The field of politics has always served as a great example when discussing how fearful actions could launch similarly fearful reactions. The last century's far-right or fascist regimes are especially telling examples. Nowadays, it is commonly accepted to avoid as well as to neglect political or social behaviours resembling the fascist past. If anything, it has become an alarming sign in current times when political parallels are discovered between the present and the aforementioned political systems.
On one hand, fascism did become a dominant political ideology in the first half of the past century because of its blind support granted by the citizens. On the other, we cannot talk about Fascist regimes without mentioning the counter-actions and the freedom fights it had kindled. From this observation, we can draw the assumption that a political ideology that is building itself on power, dominance, and terror is creating its own contrasting force from within. To analyse such a claim, we can turn to Italy and examine the Fascist regime's function and the Resistance that rose against it. In doing so, we shall take the underground press as an example of a crucial tool of the Resistance. It is in every history book now that the Italian Fascist Party ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, and then the Italian Social Party from 1943 to 1945, under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. Its ideology was rooted in revolutionary and aggressive nationalism that dulled the desire to restore Italian hegemony over the Mediterranean and rebuild and continue the heritage of the antique Roman Empire. Furthermore, it opposed liberalism, socialism since it only promoted an Italian nationalism built on a shared past and traditions. Such ideology demanded territorial expansion and a fearsome, centralised political power. It should not surprise us that oppression and censorship were used to force people into the fascist system. Especially censorship, which was, of course, used before the Fascist regime, became key in controlling public opinion, spreading propaganda and blocking alternative voices. Since the two main functions of censorship were either to present the political power in an appealing appearance in the public eye as well as to filter and destroy the unwanted press. The answer was a brave and dedicated resistance movement across Italy that challenged and fought the Fascist dictatorship. During the Resistance, the press played a central role. Each party in the CLN had its own periodical, which was produced, printed and distributed underground, thanks mainly to the efforts of the women's relay girls and the Women's Defence Groups. Sometimes they are local publications, such as the bulletin of the communist federation of Florence, "L'Azione Comunista", or that of the Imola federation, "La Comune". Even individual CLNs sometimes have their own periodicals: 'Fratelli d'Italia', for example, is that of the Veneto committee.
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