Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-11-15
|Leftists in Rome
Raid Meeting Of
War Veterans
General Strike Call
Discussed; Transit
Facilities Tied Up
BY the Associated Press

ROME, Nov. ia general
strike threatened Rome today as
violence, which fiared in scores
of italian towns and cities this
week, spread to the capital on
wings of a concerted leftist as
sault against the Christian Dem
ocratic government of Premier
Alcide de Gasperi.
Rome's Chamber of Labor dis
cussed calling the strike to protest
the arrest of a street car conductor
identified by police as a Communist
in a Leftist raid on an anti Com
munist meeting of war veterans
The street car and omnibus workers
union already had their members
out in a flash protest strike.
The Leftist- controlled labor press
in pattern similar to that followed
elsewhere in riot-torn communities
struck out at the right-wing press
Printers refused to put out today's
edition of the Liberal conservative
Party newspaper Risorgimento Lib
erale because its director refused to
publish a resolution of the typo
graphical union attacking what it
called the capitalist and neo-
fascist" press. Giulio de Mario, di-
rector of the independent II Mo-
mento, resigned rather than publish
the statement, and the newspaper
appeared under another publish
er's name.
The transport strike grew out of a
meeting in the Piazza Esedra of the
Anti Communist Association of War
Prisoners Returned from Russia,
which was raided by Leftists. The
Leftists reported that Marshal Gio-
vanni Messe, wartime commander of
Italian troops on the Russian front,
was scheduled to address the meet
ing, and he is assailed by the left
as a potential man on horseback for
resurgent facism.
Trucks Garry Passengers.
Robert Lucifero, liberal deputy,
declared In the Constituent Assembly
that the subsequent transport strike
was an example of Leftist attacks on
the centrist-rightist De Gasperi
government.
The strike paralyzed all municipal
ly-operated transportation, leaving
only ancient Camionette, privately
owned converted pickup trucks, to
take care of lunchtime crowds.
A short time before the Piazza
Esedra clash, 200 to 300 men armed
with sticks attacked police trying to
arrest black market tobacco vendors
in the Piazza vittorio. Police quelled
an incipient riot.
The rioting has taken five or more
lives in the last week and left
countless Rightist newspaper and
party offices in wreckage in scores
of towns.
Bomb Is Tossed.
Dispatches from Perugia, IS miles
north of Rome, said Leftists, en-
ragged when bomb was tossed at
Communist Party headquarters, raj
lied in the town square and pro-
ceeded to devastate headquarters OF
the Rightist Common Man move
ment and shops of newspapers they
accused of Fascist leanings.
While leftist followers wrecked
offices of the Uomo Qualunque
Common Nam and Italian Social
list movements in Palermo and Ver-
ona and of the Conservative Liberal
Party at San Severe near Bari, left
ist leaders in Rome attempted to
work out new front against Pre-
mier De Gasperi's government.
In the Constituent Assembly
spokesman for the rightistS accused
the government of lack of energy
in dealing with the situation since
the rioting began in Milan Wednes-
day.
On the other hand leftist speak
ers called upon the government for
action against rightist parties as
breeders of Fascism and maintained
that the antirightist demonstrations
were the result of government mac
ton against the eo-Fascists.