The Political Carnival in Italy

...ThE ideological content of L'Uomo Qualunqut is summarized in the issue of Sept...

...Unless this is done quickly, /.Tom* Qualunqut mav fill the vacuum and it* impresario may steal the show...

...A new cabinet will not be enough...

...I do not think that the L'Uomo Qua-Inntinr movement is a Fascist movement...

...The l.'l'om* Qualunqut may be the only movement to profit by this crisis...

...it is decidedly friendly toward the Western Allies and critically friendly toward Hie Christian Democratic party and some liberal anti-Fascists like Croce, General Hengivegna, and former Premier Nilti...

...The fact that Russian Fascism allied itself with American and British liberalism only proves that that kind of Fascism felt itself to he nearer to Western liberalism than to other Fascisms...

...The Communist party has reacted by calling the movement a Fascist movement...

...The Political Carnival in Italy The "Average" Italian Finds an Impresario By Vanni B. Montana THE new fact in the Italian political scene in the sudden rite of a strange movement of opposition lo the present six-party government...

...challenges the legitimacy of the present government and everything the government does...

...As s matter of a fact, tens and perhaps hundred of thousands of former Fascists have joined the six parties...

...But the vital interest* of the USA and the USSR as nation* have clashed and continue in conflict everywhere—if Americans have any vital interest in the preservation, extension, and improvement of the democratic system, if we are vitally lifter-•sted in free trade, in the building of S genuine world federation rspsble of preventing wsr...

...It is planning to publish L'Opeialo Qualun-qur ("The Average Worker") and II i'outadiuo ^Qualunqut ("The Average Farmer...

...tun Government but not with Communist ideologies foreign to Italy, for a renunciation of any spirit of political vendetta or intolerance, and for the collaboration of all old ami new forces of Italian democracy...

...It spontaneously voiced its resentment in the streets, in the market places, in the overcrowded trolley cars, everywhere...

...The overwhelming majority of the party members are against an...

...But it was deeply rooted among the Italian masses, among the white-collar workers, among the middle-classes...

...A friend in Rome told me jokingly that he knew of some people who had in their pockets the membership cards of all the six political parties of the government coalition...

...In my opinion, the success of L'Uomo Qualunqut movement is the direct consequence of the failure of the Action party and the Socialst party t< become the leal expression of th* political, ac...

...In the beginning, nobody paid much attention lo the new paper...

...The leaders of L'Uomo Qualunqut have denied the charge...

...Late last year, a weekly paper appeared in Rome under the peculiar till* I.'I 11111,1 ifmilmtqur, which can be translated as "The Average Man," or if you prefer, "The Common Man...

...4—"We want to achieve power by legal means, hy winning elections and by replacing incompetent lackeys and political professors with honest and active people who have proved in their ordinary life that they are able to accomplish something for themselves...

...L'Uomo Qualunqut...

...He is now applying his theatrical technique and his knowledge of Italians to his political writings and agitation against the six-party government system and its leaders...

...According to Giannini, there have been recent Instances in which even Communist branches hsve gone over in their entirety to the L'Uomo Qualuitquo movement...

...The vital interests of both the American and of the Russian peopl* are in violent conflict with Ihe policies of the Soviet totalitarian dictatorship...

...Nilti's speech .¦ailed for concentrating efforts on economic rehabilitation, for keeping Italy in Ihe sphere of Western civilization, for a more authoritative government, for friendship with the Rus...

...Others estimate its circulation at about 400,000 copies...

...But this criticism" has been ptrely political and academic...

...Italy will go straight into a new national carnival that may win.I up in a new tragedy...

...Recently Nenni has tried again lo quiet the opposition, ssy-ing that fusion is the only hope for the future...

...It holds that nobody has elected those who rule Italy, and in this there is some truth...

...However, they admit that their ranks are open to former Fascists who have been converted to the ideas of freedom and liberalism and they point out, with reason, that many Fascists have jumped on the bandwagons of the six parties which form in Italy the so-called Political Esarcby...

...Criticism against the six-party system has been sharp among many old-time anti-fascists and has increased steadily...

...The discontent of the Italian people ia not mere lack of food and transportation...

...Jt—"We have some very great fundamental ideas, first of all, we want to live freely, with the largest and best prosperity and with love for God...

...No hope raa be entertained for a real democratic solution of Ihe Italian problem if lb* political solar system which Togliatti and Nenni have created in Italy is not abandoned by democrats...

...It is really a mas* movement, which was a factor in shaking the foundations of the Pari cabinet...

...Besides, we face a new formidable idea, the idea of the Administrative State, which denies the idea of the Ethical State, of the Paternal State, of the Tutorial State...

...we accept and profess the best ideas and teachings of Croce...

...nomkr, traditional, ethical and national needs of the Italian people...

...Quite correct—the vital interests of the ,>t"pl* have not clashed...

...It is a discontent against the six parties, especially against the Togliatti Nenni bloc and the leaders of the other political parlies who have collaborated with that bloc to get a share of the political spoils of a ruined Italy...

...As a«matter of fact, a recent speech by Nilti in Naples was carried in full as the main feature by L'Uomo Qualunqut...

...Many are Ihe people inside the Socialist and Ihe Action parlies wk* are aware of thia failure and whs < laatoi for a new policy...

...merging with the Communists, but the lack of democracy inside the party ia making it impossible for this anti-fusios majority to unseat Nenni anil create a new leadership...

...10, 1946: I—"A liberalism cleansed of the idiccies of the old soil new asses who lead the so-called Italian Liberal Party, and especially cleansed of that criminal and fruitless cretinism which is fashionable anti-clericalism...

...The editor of L'Uomo Qualunqut is (ijglielmo Giannini who made a name for himself as a playwright and moving picture director...

...P,assing rapidly from the journalistic stage to the organisation stage, L'Uomo Qualunqut has promoted the formation of organized groups, which are mushrooming all over Italy...

...It is today, as it was yesterday, a small party, In the balance sheet of the Left Wing Bloc, all the assets are written in the Communist and in Neurit's pro-Communist column, and all the liabilities and casualties in the narrowed column of the Action Parly...

...Y+UOMO QUALUNQUS has proliferated rapidly and now it sponsors other similar publications, such as La Donna Qualunqut ("The Average Woman...

...The writers of L'Uomo Qualunqut have • weakness for scurrilous vocabulary but even in this, they express the common language of angered people everywhere in Italy...

...For example, who can forbid us to call our movement the Liberal Party of the Homo Qualunqut, when and if we decide in a convention to transform our movement into a political party...

...Actkinisls, Ke-publicana, pregreasive Christian Deme-rrata and pregreasive Liberals...

...Such a program, filled as it is with truisms and popular commonplaces heard all over Italy today, very strongly appeals to the millions of discontented people inside and outside all political parties...

...The Action party, by staying in the Left Wing Bloc and by remaining satis lied, in return, with Cabinet and diplomatic posts, has failed in its natural role of becoming the party of Ihe average man and of the middle-classes...

...The present organized movement of L'Uomo Qualunqut means only that the discontented masses of Italy have found, in a stage director like Guglielmo Giannini, their impressario for a big political show on a national scale...

...N-w, L'Uomo Qualutique has become the publication which enjoys the biggest circulation in Italy...

...The main target of the mother of the Giannini publications, La Donna Quulunque (The Average Woman) ia "I.'unions delle donne Itsliane," a successful united front of women's organisations the Communists nave formed in Italy under the leadership of ttita Montagnana Teg-liatti, the wife of Palmiro Togliatti, and Giuliana Nenni, the daughter of Pietro Nenni...

...Who can forbid us to do so...

...1 have no doubts, however, that monarchists and pro-monarchists are working actively in it...

...Alcide de Gaspsri, the probable new premier, is a sincere democrat, a man of great ability and charm in dealing with people of various parties...

...In Italy there are now about 40 political parties, and some of them, such as the Republican party, which is also critical, have an honored place in the history of Italy...

...Is this foolishness...

...The publication of a new paper in Italy is not in it self exciting news for papers of all kinds are mushrooming everywhere...

...A humorous publication, /.'Orlando, the "Roland" of the age of Charlemagne, is translating in satirical terms the campaign carried by L'Uonut Qualunqut...

...The truth is that at present fusion would be against the interests of the CP, for it would lead to the formation of a competitive Socialist Party in Italy...

...Main targets of the vitriolic attacks by L'Uomo Qualunqut • re the Communist party led by Togli-alli, the Socialist party led by Nenni, and some of the leaders of the Action Party...

...I rv fer to the so called Left Wing Bloc...

...However, Italy needs more than a sincere democrat as premier — it needs a real coalition of democrati" forces...

...Hy remaining in this bloc, the Socialist party has lost its autonomy, has lost its traditional leadership of the Italian trade union movement and is losing iti traditional leaderahip of the cooperative movement...

...The reaction of the leaderahip of the Socialist party and of the Action Party has been more or less the tame...

...WHAT AM OUR "VITAL INTERESTS "7 DeAN ACHESON, Under-Secretaryof State, told a Madison Square Garden rally, celebrating the 28th anniversary of the Russian revolution, that never h«s there been any place on the globe where the vital interests of the American and Russian people have clashed...

...The criticism of this system was not begun by I.I 'im,i Qualunqut...

...When I visited my native country last year this movement was not yet an organized movement...

...The paper, however, professes to be friendly to the "average" Communist or Socialist or Actionist party member...

...It is not true that liberalism has failed or that it is outdated...

...The criticism which comes from L'Uomo Qualunqut is much more serious for it expresses, in more or less dramatic manner, the real feeling of a great part of the Italian people...

...2—"Without Croce...

...Its loss of a battle against Fascism means nothing, for liberalism ultimately won the war against Fascism: the Anglo-American victory Was a liberal victory...

...A new political orbit i* urgently needed is Italy—an Italian Democratic Bloc—aa Italian Popular Bloc, lo be made up •( democratic Socialist...

...Is this an idea to be thrown away...

...The United Press puts its circulation at over the million mark and even adds that late buyers can only buy it at black market prices...

...The Socialist party, as led by IVtie Nenni, and the Action party have moved and still sre moving within a political orbit in which the center of gravity ia the Communist party of Togliatti...