Montana labor news., 1944-02-24
AMERICAN SOLDIER
WRITES OF ITALIAN
PEOPLES PARTIES

PEOPLES PARTIES
Editorial Note: This is an excerpt
from a letter written by Cpl. Herbt Ler-
ner, former organizer for the I%nterna-
tional Union OF Mine, Mill & Smelter
Workers (cIo) now with the U. S. Medi-
cal corps in Italy, to his wife, Ruth
Siegel, educational director Of five locals
of the International Fur & Leather
Workers Union (CIO) in Newark, N. J..
After describing a visit to the headquar-
tiers of the Fronte N~azionale della Liber-
azione National 'FRONT.' he says:
Fairly typical Of the local committees
for National Liberation is the group
organized in the small city of -
in southern Italy. This committee was
formed underground two years ago and
emerged openly on October 5, the day
after the American 5th Army drove the
Nazis out.
Taking headquarters in the back room
of a local cafe, committee members i'm
mediately began to secure the country
side for stores Of food hoorded on the
large estates. Leftover stores of Italian
army food were seized for relief of the
local population. simultaneously they
began recruiting for a volunteer battalion
being formed under Gen. Paone in
Naples. Their primary purpose is to
unity all anti-fascist forces, and to
strengthen their united front.
The five parties of the National Front
are the Partito Acton, the Communist
party, Socialist party, Christian Demo-
Gratis and Liberal Democrats. Within
this coalition the Catholic Partito Acton
is the strongest party and the Commu-
mist party second.
while the Fronte Nazionale does not
actively oppose Premier Pietro Badoglio,
it does not approve or support him. How
ever, it is unalterably opposed to the
monarchy. It's objective is the estab-
lishment Of a democratic republic in
Italy. In its relations with Badoglio
it is much in the same position as the
DeGaulle followers in relation to Cir
aud. Not approving him, they must
nevertheless accept him since he is the
Anglo American choice.
The local committee, operating in a
city of $4,000 people, has in the past
two weeks recruited &c men for service
in the volunteer battalion. The number
of applications mounts with each day.
the most part these men are former
deserters from the Italian army, or pa
rolled prisoners of a The five parties
have a combined membership Of over
1000. Each party maintains its freedom
of action and its own political program,
but all unite on a minimum program
of National Liberation and a democratic
republic.
Leaders of the committee are all men
who have proved themselves in the fight
against fascism. The president, Clemente
Piscitelli, a member of the Christian
Democrats, was a member of parliament
in 1921. He was a political prisoner for
some time, being finally released in 1885.
The secretary Of the committee, Vim
cente Pizzare, Of the Partito Acton, has
also been a political prisoner of fascism,
while the mead Of the local Communist
party, Domenico Schiayo, has been in
Jail 10 times.
Trade unions have not been permitted
legally to |reestablish themselves, but
their underground organizations are af-
filiated with the Fronte Nazionale. That
part Of Italy now in Allied hands has
few industries, however, and consequent
ly small trade union membership. The
most important union here is the Rail
road Workers Union.
In northern Italy the Fronte Nation
ale functions underground. The Nation
al Front organizes sabotage and guer-
rilla warfare against the Nazi occupa-
tionists. Copies of La Nemesi CThe Ven
geance), a 1-page newspaper, circulate
throughout northern Italy. Every man,
woman and child has his task, it says,
and proceeds, under the heading Techica
della Resistanza technique of resist
ance) to give specific instructions for
sabotage and guerrilla war.
Relations of the Fronte N~azionale
with the Allied military government are
somewhat ambiguous. The committee
gets more encouragement from the
American authorities than from the
British. The committee is allowed no
governmental functions, nor is it con-
suited on appointments Of city officials
made by AMG. In line with AMG's
policy, the mayor and other officials are
the same men who held those offices
before.
THE local committee has prepared a
dossier on the leading fascists of the
community which it has presented to
AMG, and hopes that these men will
soon be arrested. The committee asks
that American labor exert its tremend-
Gus influence to speed food to the fight
ing peoples of Italy. Italy will play its
part in the war To destroy faeciem piobt