Gelderen THANKS to the logistical requirements of the British army, I found myself in Naples in 1943, soon after the fall of Mussolini and October. the collapse of the fascist regime.
-It was like living in a political renaissance. The atmosphere was exhilarating. to Power. Marxist literature was openly displayed on open air bookstalls, dated 1926, some with the pages still uncut. The booksellers, after these books were banned, simply concealed them, waiting for the day when fascism would come to an end and they could sell them again.
Everyone was being very political. Revolution seemed to be in the air. Almost every wall was covered with sogans: Power to the Workers; Viva Stalin; Viva Tito.
The Italian working class, isolated from the international Minister. socialist movement for nearly two decades, identified Stalin and the advancing Red Army with the October Revolution. They were ready for their own When Togliatti arrived in Italy he was greeted by enthusiastic crowds. He was greeted with cries of Workers Trotskyist. Kremlin But Togliatti had come back from his Moscow exile with strict orders from his masters in the Kremlin. "No, comrades", he said (I paraphrase) 'this is not the time for workers' power. Our main from that source too. job is to support our allies to defeat the Germans. We don't need workers' power, we their way to us. need Field Marshals in power", a reference to Mar- Naples at that time. shal Badoglio who had suc- I sold my Naafi ration on ceeded Mussolini as Prime the black market, giving all the funds to the Italian comThrough a member of the • rades. Socialist Party, with whom I The Americans brought was friendly, I was asked to whole case-loads of Camels, speak to a meeting of Socialist which commanded the highYouth. From there a report est price. With this money we must have gone to the local launched the first Italian TrotTrotskyists that I might be skyist paper, Il Militante. 'one of them'. This is how I We learnt from one of the came to meet Nicola de Bar- American comrades that he tolomea (Fosca), a veteran had seen a manifesto calling for the Fourth International in He was already in contact Bari and Foggia, on the other with an American member of side of the Italian peninsula. It the Workers Party (Shacht- was signed Mangana'. manites) which was using its It was imperative that we seafarer members to bring contact him but that part of funds and assistance. I man- Italy was in the American aged to get information zone. We needed passes to get through to the SWP in New there. York and help began to arrive One of my jobs was to issue passes to soldiers on Other American and Brit- leave. I wrote in in my own ish servicemen soon found name, signed with a scribble Cigarettes and put Lt (for lieutenant) afwere the main currency in ter the signature.
As Ernest Mandel points out in The Meaning of the Second World War, to see the war as simply anti-fascist is a mistake The American and British ruling classes fought the war not in order to defeat fascism, but to triumph over the German and Japanese bourgeoisies. There is the world of difference between the legitimate and just self-defence of a small nation fighting German or Japanese imperialism and the war aims of Britain and the USA. Wars should be characterised instead by their justice. To do otherwise results in the labour movement tamely following behind ruling-class policies - as did the Communist Party's "anti-fascist alliances". It means ignoring the terAn American comrade provided Nicola with a letter stating that he was employed with the US Military Police and had permission to visit his sick mother in Foggia. We travelled by hitch-hiking on military vehicles; journeyed miles on top of a huge wine barrel drawn by horses and eventually reached Foggia and Mangana. This led to the formation of the Partito Operaio Communista, the first Italian section of the Fourth International. I am the proud possessor of its number one membership card Nicola, unfortunately, died in 1946. Under Mangana's leadership the party took an Like Hitler, the American and British ruling class were fighting for markets and profits rible atrocities committed in the colonies of one's own imperialism.
Rebuilding When the war was over, the Communist and social democratic parties which had collaborated in the imperialist war effort ended up collaborating in rebuilding capitalist states.
There is further reason to question all the current demagogy over the "defeat of fascism".
Not only does the simplicity collapse a series of processes into only one of its aspects, but it misunderstands the ideologies that have shaped the post-war settlement.
Anti-Nazism was the main ideology used by the British ruling class Money from a case-load of Camels launched an Italian paper Never more sectarian line and never established roots in the working class. I also met Bordiga. We became very good friends and established warm comradely relations. We had many interesting discussions but he was still the same ultra-left sectarian who had quarrelled with Lenin. He was a very colourful personality and his supporters worshipped him. This was a very interesting experience for me. In fact, my three years in Italy was, politically, among the most fruitful periods of my life, an experience I will never forget.
1945: 50 YEARS ON to get its working class to fight, die, and endure cuts in living standards. It was an important tool in gaining the submission of the workers' organisations.
It was important also in fashioning the workers' movement post war. The relationship was consolidated in a new way in the Attlee administration - a very workable alliance was drawn up between workers, government, intellectuals and the labour movement bureaucracy founded on such things as full employment, guaranteed living standards and social liberalisation.
It is the drawn out death of this settlement that continues to shape British politics. And no amount of VE day nostalgia will hide its demise.