Antonio Gramsci 1925
Elements of the situation
Unsigned, L'Unittà, 24 November 1925.
ext 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 importance of the present political moment derives from the
fact that it allows us to draw certain general conclusions from
the experience of the period of conflicts opened up by the 1924
elections, which reached their greatest degree of acuteness as a
result of the Matteotti assassination. It is clear today that the
political perspectives outlined by the Communist Party during the
course of this period have been fully confirmed, and this
confirmation is the best justification for the party's
slogans.
The Matteotti "period" - understood in a broad sense as the
period of political crisis initiated by fascism after the March on
Rome - is characterized by a conflict between the various groups
of the bourgeoisie, and by the attempt of a part of the petty
bourgeoisie itself to lead the struggle to overthrow the fascist
régime, drawing behind itself the other classes mobilized
for this struggle, in particular the proletariat and the
peasantry. The Aventine policy was the expression of this
attempt. Its failure - which today no one can deny - gives fresh
proof of the impossibility, in the period of imperialism, of the
petty bourgeoisie leading a struggle against reaction, the form
and instrument of the dominion of capital and the landowners. The
collapse of the Aventine has allowed fascism to achieve a vigorous
impetus for its policy,, which should be seen from two basic
points of view.
On the one hand, fascism continues with ever greater
determination to carry through its plan of organic unification
of all the forces of the bourgeoisie under the control of a single
centre (leadership of the Fascist Party, Grand Council and
government), and has achieved results in this sense which cannot
be doubted. The activity aimed at 'fellow-travelling' groups, to
eliminate them as autonomous groups and incorporate their remnants
into fascism, has now been successful. After the passage of the
national-liberals to fascism, there no longer exists outside
fascism a centre of forces openly calling themselves
reactionary. At the same time, the struggle against the old
leading groups continues with increasing bitterness. Its most
notable aspect is the struggle against freemasonry, which in Italy
was the organization of all the forces which supported and gave
cohesion to the State. Fascism has understood the need to arrogate
this function integrally to itself. The opposition press, which
guaranteed to the remnants of the old leading groups a prestige
and influence upon public opinion, no longer carries out that
function. Fascism is systematically storming all centres of
organized resistance - even partial and Platonic - to its
activity. In the economic field, the plan of unification and
centralization is being accomplished through a series of measures
which aim to guarantee the unchallengeable supremacy of an
industrial and land-owning oligarchy, ensuring its control over
the whole economy of the country (restoration of the duty on
grain; unification of banking; changes in mercantile law;
agreements for payment of debts to America, etc.).
The second aspect of fascist policy concerns the repression
that is exercised upon the workers, in order to prevent any kind
of organization of their forces and to exclude them systematically
and permanently from any participation in political
life. Particularly worthy of attention at present are the
following: 1. fascism's new trade-union policy (the 'Fascist
Trade-union Law'); 2. the law on associations, also approved by
the Senate; 3. the reform of administrative structures (the
institution of the podestà for rural
municipalities, and the decision whereby municipal consultative
bodies are nominated by the corporations; the exclusion of
subversives from the municipal councils in the cities).
It seems at first sight that fascism is chalking up only
successes in the realization of its policy. But in fact, its
actions are intensifying all the social conflicts more deeply day
by day, and are bringing about new shifts and regroupments in
which lie the preconditions for an inevitable proletarian
renewal. The end of the Aventine will certainly not close the
series of attempts by the old ruling classes to impede - even
without merging into fascism the rise of the proletariat to the
position of dominant class. Indeed, we can see occurring today a
vast phenomenon of adjustment and recomposition. The various
groups and parties which made up the Aventine, or remained outside
both it and fascism, are seeking the positions from which it will
be easiest for them to continue to fulfil their
counter-revolutionary function. For the proletariat and the
Communist Party, the positions of the parties which chained the
mass working-class movements to the Aventine are particularly
significant.
The Maximalist Party, which was the first to take cognizance of
the failure of the- Aventine, is orienting itself ever more
decisively for counter-revolution. Witness the propaganda which
its leaders are carrying out against the Russian proletarian
state, adopting as their own the theses of the reactionary
democrats of Western Europe; and witness the adhesion given by
Avanti! to the socialdemocratic point of view concerning
the advantages of an 'intervention of American capital' in
Italy. A complete examination of the attitude of the Maximalist
leaders in all the other fields allows a full definition of their
position. it corresponds in part, no doubt, to the tendency of
certain layers of the working population to consider it sufficient
to resist reaction passively, without making any systematic effort
to reorganize their own forces, reconstitute a class front or
prepare for revolution. The leaders of the Maximalist Party mask
their inertia and passivity with empty revolutionary verbalism and
extremist poses. The propaganda which they carry out for the
constitution of a new political grouping that will assemble some
of the débris of the Aventine is the latest form of this
verbalism. It is accompanied by a negative activity in those
fields in which the activity of a working-class party ought to be
carried on today.
An activity analogous to that of the Maximalists is carried on
by the Unitary Socialists and Republicans among other strata of
the working class and anti-fascist petty bourgeoisie; by the
popolari among the rural population; by the Sardists
among the agricultural masses of Sardinia; by the National Union
and social democracy among those of the South and Sicily. In this
way, the formation of a new 'centre' group is being prepared,
which will have a function analogous to that which the Aventine
had during the Matteotti crisis. For the revolutionary preparation
of the proletariat, and the success of the struggle against
reaction, it is indispensable that this new formation should be
decisively unmasked, forced to reveal its true nature before the
masses, and rendered incapable of exercising any influence over
them.
The fundamental problem which the Communist Party must set out
to resolve in the present situation is that of leading the
proletariat back to an autonomous position as a revolutionary
class; free from all influence of counter-revolutionary classes,
groups and parties; capable of collecting around itself and
leading all the forces which can be mobilized for the struggle
against capitalism. The Communist Party must, therefore, intervene
actively in all fields open to its activity, and must take
advantage of all movements, all conflicts, all struggles, even of
a partial and limited character, in order to mobilize the
proletarian masses and transport the resistance and opposition to
fascism of the Italian working population onto a class
terrain.
The Communist Party must systematically combat and unmask those
groups and political parties which are vehicles for the influence
on the proletariat of other classes, and of non-revolutionary
social categories. It must strive to remove from their influence
even the most backward strata of the working class, so that a
united front of class forces may arise from below. This united
front must have an organized form, and this is provided by the
workers' and peasants' committees. All attempts to create
representative mass organisms must be encouraged and developed
with tenacity and constancy, as a first step towards practical
realization of the united front of workers' and peasants'
committees.
12-Nov-00
rolf@marxists.org