Among the possible interpretations of Vanni Rosa (of the "restless boy,"
as a novel by Nicola Colombo is titled; of the adventurer who meddles inevery revolution, first a socialist, then an anarchist, autonomist,
Peronist, and Guevarist; of the Sicilian autonomist who influences the
early positions of the Sicilian Independence Movement; of the former
exile and partisan disillusioned by the outcome of the war of liberation
and the subsequent democratic process), I prefer that of an anarchist,
of considerable intellectual depth, a participant in the post-fascist
debate that began in the mid-1930s in the circles of Italian anarchist
emigrants in the USA, Europe, and North Africa.
That debate, culminating in the Saurtreville Congress of October 1935,
which initially assigned the "reconstructive tasks" to the free and
federated Communes, and to the Workers' and Peasants' Councils within
them, continued among the anarchist exiles (traces of it can be found in
various movement newspapers that appeared immediately after the Second
World War) until it was suddenly overtaken by the Spanish Revolution
with its pan-syndicalist solutions. Rosa, although a great admirer of
the Spanish anarchists (he did not participate in the outbreak of that
Revolution because he was held in prison in Oran from October 1935 to
February 1937), did not allow himself to be ensnared by that model.
Indeed, upon his release, he proposed his own, a variation on
Saurtreville's, with the envisioning of even greater autonomy to be
achieved in a future Sicilian Socialist Republic, part of a renewed
federal Italy. The Sicilian Republic would be built from the bottom up,
thanks to "the autonomous activity of each individual federated
community." It would be "humanist" in nature, meaning "without hatred or
punishment, without exploitation or arbitrariness," and would place "all
its wealth at the disposal of its members, with all its products at the
mercy of those who worked them." This gave rise to an original political
project that in some ways anticipated some recent theoretical
developments, where, especially in Latin America (think of Chiapas but
not only), the possibility of building alternative societies within a
federal state framework was glimpsed.
In the Manifesto Postulates of the Sicilian Autonomist Movement (Umanità
Etnea dei Vespri), dated June 1937, Rosa formulated a "plan for the
material and moral rebirth" of Sicily, to be implemented after
overthrowing the fascist dictatorship ("the first objective of the new
revolution") and achieving the island's independence. It contained 18
"postulates" that all Sicilian anti-fascists, regardless of their
background, should help implement so that Sicily would become "not only
the new Mecca of human fraternity, but a large family of free and equal
people, without slaves or masters, living in the sublime and solemn cult
of Justice and Work."
Rosa did not delve into institutional formulas, nor did he address the
dilemma of commune/union/mixed forms, but instead focused on "economic"
proposals: 1. "socialization of large estates and the means of
production, transportation, and communication"; 2. "creation of
production and consumption cooperatives"; 3-4. "collectivization of land
and the riches of its subsoil." The key issue of property would lead
him, in July 1938, to a clarification: "When property is worked solely
by its owner, and is not exploited by man by man, it ceases to be a
privilege. Certainly, the Etnean Humanity of the Vespers will not think
of expropriating the fisherman of his boat, the farmer of his plot of
land, and the owner of a modest house and artisan's workshop, which,
since the right of inheritance has been abolished, will become common
property of the Republic upon the death of their owners.
The other postulates concerned social services such as: 5.
"reforestation of the island"; 6. "construction of irrigation works"; 7.
"abolition of military conscription"; 8. "compulsory education up to age
twenty, modeled on the anticlerical pedagogy of Francisco Ferrer"; or
rights to be proclaimed: 9. "general amnesty for political crimes"; 10.
"abolition of the death penalty"; 11. "transformation of all the islands
surrounding Sicily into places of rest and holiday for children and the
elderly"; 12. "asylum for all the proscribed"; 13-15. "construction of
new ports on the three coasts of the island, excavation and enlargement
of other existing ports"; 16. "freedom of worship and thought"; 17.
"assistance for the disabled"; 18. "equality of women in all civil and
material rights". On this last point, Rosa had to engage in a painful
debate with several chauvinistic "comrades," to the point of having to
point out that "women in Sicily today are not dissimilar from those in
France, England, or America. You'll find them poorer, perhaps with less
luxury than others, but they are women with the same feelings as women
in the rest of the world, worthy of rights like men."
Upon arriving in Paris in 1938, Rosa established relationships with
Republican, Socialist, and "Giustizia e Libertà" figures, such as
Randolfo Pacciardi, Silvio Trentin, and Emilio Lussu, who were open to
autonomist and federalist solutions for the new Italy. With Lussu, whose
positions were very close to Rosa's, he wanted to form a pact of action,
to be realized at a conference to be held in Ajaccio, Corsica, but this
fell through due to yet another arrest and a lengthy detention (from
March to November 1938). It is therefore not surprising that the first
and only issue of "Trinacria redenta," the organ of the MAS, printed in
Paris in May 1939, featured on its front page the call "to our Sardinian
brothers" for the creation of a federation of independent republics,
federated among themselves.
Natale Musarra
https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
_________________________________________
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