‘The assassination of Matteotti’ with the writings of Nenni

“Fascism is the anti Risorgimento. The Risorgimento as a political movement, is un Great effort of unification and therefore of assimilation. Fascism is instead a dissociation movement. Under a false and deceptive order appearance, there was never much hatred between the classes and parties and the Italians were never so deeply divided. “ Pietro Nenni in 1924, A few weeks after the assassination of Giacomo Matteotti. The book ‘The assassination of Matteotti. From Mussolini’s j’aba to Chieti’s farce trial (1924-1926)‘(Arcadia Edizioni) collects three writings of Nenni with a preface by Claudio Martelli.

On November 13, 1926 Pietro Nenni, on which a capture mandate, deprived of the passport, was hanging, with the home devastated by the fascist squads, he was forced to leave Italy clandestically to choose Lto Strada dell’Isilio French. His family (his wife Carmen and the four daughters Giuliana, Eva, Vittoria and Luciana) will be able to reach him clandestinely only in August 1927, after having evaded the fascist police.

And to think that Nenni and Mussolini made the jail together and knew each other well. The first republican, the other socialist, both from Romagna, were tried and condemned to have guided the mobilizations against the war in Libya, Discounted the sentence in the Forlì prisonliving, communicating, sleeping in the same cell. During the hours allowed, the young wives, Carmen and Rachele go to find them. These are things that unite – writes Martelli – and to forget them, history, character and fate must dig a furrow. Edda, Benito’s eldest daughterolder than eight -year -old Nenni, he will remember that he has been on Peter’s knees and that he called him “uncle”.

“There is talk of a fascist state – it is the j’aba di Nenni in 1924 on the Avanti! – Nobody knows how to say what it is. In truth from the October March onwards there was no longer a state, as there was no before, But there are as many dictatorships as the bell towers. The shop, damaged by the development of cooperativeism, He made the cooperative destroy, as well as the rejected lover made the oil gave the luck to love in love. All in the name of the homeland “.

For Nenni in the crime Matteotti are “evident the complicity and responsibility of Mussolini. Against Matteotti the fascist haties had been relentless. In his Polesine he had suffered persecutions of all sorts. In Rome, secretary of the unitary socialist party, he was considered not only enemy of fascismbut personal enemy of the President. The fascist ‘Ceka’ did not forgive Matteotti’s speeches, especially those pronounced abroad, for example in Brussels, after crossing the border on foot.

Public security, which strictly monitored Matteotti, had begun by compliantly losing the traces on the day of the crime. The knowledge of the names of the assassins not surprised. Especially Dumini and Volpi were very well known in Rome and Milan. The Tail Above everyone was known for replicated signs of benevolence of the head of fascism. It is a crime of state “. In August 1924 Nenni is prophetic:” In the trial of Matteotti the accusation extends beyond the human matter of the crime, invests a historical period, denounces the scandals of a regime, preludes to a New order. The rights of the revolution invoke the fascists. We invoke, interpreters of Italian consciousness, the rights of justice “.

On the role of the opposition, Nenni’s words are a valid vademecum even today: “We opponents resemble a little to an occasional mountaineer company, which all have a top to reach and then take different paths towards sometimes opposite directions. The top Being hard to reach, the climb presenting harsh difficulties, the most elementary sense of prudence and sociability commands everyone’s efforts to be united for the stretch of road that is to be followed in common. Someone will stop, someone will continue to go on, Who will take the right, who left the left. All this seems simple and in truth it is not “. Nenni writes the three duties of the opposition: 1) watching the Matteotti trial preventing the saving of the culprits; 2) continue the fight against fascism with a spirit of absolute intransigence; 3) Considering itself now in a war, forming a state in the state (the true Italian state against the occupant horde) and behaving in the internal and international relations in the same way as this premise.

“By keeping faith with these considerations – concludes Nenni – the struggle will be harsh, perhaps even long, will require a spirit of sacrifice, it will impose on the part of everyone who has direct responsibility for full dedication to the needs of the struggle itself, but the opposition can now be considered victorious. Close this parenthesis of the Middle Ages which is the dishonor of Italybreaking down the bloody dictatorship, doing justice to the batteries is the most noble undertaking in which a people who are not unworthy of freedom can be aspired to measure themselves. On January 3, 1925 Mussolini will close the accounts and pronounce the speech in which he assumes “the Political, moral and historical responsibility “of what happened in Italy in recent months and specifically of the Matteotti crime.