International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest

Extract

Pietro Secchia was a prestigious leader of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) and the Italian Resistance. He was born in Biella on December 19, 1903 and joined the Socialist Party at the early age of 16, getting into contact with the Ordine Nuovo group; in 1921 he joined the newly founded PCI. He took leading roles only after Mussolini's rise to power: in 1928 he rose to the Central Committee, and in 1930 to the head of the communist underground in Italy. But in 1931 he was arrested and sentenced to 17 years' imprisonment. Released in August 1943, he went to Milan, where, with Luigi Longo (1900–80), he helped to organize the Resistance and the partisan brigades named after Garibaldi that were under communist influence; as their political commissar, Secchia played a crucial role in the Italian Resistance. At the end of the war Secchia was appointed to the PCI's organization department; in 1948 he became vice-secretary of the party and remained particularly influential among former partisans. In this period he was regarded as a sort of silent dissenter to Palmiro Togliatti (1893–1964) and as a possible alternative to his leadership of the PCI. Secchia insisted that to create a socialist society the party should keep its revolutionary character and he stressed the importance of working-class mobilization rather than parliamentary action or alliance with other political and social groups. ... log in or subscribe to read full text