Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The Italian partisan resistance (La Resistenza) were critical in defeating fascism and the German occupying forces in northern and central Italy from 1943 to 1945. The partisan army was made up of 250,000 men and women, of whom the majority were communists, with smaller numbers of socialists , conservatives, leftist Catholics, monarchists, small leftist factions, and regional autonomists. Most partisans fought for national liberation in a civil war against Italian fascism. But beyond national liberation, partisans also struggled for a social revolution to transform the society, a view that is often denied by mainstream, liberal, and even Communist Party historians. The broad political spectrum of the resistance and its many contradictions deeply influenced Italian postwar society as the future of liberal democracy and worker power surfaced. While the Italian Communist Party (PCI) superstructure sought to participate in a government of national unity, the rank-and-file pressed for radical social change. After the defeat of Italian fascism and German occupation, some fascist groups still actively sought to oppose socialist revolution and defend capitalist privilege. The Allies faced the contradiction of relying on partisans in the war against Germany but opposing armed communist troops and social reforms. While the US hoped to rely on anti-fascist bourgeois forces, given their ... log in or subscribe to read full text