Summary of the paper presented at the Carrara Conference (11-12 October
2025) on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the FAI ---- The firstyears of activity of the FAI Antimilitarist Commission ---- During its
Bologna congress (16-20 March 1947), the Italian Anarchist Federation
(FAI) launched the slogan "not one man, not one penny, not one hour of
work for the war", drawing on a specific antimilitarist tradition:
"neither one man nor one penny" had declared Andrea Costa to oppose
Italy's colonial involvement in Africa in 1887, a slogan that was later
taken up by the International Antimilitarist Alliance, founded in
Amsterdam in 1904. In Bologna, the FAI also established an
Antimilitarist Commission, entrusted to a young Pier Carlo Masini, which
organised "antimilitarist days" in collaboration with local groups:
between 13 June and 14 November 1948, around one hundred rallies were
held in Tuscany, Liguria, Marche, Romagna and Veneto, followed by dozens
of initiatives in Lazio in April 1949.
In preparation for these "antimilitarist days," a manifesto entitled
"Against Militarism and War" was published in November 1947. Written, as
stated on the inside cover, by several young anarchists, the manifesto
accused all Italian parties of being militarist because they represented
one of the two Cold War blocs, from which they reaffirmed their complete
non-involvement. According to this manifesto, anarchist antimilitarism
was integral and revolutionary: integral because it condemns all war
since it "trains discipline, increases the power of the military class,
hinders the circulation of ideas, poisons relations between peoples, and
leaves behind a mass of displaced people who will form the backbone of
reaction"; revolutionary because it aims to eradicate the "causes of the
phenomenon of war and the phenomenon of militarism." Reaffirming the
principles of direct action and the correspondence between means and
ends, the manifesto specified: "It must be individuals, above all, who,
in complete independence, plan initiatives and muster the moral courage
to implement them."
The Antimilitarist Commission, and Masini in particular, also
established contact with the pacifist and nonviolent movement,
particularly with the former Catholic priest Ferdinando Tartaglia (whom
Masini himself had known since his days with the newspaper "Gioventù
anarchica"), and with Aldo Capitini and his Movimento di Religione. With
these groups, Masini waged a political and cultural battle aimed at
pushing them beyond moral testimony to the recognition that power, not
the instinct for violence, was at the root of war. While acknowledging
the "inefficiency" and "fearful inconsistencies" of the pacifist
movement, the seventh issue of the FAI's "Bollettino Interno" of 1948
nevertheless encouraged seeking out forces that "agree on a line of
opposition to the war and inviting them to mobilize on their behalf, on
their own path, with their own flag." The contingent collaboration
proposed by the Antimilitarist Commission resulted in various
initiatives between 1947 and 1948, such as, for example, the series of
lectures held by Tartaglia at some anarchist groups on the theme War:
its supporters and its adversaries and Masini's participation in the
fourth congress of the Religion Movement and the first conference on
political renewal promoted by Capitini.
It is well known that in 1949, conflicts with the "Volontà" group led
Masini to resign from both "Umanità Nova" (where he had been an editor
since 1948) and the Antimilitarist Commission; Masini later founded the
Gruppo Anarchici di Azione Proletaria (GAAP). Meanwhile, the Pinna
affair had erupted.
Anarchism in the face of the first conscientious objectors
In 1948, Pietro Pinna, influenced by Capitini, refused to perform
military service: he was the first (or classified as such) conscientious
objector in Italy. In 1950, he was followed first by Elevoine Santi of
the International Civil Service, then by the anarchists Pietro Ferrua,
Mario Barbani (who in reality was not initially an anarchist but would
become one shortly thereafter), and Angelo Nuzza. To these figures
should be added Libereso Guglielmi, the first proto-objector, portrayed
by Italo Calvino in the story "An Afternoon, Adam." Libereso Guglielmi,
Ferrua, and Nuzza belonged to the anarchist group Alba dei Liberi of San
Remo. Given this, it is not surprising that in his seminal book
"Anarchist Conscientious Objection in Italy," Ferrua referred to San
Remo as the "capital of conscientious objection in Italy."
Conscientious objectors sparked intense debate within the anarchist
movement. In September 1949, "Umanità Nova" accused Pinna of being
exploited by left-wing parties and of having an overly "Christian"
attitude, predicting that his case would remain an isolated one. A few
weeks later, another article noted the "unjustified emotion" his case
had aroused and reported two speeches given at a demonstration in Paris.
The first, by André Breton, rejected the pacifist, humanitarian, and
reformist tone of supporters of conscientious objection. In the second,
the French anarchist Fontaine (perhaps Georges Fontenis?) contrasted
theological conscientious objection (the refusal to use force) with
revolutionary conscientious objection (the refusal to use force under
orders and for the benefit of the state), willing to take up arms "to
defend freedom." Fontaine therefore advised "young revolutionaries" to
use "malice" to avoid conscription or to "do antimilitarist work in the
army." In other words, in his view, conscientious objection unduly
transformed a political problem (how to behave before military service)
into an ethical one.
Giovanna Caleffi, who had already paid homage to Pinna and hoped for
similar cases, responded to these theses: "Nothing serious will ever
begin in our society," we read in the September 1949 issue of "Volontà,"
"if the first step is not to resist, individually, clearly, each
according to his own will. Pietro Pinna has given us a warning example.
He tells us that the individual who dares to will firmly is invincible."
Conscientious objectors who publicly refused military service (facing
trial and prison), Giovanna Caleffi added in "Umanità Nova," spread the
antimilitarist spirit "infinitely more than those who were content to
avoid military service either through desertion or through cunning,"
because the deserter saved his conscience (and perhaps his life), but
those who publicly refused conscription (like the objectors) saved
themselves and at the same time encouraged and helped others to find the
courage to save themselves.
In an article published in 1953 in "La Palestra dei Reprobi," Ferrua and
Barbani noted the presence within the Italian anarchist movement of a
tendency that criticized conscientious objectors (including anarchists),
despite the nonviolent traditions existing in anarchist thought (in this
regard, they cited Lao-tse, Han Ryner, Tolstoy, Herbert Read, and Émile
Armand). From their perspective, there was no conflict between violence
and nonviolence: one seeks to destroy the capitalist framework, the
other the authoritarian residues present within each person. While
defining conscientious objection as a contingent method of struggle, the
two clarified that this method of struggle appealed to that individual
moral imperative that rejected compromise.
Within the FAI, there was a group in favor of conscientious objection.
It included figures such as Italo Garinei, who followed the plight of
conscientious objectors in the Turin newspaper "Era Nuova"; Giuseppe
Mariani, who considered conscientious objection a sort of modernization
of desertion in the changed historical context; Alfonso Failla, whom
Ferrua described as one of the FAI's most ardent supporters of
conscientious objection; Ugo Fedeli, who, among other things, testified
at Ferrua's trial; and Umberto Marzocchi, who on April 30, 1950, during
a rally in Turin, defined conscientious objectors as those who
"practically" refused to be used as instruments of death.
A (brief and provisional) conclusion
Between the late 1940s and early 1950s, the antimilitarist movement also
took the form of conscientious objection: ethical-political impulses
thus intertwined with anti-authoritarian ones. From this perspective,
conscientious objection seems, in a certain sense, to represent the
exemplary gesture capable of shaking consciences. Yet, we must not fall
into simplistic identifications: for Pinna, for example, conscientious
objection was an ethical act, consisting of the personal refusal to take
up a weapon to kill; for anarchist conscientious objectors, however, it
was a political act, linked to the anarchist antimilitarism discussed in
the first part of this article. For some, it was essential not to kill;
for others, the essential thing was not to obey.
DB
https://umanitanova.org/signorno-gli-anarchici-lantimilitarismo-e-lobiezione-di-coscienza-allinizio-della-guerra-fredda/
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