ABSTRACT: After having torn Andrea Valcarenghi's book "Clenched fist Underground" apart, accusing it of being an example of "the purest of pseudo-cultures", Pasolini states that Marco Pannella's preface to the book (ARCHIVE RADICAL PARTY text n. 159) is "finally the text of a political manifesto of radicalism".

("Il Tempo" 4/11/1973)

...What this book reveals through its language is a terrible cultural misery. It is the formal product of the purest of pseudo-cultures. Our friend Valcarenghi not only hasn't "thought" about what the bourgeoisie he attacks really is, but he hasn't really "thought" about what dissent is either. All his opinions are of an automatic quality, glide on a reality void of any resistance. A real pity to think that there is a supreme, almost solemn moment in this degraded book: "I am reminded of Pinelli in '67, when I took part in a meeting at the Ghisolfa bridge with the "Provos".

As I was leaving, Pinelli told me: "these boys should read, or in a couple of years, when the fashion is over, they will disappear".

As a representative of this fashion (finally came out of the closet with this book) Valcarenghi, together with the features of his culture also reveals the features of his psychology. He is a very good man, as an ancient Italian. He is a puppy who, having been accidentally let free, becomes stray and travels around the world (between Milan and Rome), eager to meet new masters. His fundamental humbleness turns any thuggish attitude into something absolutely mechanical. His revolt is purely mimetic. And, this is the point, he is too good to be capable of mocking. He jokes, he smiles, he laughs, but he is absolutely incapable of mocking. And when he does, he does it in an organized, collective manner. He is a good son, and he loves abolished parents a great deal, he is obedient and sincere (in fact he often remembers his true family with secret fondness). It was perhaps this goodness and simplicity of his (his tremendously coarse language is social, not personal) that won him Panella's esteem and friendship, wh

o wrote the preface to this book.

Marco Pannella's preface, ten pages long, is finally the text of a political manifesto of radicalism. This is a happening in the Italian culture of these years. Impossible to ignore it. The definitions he gives of the revolutionaries of non-violence, of power, of the traditional Left and of the new Left ("enough with this Left that is great only in funerals, commemorations, protests and celebrations; this is all "black" (1) rubbish) of fascism and especially, and in a truly brilliant way, of anti-fascism ("who, I ask you, are these fascists against whom you have been aggregated for twenty years...in a sacred union, in a grim and cowardly salvation army?", "...where are these fascists, if not in positions of power, in the government? They are the various Moro (2), Fanfani (3), Rumor (4), Colombo (5), Pastore (6), Gronchi (7), Segni (8) and - why not? - Tanassi (9), Cariglia (10), maybe even Saragat (11), La Malfa (12)"; "a tragic operation of digression is being carried out under the antifascist flag"; "in al

l this antifascist history of yours, I can't tell where the greatest evil lies; whether the retrieval...of a violent, anti-lay culture...according to which the opponent must be killed or exorcized like the devil...; or in the indirect, immense practical service you are offering the State and its masters today, burdening their emissaries...with the force...of real anti-fascism; "fascism is the most serious and important thing, "with which we often have an intimate relationship". The parenthetic tone which this book forced on my critical analysis, inevitably leads me to conclude by inviting the reader not to miss out on these pages of Pannella, the only ones to this moment.

Translator's notes

(1) "Black": fig. fascist.

(2) Aldo Moro (1916-1978): Politician. Secretary of the Christian Democrat Party (1959-65), minister on several occasions, Premier (63-68). Author of the Centre-Left policy. Foreign minister (69-74), Premier (74-76), President of the Christian Democrat Party as from '76, he favoured an inclusion of the Communist Party in the government. Kidnapped by the Red Brigades on 16.3.78, he was found dead on 9.5.78.

(3) Amintore Fanfani (1908): Politician. Secretary of the Christian Democrat Party (54-59; 73-75), Prime Minister (58-59; 6062; 62-63; 82-83), Foreign Minister (64-65; 65-68), President of the Senate (68-73; 76-82).

(4) Mariano Rumor (1915): Politician. Secretary of the Christian Democrat Party (64-69), Prime Minister (68-69; 69-70; '70; 73-74; 74).

(5) Emilio Colombo (1920): Politician. Minister of Treasury (63-70 and 74-76), Prime Minister (70-72), Foreign Minister as from 1980.

(6) Giulio Pastore (1902-1969): labour leader, Christian Democrat, General Secretary of the CISL (labour union founded in 1950 by the Christian democrats).

(7) Giovanni Gronchi (1887-1978): Politician. One of the founders of the Popular Party (1919) and of the Christian Democrat Party ('43), President of the Parliament (48-55) and of the Republic (55-62).

(8) Antonio Segni (1981-1972): Politician and jurist. Member of the Christian Democrat Party, Minister of Agriculture (46-51), he elaborated the first agrarian reform (a law in '49). Prime Minister (55-57 and 59-60), President of the Republic in '62, he resigned in '64 suffering from a severe illness.

(9) Mario Tanassi (1916). Secretary of the Social Democrat Party (1963) and co-secretary of the Unified Socialist Party (PSIU) from '66 to '69, Defence Minister (68-69; 70; 70-72; 73-74), convicted by the Constitutional Court for corruption in the Lockheed scandal in '79.

(10) Antonio Cariglia (1924): Politician. Secretary of the Social Democrat Party. Senator, member of the Italian and European Parliament.

(11) Giuseppe Saragat (1898-1988): Politician. Socialist, Minister of in the first Bonomi government (1944), President of the constituent assembly ('46). in January '47 he was the leader of the split of the Socialist Party's right wing, founding the PSLI and later the Social Democrat Party. Vice Prime Minister (47-50; 54-57), Foreign Minister (63-64), President of the Republic (64-71), President of the Social Democrat Party.

(12) Ugo La Malfa (1903-1979): Politician. Among the founders of the Party of Action (1942), he then joined the Republican Party (1948), of which he was Secretary (65-75) and President. Minister of Transport (1945), of Foreign Trade (46; 51-53), of Balance (62-63), of Treasury (73-74), Vice Prime Minister (74-76).