WORLD WORLDWIDE ITALY News Journal Update - (en) Italy, UCADI #170: Anti-fascism for beginners (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 The latest joke by the President of the Senate on via Rasella is interesting from

various points of view. ---- First of all because it seems that 80 years have
passed in vain so that the enchanted engine of a narration completely detached
from reality continues without even bothering to even give it a look at this
reality. In short, the fascist narrative (a warning that will never be heard, but
which should make those in love with "story telling" think) has not changed one
iota in almost a century. ---- After all, the boutade is paired with Meloni's
statement about the Fosse Ardeatine, where, according to him, 335 people were
killed just because they were "Italians". A gelding.
Before dealing with the specific issue, I also want to clarify that, although it
could be a boutade to throw it into the caciara and not talk about the absolute
nothing represented by the Meloni government, it is Pavlovianly interesting that
the issue is always the same.
In caciara yes, but always as fascists.
So let's talk about the fact itself. First of all, the attack in via Rasella did
not affect a band of middle-aged Italian musicians at all. The 11th Company of
the III Battalion of the "Bozen" Polizeiregiment, object of the GAP attack, was
made up of South Tyroleans used in an anti-partisan function and responsible for
various massacres. From a military point of view they were a legitimate target.
That this attack has led to discussions is normal as in many partisan actions.
The world of resistance was not a monolith and diversity of vision was the order
of the day.
That the attack should not have been carried out because "it was known" of the
retaliation is a highly questionable interpretation, as the retaliation was not
codified by any law and was a practice implemented by the Nazis to terrorize the
population. If the partisans had to observe these cautions in their actions, they
might as well not even start. Furthermore, a curious interpretation of history is
that which considers the massacres and massacres carried out by the Nazis almost
as an inevitable "natural" fact. Needless to say it wasn't, but it was a matter
of conscious choices.
The other hoax that is reported, in spite of now very well established historical
knowledge, is that relating to the fact that the partisans did not "show up" as
requested, in order to avoid the massacre.
Now, aside from the fact that a combatant has never been seen to introduce
himself to the enemy after a war action, there was no request to introduce
himself. The news that appeared in the newspapers (Stefani news agency) the day
after the attack, March 24, stated: "In the afternoon of March 23, 1944, criminal
elements carried out an attack by throwing bombs against a German column of
police in transit in Via Rasella. As a result of this ambush, thirty-two German
policemen were killed and several injured. The cowardly ambush was carried out by
Badoglian communists. Investigations are still underway to clarify to what extent
this criminal act is from attributed to Anglo-American incitement. The German
Command is determined to crush the activity of these nefarious bandits. No one
will have to sabotage the newly established German-Italian cooperation with
impunity. The German Command, therefore, has ordered that for every German
killed, ten Communists from Badoglio will be shot. This order has already been
executed."
Yep, the order was already done.
But these facts are known, among other things explored in an exemplary way by the
beautiful book by Alessandro Portelli "The order has already been executed"
released in the now distant 1999.
That then the killed were killed because they were "Italians" is really a total
distortion of the story that really happened. Among the massacred there were
obviously anti-fascists, Jews, communists, killed because they were hated by
Nazi-fascism, certainly not because they were Italians, also considering that
those who collaborated in compiling the list, such as Quaestor Caruso (shot after
the war) and Minister Buffarini -Guidi, they were very Italian.
So why stir up these events again and relaunch falsehoods that are now completely
preposterous?
It seems to me that the attack is not against "generic" anti-fascism as
unfortunately it is celebrated and lived today (everyone can define themselves as
"anti-fascists" by now), but the Resistance as an act in itself is really true.
That is, one of the very few times in which, since the unification of Italy, a
substantial minority, supported by a very significant consensus in large parts of
the Italian people, chose by itself. He chose to give himself a legality outside
of that existing and chose not only to abandon the twenty years of Fascism, but
to subject the entire unitary process to criticism and, in the end, also the
Monarchy that this Unit had brought to completion. This produced a grudge against
a popular ruling class, immediately silenced after the Second World War and
towards which a very strong intolerance remains. This sentiment, this aversion,
the right has always carried forward (obviously), but it was the revisionist
yielding of the left, the nonsense about the "boys of Salò", which prepared the
ground. Because in both cases it was and is unbearable that someone decided to
take up arms to stop standing by and watching. A vulnerability that was soon
recovered, transforming fascism into a review of bullies and anti-fascism in a
kind of rustic duel.
Chico Mendes once said that "environmentalism without class struggle is
gardening". If it's true for environmentalism, let alone for anti-fascism.

Andrea Bellucci

http://www.ucadi.org/2023/04/18/antifascismo-per-principianti
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