On September 8, 1943, the armistice between the Allied troops who landed
in Sicily and the Italian government was signed in Cassibile. ---- The
situation of the population was extremely serious: hunger and poverty
afflicted the majority of Sicilians. The war still scratched with its
bloody nails many families whose relatives were prisoners or wounded or
dead. The advent of peace, however, made enthusiasm explode, but this
was destined to last a short time. The expectations of the population
were soon betrayed: poverty continued to worsen and the Allied military
administration that governed Sicily had not purged fascists from public
positions. Mafiosi, great feudal lords and rich bourgeois wallowed in
well-being.
In this climate in Bari, under the pressure of the PCI (with the
"Salerno turn" Stalin had indicated to Togliatti to follow the line of
institutional collaboration) and the DC, the government of Ivanoe
Bonomi, which since 18 June 1944 had replaced the military government
led by General Badoglio, on 23 September decided to call up the classes
of 1914-1924 for the purpose of rebuilding the Italian army and sending
it to the North to fight against the Germans. During the month of
December, pink postcards arrived to thousands of families ordering: "In
the name of HRH Umberto of Savoy, Lieutenant of the Kingdom... within
ten days you will report to the Military District. Bring with you mess
tin, spoon and blanket"
On 19 October 1944 in Palermo a demonstration of municipal employees
joined by the unemployed and residents of the neighborhoods was
confronted by the army which caused about thirty deaths. From this
moment on, the army lost all remaining credibility.
In Sicily, 74,000 Sicilians were called up to arms: 60,000 did not
report to the military districts.
There was a widespread desire not to leave, not to be catapulted into a
new war, not to be commanded by fascist generals who were already at the
top of the army in the first three years of the war, not to fight in the
name of a monarchy that had dragged the country into the misadventure of
fascism and the disgrace of war.
Faced with widespread refusal, the government adopted the infamous
method of roundups, trying to capture as many draft dodgers as possible
and lead them to forced enlistment.
At this point, the population had no choice but to rebel.
In over 180 locations on the island, protests and acts of opposition to
the call to arms took place. After the first peaceful demonstrations,
attacks broke out on town halls, conscription offices and barracks. When
the Carabinieri and the police respond to protests with fire, in many
cases people react by shooting to defend themselves.
The protest is widespread everywhere, but in some places it takes on
insurrectional aspects, with armed clashes and deaths and injuries on
both sides, particularly in the Ragusa area and in some places in the
Palermo and Agrigento areas; popular republics arise in Comiso, Naro,
Palazzo Adriano, Piana degli Albanesi.
The widespread position among the rebels is that of a clear refusal to
wear a uniform, while the left-wing components oppose the reconstruction
of the army with the organization of teams of volunteers to be sent to
the North to support the partisans.
The Communist Party tries to convince its base to enlist, but in many
places it rebels and takes to the streets. The clash in the Communist
sections is bitter and lacerating; the party sends Girolamo Li Causi to
Sicily to try to resolve a tangled situation; he must realize how
difficult it is to convince his base. In a crowded meeting at the
Chamber of Labor in Ragusa he is overwhelmed by the members: "If Li
Causi says that we have to leave, we'll slaughter him right there...
we'll throw a hand grenade at him"; on the opposite side of the island,
entire communist sections distance themselves from the party leadership
"for antimilitaristic reasons" and throw themselves headlong into the
revolt. As in Piana degli Albanesi, a place where the rebellion leads to
the constitution of a popular socialist republic that will try, in its
two months of existence, to implement some reforms in favor of farmers
and the weakest. Only the few sections loyal to the line collaborate
with the police in dealing with the revolts.
The role of the separatist movement is secondary. The legend of a
protest fomented by separatists and fascists is contributed above all by
communist propaganda, which from the beginning tries to distance itself
from the generalized refusal of enlistment. Popular and in some ways
revolutionary movements cannot but be branded by the party organ as
"reactionary and fascist regurgitations", a label that will become the
official vulgate with which the facts will be read and handed down, in
particular by the influential historiography linked to the PCI.
While this was also convenient for fascists and separatists, it does not
correspond to reality. The MIS, which raised its voice in the initial
phase (like some fascist fringes), gradually withdrew as the riots
unfolded and, with a few exceptions (Catania, Modica, etc.), did not
gain any influence. On the other hand, especially in situations where
the conflict was more radical, it had no presence in its territory.
Semi-clandestine fascist groups attempted to infiltrate the movement by
adopting slogans favorable to the "brothers of the North" (the Social
Republic of Salò), against whom it should not have started. In this
regard, in a crowded assembly held on the outskirts of Ragusa, the
anarchist Ciccio Calamusa responded to a fascist: we do not leave but we
do not go back.
The riots were characterized by great spontaneity, even if there were
communist, libertarian, separatist and antimilitarist political
militants within.
It is a great movement of self-organization in which the role of women
is predominant.
Finally the people understand that they can oppose the war, that they
can be protagonists of their own lives, that they can change their own
destiny.
After April 25, 1945, throughout the territory of liberated Italy, that
is, the South, 200,000 trials for desertion will take place. But what
makes the movements take on a particular character is that desertion in
many cases has transformed into aversion to the war, into open, violent
and armed revolt, into an attack on the symbols of the State, with the
army at the forefront.
These numbers and these facts give the dimension of the non si parte,
and authorize us to define the movement that developed between December
1944 and January 1945, but in some cases even beyond, as the true
resistance of the South.
Pippo Gurrieri
https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
in Sicily and the Italian government was signed in Cassibile. ---- The
situation of the population was extremely serious: hunger and poverty
afflicted the majority of Sicilians. The war still scratched with its
bloody nails many families whose relatives were prisoners or wounded or
dead. The advent of peace, however, made enthusiasm explode, but this
was destined to last a short time. The expectations of the population
were soon betrayed: poverty continued to worsen and the Allied military
administration that governed Sicily had not purged fascists from public
positions. Mafiosi, great feudal lords and rich bourgeois wallowed in
well-being.
In this climate in Bari, under the pressure of the PCI (with the
"Salerno turn" Stalin had indicated to Togliatti to follow the line of
institutional collaboration) and the DC, the government of Ivanoe
Bonomi, which since 18 June 1944 had replaced the military government
led by General Badoglio, on 23 September decided to call up the classes
of 1914-1924 for the purpose of rebuilding the Italian army and sending
it to the North to fight against the Germans. During the month of
December, pink postcards arrived to thousands of families ordering: "In
the name of HRH Umberto of Savoy, Lieutenant of the Kingdom... within
ten days you will report to the Military District. Bring with you mess
tin, spoon and blanket"
On 19 October 1944 in Palermo a demonstration of municipal employees
joined by the unemployed and residents of the neighborhoods was
confronted by the army which caused about thirty deaths. From this
moment on, the army lost all remaining credibility.
In Sicily, 74,000 Sicilians were called up to arms: 60,000 did not
report to the military districts.
There was a widespread desire not to leave, not to be catapulted into a
new war, not to be commanded by fascist generals who were already at the
top of the army in the first three years of the war, not to fight in the
name of a monarchy that had dragged the country into the misadventure of
fascism and the disgrace of war.
Faced with widespread refusal, the government adopted the infamous
method of roundups, trying to capture as many draft dodgers as possible
and lead them to forced enlistment.
At this point, the population had no choice but to rebel.
In over 180 locations on the island, protests and acts of opposition to
the call to arms took place. After the first peaceful demonstrations,
attacks broke out on town halls, conscription offices and barracks. When
the Carabinieri and the police respond to protests with fire, in many
cases people react by shooting to defend themselves.
The protest is widespread everywhere, but in some places it takes on
insurrectional aspects, with armed clashes and deaths and injuries on
both sides, particularly in the Ragusa area and in some places in the
Palermo and Agrigento areas; popular republics arise in Comiso, Naro,
Palazzo Adriano, Piana degli Albanesi.
The widespread position among the rebels is that of a clear refusal to
wear a uniform, while the left-wing components oppose the reconstruction
of the army with the organization of teams of volunteers to be sent to
the North to support the partisans.
The Communist Party tries to convince its base to enlist, but in many
places it rebels and takes to the streets. The clash in the Communist
sections is bitter and lacerating; the party sends Girolamo Li Causi to
Sicily to try to resolve a tangled situation; he must realize how
difficult it is to convince his base. In a crowded meeting at the
Chamber of Labor in Ragusa he is overwhelmed by the members: "If Li
Causi says that we have to leave, we'll slaughter him right there...
we'll throw a hand grenade at him"; on the opposite side of the island,
entire communist sections distance themselves from the party leadership
"for antimilitaristic reasons" and throw themselves headlong into the
revolt. As in Piana degli Albanesi, a place where the rebellion leads to
the constitution of a popular socialist republic that will try, in its
two months of existence, to implement some reforms in favor of farmers
and the weakest. Only the few sections loyal to the line collaborate
with the police in dealing with the revolts.
The role of the separatist movement is secondary. The legend of a
protest fomented by separatists and fascists is contributed above all by
communist propaganda, which from the beginning tries to distance itself
from the generalized refusal of enlistment. Popular and in some ways
revolutionary movements cannot but be branded by the party organ as
"reactionary and fascist regurgitations", a label that will become the
official vulgate with which the facts will be read and handed down, in
particular by the influential historiography linked to the PCI.
While this was also convenient for fascists and separatists, it does not
correspond to reality. The MIS, which raised its voice in the initial
phase (like some fascist fringes), gradually withdrew as the riots
unfolded and, with a few exceptions (Catania, Modica, etc.), did not
gain any influence. On the other hand, especially in situations where
the conflict was more radical, it had no presence in its territory.
Semi-clandestine fascist groups attempted to infiltrate the movement by
adopting slogans favorable to the "brothers of the North" (the Social
Republic of Salò), against whom it should not have started. In this
regard, in a crowded assembly held on the outskirts of Ragusa, the
anarchist Ciccio Calamusa responded to a fascist: we do not leave but we
do not go back.
The riots were characterized by great spontaneity, even if there were
communist, libertarian, separatist and antimilitarist political
militants within.
It is a great movement of self-organization in which the role of women
is predominant.
Finally the people understand that they can oppose the war, that they
can be protagonists of their own lives, that they can change their own
destiny.
After April 25, 1945, throughout the territory of liberated Italy, that
is, the South, 200,000 trials for desertion will take place. But what
makes the movements take on a particular character is that desertion in
many cases has transformed into aversion to the war, into open, violent
and armed revolt, into an attack on the symbols of the State, with the
army at the forefront.
These numbers and these facts give the dimension of the non si parte,
and authorize us to define the movement that developed between December
1944 and January 1945, but in some cases even beyond, as the true
resistance of the South.
Pippo Gurrieri
https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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