comes of age...
...By Lionello Venturi Prominent Art Historian and Italian Exile T h e most important fact about the new Italian Government, headed by Bonomi, is that they have taken the oath of loyalty not to the throne, but to the fatherland, making it clear a plebiscite will pass judgment on the monarchy when hostilities end...
...Some of them once had power i n thair hands, but their hold was weak...
...And a counter attack against the Bonomi Government will come...
...After twentytwo years of enslavement, Italy for the first time has a free government...
...Steps are being taken, each one of which is, as it should be, risky...
...Nobody will be allowed to overstep it...
...It was a Times man, Herbert Matthews, whs penetrated the ivory tower to interview .Santayena, but the interview was in reverse, for Matthews had to do most of the talking...
...The only question which still needs an answer is to what measure and extent the Italians are satisfied with the political connotations of some members of the Cabinet...
...Recently he was denounced in the New Mattrm as a "Fascist...
...This is a great achievement...
...Toward Italian democracy By Umberto Gualtieri Vice-President, Umttini Secietg WhILE Bonomi's Cabinet cannot be regarded as a representative government, for it is not the offspring of a popular election, yet one can fairly state that the newly formed Cabinet does express the present political will of the overwhelming majority of the Italian people...
...Of course, the Bonomi's Cabinet cannot be expected to formulate a program of social reforms while the nation is still facing the terrific impact of the war...
...T h e publication of the British White Paper on postwar esaployment has ben hailed in the American liberal press as a great step forward and aitacked in some conservative papers as putting Britain on the road to Socialism...
...The attitude of the Bonomi Government is the attitude of a free government...
...Italian Communists Rebuffed e formation of the Bonomi cabinet is a setback foi the Italian Communists—this is the considered view ol E<!gar Rosen, specialist on Italian Affairs on the CArtatian Sciince Monitor...
...With the little power that the war necessities allow them, these Cabinets are proving the capacity that Italians have for ruling themselves...
...Whether long retirement from politics has seasoned their wisdom and matured their skill, nobody knows...
...Most of the new Ministers are rather elderly men who, because of luck, good health and moral resilience, have somehow managed to survive fascism...
...The anti-fascists have •mid no to BadogltO mad mil others who under the protection of the monarchy and of the Allied Military Government have tried to maintain a fascist policy in Italy...
...I live in the eternal...
...Henri Giraud during the last phase of the struggle between the latter and Gen...
...But certainly these men have now a chance of doing a useful job...
...Hankers are unperturbed by the Government's proposals which they consider in KM with the trend of economic thonght hero...
...He certainly will try to defeat Bonomi and his ministers...
...Stalin will smile...
...By Max Ascoli Profreeor, New School e/ Socio...
...But the country has no other way of emerging from her present misery...
...It is significant that Signor Togliatti's comment on Marshal Badoglio's withdrawal was especially cautious...
...There is something which is already moving in Italy...
...The voice from London is out of tune and is not listened to any longer...
...Mr...
...When soldiers conquer a town, the first thing they do is to prepare themselves against a counter attack...
...Roosevelt will feel uneasy and Mr...
...But I never heard of any birth that is safe and painless, or cute to look at...
Vol. 27 • June 1944 • No. 25
