ABSTRACT: A collection of documents on the radicals' libertarian antifascism: to recognize fascism means to understand what it has been and above all what it can be. Apparent antifascism too often hides a complicity with those who represented the true continuity with fascism, the reprise of laws and methods typical of that regime. (" WE AND THE FASCISTS", The radicals' libertarian antifascism, edited by Valter Vecellio, preface by Giuseppe Rippa - Quaderni Radicali/1, November 1980)
The Scelba law is back in fashion Only recently has the trial closed against Avanguardia Nazionale (1) accused, on the basis of the Scelba law reinforced by the Reale (2) law, of reconstituting the Fascist Party. Only a little earlier, on April 30, in an editorial in "Corriere della Sera" (the Milan daily, ed.), Leo Valiani had invoked an extended interpretation of the crime of reconstituting the Fascist Party that would include the extra-parliamentary left. Today, the noted anti-Fascist maintained, the attack on democracy does not come from the right alone: "At the present analogous dangers also come from small left-wing groups that proclaim themselves part of the extra-parliamentary left". And just so we know where we stand, he even asked for a dusting off of the police's special powers of arrest on suspicion and a good slice off civil liberties in general.
The old trick always works: you dust off an authoritarian norm and promote its application in, let's say, an anti-Fascist
-----------------------------------------------------------------
1) The far-right Fascist group National Vanguard.
2) The Scelba law makes it a crime to express certain political opinions whereas the Reale law gives police special powers for enforcing public order.
sense as in the example of the trial of Avanguardia Nazionale.
The left applauds. And there's nothing to be done: there are far too many on the left prone to accept any kind of authoritarian measure - military courts, crimes of opinion - as long as they are directed against the adversary. In this sense the anti-Fascist label works miracles. Above all when prescribed anti-Fascism, impotent despite its Molotov cocktails, serves as a cover for the lack of political ideas on the part of the so-called revolutionary left.
There was a moment in December when an effort was made to break this rotten trend. It was at the beginning of the trial against Avanguardia Nazionale, when the Radical attorneys Franco de Cataldo and Mauro Mellini said they would join the staff of defense lawyers. Their reasons? The trial was a fraud since it did not seek conviction for violent acts but only crimes of opinion and served only to certify the democratic nature of the Scelba and Reale laws. The Radical Party supported the two lawyers' decision and asked the left to boycott the operation. Not a chance: all it took was the start of a dispute and in the mind of the public, deprived of information, there remained the idea of a senseless provocation. What mostly astounded everyone was that one recognised the rights of the adversary - in this case the Fascists - to that freedom of expression which in general the left only demands for itself.
Pisciotta's Coffee
From then on the Radical's action was considered a sin to be
hidden , a false step to be ashamed of and never to be mentioned.
Instead we want to bring it into the open as a comment on the results of the trial against Avanguardia Nazionale. It is a piece of news that has not been published and ends with a final cautionary tale - the Fascists who refuse the embarrassing Radical defence proposal - which speaks volumes for the correctness of the initiative.
When the trial was announced in December one fact immediately caught one's attention: the 62 defendants of Avanguardia Nazionale were part of a list of Fascists denounced to the police by Almirante (3) at the time of the killing of the police officer Marino in Milan for which the responsibility of the MSI was about to be brought to light. Almirante maintained that it was a Fascist provocation in the true sense of the word - which is to say perpetrated by the government and more precisely by the Ministry of the Interior's Office of Confidential Affairs. In the past he had already declared that Avanguardia Nazionale corresponded to the agents that had infiltrated the left at the time of the Piazza Fontana massacre.
It is a certainty that the heads of Avanguardia Nazionale are up to their necks in the strategy of tension and massacres -----------------------------------------------------------------
3) Giorgio Almirante, secretary of the MSI.
from Piazza Fontana to Peteano.(4) But at the trial nothing is said of all this. The point is one of opinions: "...the negation of the principle of equality, the affirmation of the regime
selection... the suppression of the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution (in particular the freedoms of expression
and association)...", states the accusation.
"This trial is like the coffee of Pisciotta", (5) says Mauro Mellini: it serves to get rid of the regime's accomplices who have become a burden while avoiding an investigation of the things they have done". Cataldo says: "The defendants are accused of a crime of opinion in accordance with the Scelba law aggravated by the Reale law. These laws violate art.21 of the Constitution. One must emphasise this because the struggle for liberty that must be undertaken everywhere must not be limited on this point by the political creed of the accused".
Tilgher Likes the Reale Law
The Radical Party appeals to the left: "with the excuse of prosecuting a Fascist organisation, the Republic of Italy is reserving the right to practice Fascist justice. We must not let
-----------------------------------------------------------------
4)
5)
it happen". "Mellini and De Cataldo also contest the summary nature of the trial process: "This is a way to deal with chicken thieves caught in flagrante delicto. To apply it to a case as complex as that of the reconstitution of the Fascist Party is in practice to cut out the investigation, arrest people on the basis of police reports alone and keep them locked up until the trial is ended, even if a case of mistaken identity occurs. And all of this thanks to the Reale law". In fact, the trial has been constructed on the basis of police reports made in 1972-73.
The two lawyers also denounce another aspect: "In Italy a Fascist party has already certainly been reconstituted: it is called MSI- Destra Nazionale. We pay taxes to subsidise this trial because a majority in Parliament has so decided, including the left. While this trial is going on the head of state receives the secretary of the MSI at the Quirinal Palace for consultations, who is accused of the same crimes. In the meantime the killers are capture and judged not for their actions but for their ideas. It is a fraudulent trial".
In accepting the defence, however, De Cataldo and Mellini make three conditions: 1) that at least ten democratic lawyers are appointed of the 130 to whom the accused have a legal right; 2) that the Radical lawyers are free to take a line of defense according to their professional, juridical and political convictions; 3) that there will not be a single legal staff for the defense. In particular they announce in advance that they intend to pose questions of the unocnstitutionality of art.12 of the Reale law and articles 1 and 2 of the Scelba law.
The affair ends in an unforeseen but logical way: the Fascists and their lawyers are contrary to raising the question of the constitutionality of the two laws and thus exclude the defense of De Cataldo and Mellini. It is clear: Tilgher and his group do not permit the fight at their trial against laws which are congenial to them. The pretended victims thus become bedfellows of their pretended prosecutors. In any case they know they are only risking a clash at a cheap price.
The important thing is that the Scelba-Reale tandem should continue to strike at the left.
("Prova Radicale", June 1976)
