Autor: FIR | 22. 4. 2024
While the fascist government in Italy of Giorgia Meloni is making efforts to destroy the anti-fascist traditions in social consciousness, ANPI and other anti-fascist associations are calling for April 25, Liberation Day this year, to become a public signal against the right-wing government under the motto “Viva la repubblica antifascista”. The call from the national secretariat of ANPI states:
“The date of April 25 is a symbol of a free and liberated Italy, after twenty months of Resistance and an extraordinary tribute of blood and pain. End of the German occupation. End of fascism. End of the conflict. The fascist state, but also the old liberal state, was overthrown, and the construction of a new state and a new society began. On June 2, 1946, the people chose the Republic, and with the Constitution of 1948, a democratic Italy was born that is based on work and repudiates war.
- Today everything is in danger. There is a government that includes an extreme right wing that has its roots in the 20-year fascist period and its nostalgias, which is why it intends to change the Constitution. With one man (or one woman) in charge - the so-called “prime minister” - and a country shattered into many competing regions, with different rights of citizens - the differentiated autonomy of the regions -. An extreme right that in various ways tends to suppress any dissent, any protest. An aggressive, vindictive, vindictive extreme right.
- Everything is in danger because there are millions of poor people, precarious work is rampant, with a government cutting health care and public schools, with the whole of Europe facing economic recession. There is great social loneliness; the future is seen as a threat.
- Everything is in danger because there is war, and it is often talked about irresponsibly, as if it were a harsh necessity or, worse, a new and acceptable normal. As the whole world rearms itself as it did before the two world wars, a high-intensity conventional war in Europe is declared possible. This is madness. President Mattarella is right when he stresses that our country’s task is “to build bridges of dialogue, of cooperation with other nations, with respect for each people.” An April 25, 2024 liberation from war is urgently needed. Cease fire everywhere.
Let us say it: an alarm must be sounded. Democracy, freedom, equality, labor, solidarity, peace, that is, the democratic republic founded on the Constitution and born of the Resistance, are at stake. This April 25 cannot be like the others. It must be the day on which anti-fascist and democratic Italy, families, women, young people, and our great deluded and disappointed people gather in the squares of all cities, starting with Milan. We must give back a real hope for the future, made up of a good job, a wage sufficient for a free and dignified life, and a stable and lasting peace,. Let us build this April 25 together, let us build it as an extraordinary appointment that cannot be missed, as an insurmountable and peaceful barrier against any attack on democracy and freedoms. Let us build it together by waving the flags of the better tradition of the country, the flag of the anti-fascist Constitution, the flag of Italy founded on work and repudiating war, the flag of those from whose sacrifice rose the seeds of a new Italy. Let us make the April 25 an unforgettable day. Together.”
FIR wishes the Italian anti-fascists a great response to this appeal and it is sure that the movement of the masses will protect the anti-fascist legacy in Italy.
