The Sicilian Volcano
Montana, Vanni B.
The Sicilian Volcano Building a Fifth Column in the Mediterrenean By Vanni B. Montana Some naval strategists assign to tha Ifjiint af Sicily, rising like a moun-taiaons triangle in the narrows...
...The sole interpretera of the decision* of Comintern Congre**** are the Executive Committee and it* Presidium...
...The American Communist Parly ia one of those few Communist parties in the world upon which history has laid tasks of a decisive character from th* viewpoint of the world revolution, . . . The moment is not far off when a revolutionary crisis will develop in America...
...We have an accentuation of the clas* struggle in all capitalist countries, a growing revolutionary crisis in Europe, growing conditions for a new revolutionary upward swing...
...The Sicilian Volcano Building a Fifth Column in the Mediterrenean By Vanni B. Montana Some naval strategists assign to tha Ifjiint af Sicily, rising like a moun-taiaons triangle in the narrows betake* ia« as* of the Italian boot and jlorth Africa, a strategic importance equivalent to the combined importance of Gibraltar and the Sues Canal...
...Sicily ia ? situated as to control shipping in the kVdlWrranear I till ? ft Sicily last October...
...By si resting certain leparatiit leadera, the Roma Government will not solve ih* Sicilian problem...
...Immediately after liberation, mainly thanks to the influence of a former Socialist con-»ressman, Vincenzo Vacirca, the Socialist •rMnization withdrew from the Sepa-ratiata, and successfully opposed the idea *f separation, and urged a democratic '•deration with Italy...
...But the people seemed to be in a state of surest everywhere...
...became anti-separatists, and was with them that the Communists •tarted to play power politics around the *,?· "i «ntl-separatism which the Communists exploited in order to build up their present strength...
...There is a deep personal hatred between him and Andrea Finocchiaro Aprile, the separatist leader...
...There is mud in it fsnme feudal lords and mafiosi) but there also is a vast amount of popular energy (workers, artisans, peasants, students, intellectuals, independent Socialists, ami »von Trotskyites...
...But I think thst separatists are entitled to their opinions and to the right to express them...
...Finocchiaro Aprile is an old politician and hi* motive* are probably dubious...
...This collaboration has gone to the extent of promoting factional trends among Sicilian Socialists in fsvor of the pro-Communist line of Pietro Nenni...
...You may be certain of that, dear comrade...
...I think I understood many of the things 1 heard and saw about separatism ami anti-separatism, about black markets end'banditry, lnd about what Carlo Orlando, one of the sons of Vitteorio Emani ele Orlando, defined as the "Ger-manitation of the Sicilian economy," re-ftrring to the innumerable rules and regulations which strangle and suffocate the economic life of the island, a hodgepodge of Fascist, Nazi and neo-Bolshevik decrees piled up on top of each other and imposed upon one of the most individualistic people of the world...
...But tomorrow you will have no majority and you will find yourselves completely isolated if you attempt to start a fight against th* decision* ef the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Comintern...
...I dis* agree with the aeparatiat*, tor I think the historical trend is not separation hut unification, and I know that Italy needs Sicily ¦* Sicily needs Italy...
...Some Italian democrats, like Ignazio Silone in the Socialist Party, Randolfo Pacciardi in the Republican Party, Emilio I.ussu in the Action Party, have sug-Kested a federalistic approach for Sicily, as well as lor Italy generally...
...Th* United State* of America, being interested in a democratic Italy, should suggest that the Sicilian problem bs placed on s politics...
...But, the federative "•"venient was not encouraged ns it de-wrvad...
...Now factionalism is dangerous in the monolithic Communist parties, weakens th* struggle sgainst reformism, against Social Democracy in the labor movement...
...Hia chief mistake ha* been to insist on separation first and federation after...
...Party...
...The Sicilian problem can he understood only in the light of the new expansionist policy of Soviet Russia in the Mediterranean...
...This autonomy later proved to be one of those mockeries of which the Italians, particularly the Sicilians, have been victims in the past There was hope that Far-ruccio Pan ?, the new head of the Italian Government, would support the federalistic approach to the Sicilian problem, but disappointing new* ha* reached us...
...He made Palermo the center of hia Sicilian activities, publishing there a newspaper which is a carbon copy of the local Communist organ...
...But only Anarchiita ran talk like that, not Bolsheviks, who are obliged to place tha will of the collective above their individual will...
...1 DO not know whether it is true that the separatists were about to start a revolt...
...Comradea Gitlow and Lovestone announced her* with aplomb that their conscience* and convictions do not permit them to submit to the decisions of the Presidium...
...The advocates of this policy, especially the Communist*, have contended that the ? ? a ? at ist movement is a reactionary movement led by feudal barons and made lip of bandits (Mafia) and British agents...
...WllKN Sicily was first liberated, Ihe Communist party there did not amount lo anything...
...The American Government should not go on helping Communist policies* in Sicily by Issuing unqualifiedly ami-separatist statements on which Ihe Communist* always capitalize...
...When the Bolsheviks and Menshevifcs were in on* common party, th* Boksh'e-viks were obliged to organise a faction in order to break down tha authority of the Social Democrat*, to organise a split against them, and to create our own Communist...
...The present High Commissioner for Sicily...
...The separatist movement is on record as favoring a republic «ml some kind of socialization of the latifundia...
...Published by the American Communist farty...
...The repressive police approach to the Sicilian problem will result in a political and organizational triumph for tha Communist fifth column in Sicily...
...The percentage of lerntet Faseist leaders and member* who have lumped on the Communist hand-•eaeea it higher in Sicily than in atiy •Isar part of Italy...
...plane to be solved through s free federalistic approach and not on the plane of police repression, as the Rome government Is now doing under Communist pressure...
...Sicilian Socialists, Christian Democrats, Trotakyites, liberals and conservatives •ere part of it...
...Coming by plane above Scylla and Ckarybdrs, and landing in Catania, I at* that tha greatest volcano of Europe, leant Etna, was quiet, silent, as if rating- after centuries of overwork...
...Salvstore Aldisio, is a Christian Democrat and a former separatist...
...1 discovered in Sicily that the separatist Movement is a popular movement...
...Stalin told Lovestone and Gitlow: "At present you have a formal majority in the American Communist Party...
...And it will be at the same time a bad precedent for further authoritarian method* of government in Italy...
...It is like a torrent...
...The potential value ·* ? Russian fifth column of this strong "gam.ation in the very heart of Ihe Mtditnranean cannot lie el rested too much...
...Th* Italian Government haa suddenly discovered a revolutionary plot in Sicily and haa arrested the aeparatiat lesders, among them Andrea Finoc-rhiaro Aprile and Dr...
...It was mainly an anti-fateuit movement, for Fascism was then •oislnating continental Italy, whose liberation w»s not anticipated so quickly...
...The people, however, I found to be winger, livelier and more volcanic than sver...
...I found the streets still full of cabs, but I had the impression that the skinny old karsa* I saw attached to the shrieking an lingas Wet* the same I had left there S»—ty — years before...
...One thing, however, I could not understand at that time—why the Italian Communist Party was spending tremendous sums of money, generously supplied by Russia, for its activities in old Sicily...
...It controls at least four provincial Chambers of Labor—in Palermo, Messina, Agiigento, Catania...
...These arrests are a very important symptom of present trends in Italy...
...What I do know is that they have been continuously and falsely charged with responsibility for all the economic and political troubles in Sicily...
...The Comintern is the holy of nolies of th* working class...
...Today it is a very strong party...
...That will be the beginning of the end of world capitalism...
...Antonio Varvaro...
...Aldiaio needs the support of Togliatti and his pay-off is a close united front with the Communists who in Sicily, enjoy sper ill privileges as representatives of a governmental party...
...Dear Comrades" Excerpt* from Stalin's speeches on the American Communist Parly, delivered to the Executive Committee of the Communist International, May 6 and 14, 102...
...One, favored by the Communists, the monarchists and some Chris-lion Democrats of the Aldisio type, has called for the crushing of the separatist movement , through police repressions...
...The Si-«skan capital, Palermo, was well-known w me for I had spent there four of tha happiest years of my student life...
...Soon th* ground will be too hot for world capitalism...
...Sicilian separatism was the strongest political movement on the Island during the war and immediately after liberation...
...Instead, it was handicapperl aud ¦arearwl ?? a camouflaged form of sepa-nrtisar Many leaders of the Christian Democrat...
...It may also be possible that the Communist fifth column in Sicily, who** assignment i* today to itrenghthen itself as much as possible by waving the anti-separatist flag, will itself raise the separatist banner tomorrow, if this will suit their Russian master...
...Separatism will ultimately be strengthened and it* leader* will flpd new sympathizers not only in Sicily, but in the United States as well, where about forty percent of our Americans of Italian origin are of Sicilian stock...
...Varvaro is an independent Socialist, of whose sincerity I have no doubt...
...Salvatore Aldisio owe* his job as Bigh Commissioner for Sicily lo the Italian Cabinet, of which Communist leader Palm iro Togliatti ia an inflaea-lial member...
...The London conference of ihr foreign ministers finally helped me to grasp the full significance of this immense investment of money and energy the Communists are making in Sicily...
...Sicilians and other Italian* will not fail to point out that the Sicilian separatist lesders stand on a higher ethical plane than Togliatti, for while they want Sicily for the Sicilians, and federation later, Togliatti, directly and indirectly, has been advocating the separation from Italy of a large part of Venetia Guilia, to be given In Yugoslavia, and ha* advocated the separation from Italy of its old colonies so as to favor the ambitions of Soviet Kussia to acquire bases and influence in the Mediterranean area...
...11 seemed, for a while, that the advocates of federalism were making prepares*, for a measure of local autonomy was announced by the Rome government for Sicily and other region...
...In Sicily political controversies always take the form of personal feuds...
...Nenni had no following among Sicilian Socialists right after liberation...
...It show* that the Communists and their fellow-travelers have the upper hand and that Ferruccio Parri has bowed to them...
...The duly of the American Communist Party is to begin preparatory work for the coming class struggles, to prepare for new revolutionary struggles...
...From a lifelong democrat like Ferruccio Parr), tha Italian Premier, hi* friend* ar* entitled to expect something better than discoveries of "revolutionary plots" and preventative arrests a short time before elections...
...Some Fascist (roups, like the one of Villalba in the province of Caltanissetta, have become Communist groups...
...It is necessary to put an end lo factionalism in the American Communist Party...
...Inside the Italian Cabinet ami among Italian political parties there have been two ways of approach to the Sicilian problem...
...At that time factionalism was useful...
Vol. 28 • October 1945 • No. 43
