Antonio Gramsci 1922
Lessons
Unsigned, L'Ordine Nuovo, 5 May 1922.
Text from Antonio Gramsci "Selections from political writings (1921-1926)", translated and edited by Quintin Hoare (Lawrence and Wishart, London 1978). Transcribed to the www with the kind permission of Quintin Hoare.
The conclusions to be drawn from the way in which this year's
First of May demonstration went are comforting.
The demonstration succeeded as an intervention by the masses
and an extension of working-class solidarity. It showed that the
Italian proletariat is still red, despite reaction. And
it also succeeded as a proof of the spirit of combativity
reawakening among the ranks of the toilers.
The fascists were concerned to show by their attitude, and by
their actual statements, that this was an anti-fascist
demonstration. And such indeed was the meaning of the fact that
large masses stayed away from work and turned out for the rallies,
from one end of Italy to the other, without excepting the areas
most hit by fascism. If there were no processions, this was due to
the government ban. Had it been possible to hold them, today we
would be counting a greater number of workingclass dead, but also
a greater number of fascist dead.
However, we must accompany this comforting recognition of the
huge size and impressive character of the demonstration, and the
high morale of the masses, with a recognition too of what its
organization generally left to be desired.
This was not accidental: the united front tactic adopted on
this First of May by all the proletarian organisms, as a test of
the Italian Alleanza del lavoro, has had one good result
and at the same time one disadvantage. Both must be carefully
considered by the communists. We shall limit ourselves here to a
brief allusion to the question, in connection with the statement
put out by the Alleanza del lavoro's Committee after the
First of May.
By means of the united front tactic, it was possible to draw
great masses of workers to the First of May rallies, even where it
was perfectly clear to every individual attending that what was
involved was not the habitual and tradition choreography, but a
day of struggle. But this demonstration of the proletariat's
aversion to reaction and to fascism, and of the class spirit which
still animates the broad mass of toilers, is not enough in itself
to overcome fascism and reaction. Fascism will not be stifled by
platonic expressions of unanimity. Pistols and fists will not be
rendered powerless by throwing a mattress over them. Fascism does
not have the numbers, but it has organization, united and
centralized, and in this lies its strength, integrated into the
centralization of the official bourgeois power.
The Alleanza del lavoro, which has today made it
possible to assemble vast masses, must become able to organize
these and give them a unitary discipline. This is the task of the
communists: to achieve this result, towards which only the first
step has been taken. When it is possible for major rallies to
count on a mass proletarian attendance, and at the same time on a
rational preparation of our forces, then the proletariat will be
able to dominate its enemies. On this First of May, it was evident
that the meetings and demonstrations arranged by the allied
organizations suffered from the absence of a little organizational
preparation, even simply for the purpose of protecting them from
enemy attacks. This circumstance was due to the fact that it was
not really clear who had organized the meetings, or worked out the
detailed plan for how they should proceed. The local committees of
the Alliance have only recently been formed, and they do not have
either a clear organizational structure or adequate powers.
Nevertheless, it is already a great advantage to have been able
to hold united gatherings of the masses, because this raises
proletarian morale and permits the communists to reach the whole
proletariat with their plain speaking. If there is a whole further
development of this interesting Italian experience of the united
front tactic, it will have the effect of complementing this first
undeniable advantage by a second: organizational unity of a real
and intimate kind.
Some extremely important considerations arise in relation to
this question. For the time being, we will only note that the
trade-union terrain upon which the Alleanza has been set
up allows the communists to press for it to become tighter and
tighter organizationally, until it achieves the proletarian
tradeunion unity which we have always invoked and which the
programme of the Communist Party alone can and must fill with
revolutionary content.
For the present, it is necessary to react against the indolent
and wavering character which the leadership of the Alleanza
del lavoro has had up to now. The communists have already
formulated, precisely and concretely, proposals for the
development, revitalization and strengthening of the
Alleanza - which could, if this campaign is not
vigorously prosecuted in parallel with the eloquent experiences of
proletarian action, degenerate into bureaucratic and cumbersome
diplomacy on the part of hesitant, opportunistic leaders. The
urgency of the communist proposals is shown by the
Alleanza's passive attitude in the face of the extremely
serious provocations to which the workingclass masses were
subjected on the First of May. It is also shown, in spite of the
invitations to action which reached it from all sides, by its
insensitivity to the pressure coming today from the Italian
proletariat, which is ready to proceed rapidly along the path of a
counteroffensive. And it is shown by that extremely eloquent
document, the statement put out by the national committee, which
with its flat, banal phrases rejects what the masses panting for
struggle suggest. We do not wish to make any further comment on
the statement, confident that since the question is now
irrevocably placed before the masses, the latter will not fail to
make their own comment and judgement - and will draw from this
fresh disappointment a new reason to proceed along the arduous but
certain road to their resurgence.