Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals & Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals

 Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals

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Manifesto of Anti-Fascist Intellectuals published on 1 May 1925 in Il Popolo

The Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals, written by Benedetto Croce in response to the Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals by Giovanni Gentile, sanctioned the irreconcilable split between the philosopher and the Fascist government of Benito Mussolini, to which he had previously given a vote of confidence on 31 October 1922.[1] The idea of an anti-Fascist manifesto came to Giovanni Amendola, who wrote to Croce, a proclaimed anti-Fascist, for his opinions on 20 April 1925:

Dear Croce, have you read the Fascist manifesto to foreign intellectuals? ... today, I have met several people who feel that, following the publication of the Fascists' document, we have the right to speak and the duty to respond. What is your opinion? Would you be willing to sign such a document, or even write it yourself?

— Giovanni Amendola

Croce replied a day later, saying that he would be more than willing to, but that the document ought to be short, "so as not to alienate the common folk."

The manifesto was published by the liberal newspaper Il Mondo and by the Catholic newspaper Il Popolo[2] on 1 May 1925, which was Workers' Day, symbolically responding to the publication of the Fascist manifesto on the Natale di Roma, the founding of Rome (celebrated on 21 April). The Fascist press claimed that the Crocian manifesto was "more authoritarian" than its Fascist counterpart.[3]

Il Mondo published three lists of prominent signatories of the manifesto, first on 1 May and then longer lists on 10 May and 22 May. Among the supporters were:

Luigi Albertini

Sibilla Aleramo

Giulio Alessio

Corrado Alvaro

Giovanni Amendola

Giovanni Ansaldo

Vincenzo Arangio-Ruiz

Antonio Banfi

Sem Benelli

Piero Calamandrei

Guido Castelnuovo

Emilio Cecchi

Cesare de Lollis

Floriano del Secolo

Guido de Ruggiero

Gaetano de Sanctis

Francesco de Sarlo

Luigi Einaudi

Giorgio Errera

Giustino Fortunato

Eustachio Paolo Lamanna

Beppo Levi

Giorgio Levi della Vida

Tullio Levi-Civita

Carlo Linati

Attilio Momigliano

Rodolfo Mondolfo

Eugenio Montale

Marino Moretti

Gaetano Mosca

Ugo Enrico Paoli

Giorgio Pasquali

Giuseppe Rensi

Francesco Ruffini

Gaetano Salvemini

Michele Saponaro

Matilde Serao

Adriano Tilgher

Umberto Zanotti Bianco

Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals

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Giovanni Gentile: Philosophical father of Italian Fascism.

The "Manifesto of Fascist Intellectuals" (Italian: "Manifesto degli Intellettuali del Fascismo" [maniˈfɛsto deʎʎ intellettuˈaːli del faʃˈʃizmo]), by the actualist philosopher Giovanni Gentile in 1925, formally established the political and ideologic foundations of Italian Fascism.[1] It justifies the political violence of the Blackshirt paramilitaries of the National Fascist Party (PNF — Partito Nazionale Fascista), in the revolutionary realisation of Italian Fascism as the authoritarian and totalitarian rėgime of Prime Minister Benito Mussolini, who ruled Italy as Il Duce ("The Leader"), from 1922 to 1943.[2][3]

Overview

The Manifesto is the ideological précis of the 29 March 1925 Conference of Fascist Culture at Bologna. In support of the government of Benito Mussolini, prominent Italian academic and public intellectuals effected the first formal effort at defining the cultural aspirations of Italian Fascism. As conference Chairman, the Neo-idealist philosopher Gentile publicly proclaimed the alliance between Culture and Fascism, thereby challenging intellectualist critics who questioned the Fascist régime's cultural respectability.

National Fascist Party flag (1930s–1940s).

The thesis of the Manifesto of Fascist Intellectuals bases Fascist revolution upon co-operation between Culture and Politics.[4] As a statement of politico-philosophic principles, the Manifesto derived from the "Fascism and Culture" (Fascismo e cultura) lecture Gentile delivered in the "Freedom and Liberalism" (Libertà e liberalismo) session of the cultural conference; although officially attended by more than 400 Italian intellectuals, the document bears only 250 signatures.[5]

Il Duce: Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini rendering the Roman salute to his audience.

The Manifesto was first published in Il Popolo d'Italia (The People of Italy), the PNF newspaper, then by most Italian newspapers on 21 April 1925 — the national, anniversary-day celebration of the Founding of Rome (ca. 21 April 753 BC). The publication date's symbolism was deepened with the contemporary, legal establishment of the celebration of the 21 April Natale di Roma (Birth of Rome), established by Royal decree in early 1925 as a replacement for International Workers' Day.[6]

Many culturally influential Italian public intellectuals signed the Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals, among them:

Luigi Barzini, Sr.

Salvatore Di Giacomo

Luigi Federzoni

Giovanni Gentile

Curzio Malaparte

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti

Ugo Ojetti

Alfredo Panzini

Salvatore Pincherle

Luigi Pirandello

Ildebrando Pizzetti

Vittorio G. Rossi

Margherita Sarfatti

Ardengo Soffici

Giuseppe Ungaretti

Although not at the Conference of Fascist Culture, the dramaturge and novelist Luigi Pirandello publicly supported the Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals with a letter. Meanwhile, the support of Neapolitan poet Di Giacomo provoked Gentile's falling out with Benedetto Croce, his intellectual mentor,[7] who afterwards responded to the Fascist Government's proclamation with his Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals, which was published of the liberal newspaper Il Mondo and the Catholic newspaper Il Popolo.[8]