Manifesto of The Fascio Rivoluzionario d'Azione Internazionalista (1914)
* First published: October 5, 1914, Milan.
THE PROMOTING COMMITTEE
Decio Bacchi - Michele Bianchi - Ugo Clerici - Filippo Corridoni - Amilcare De Ambris - Attilio Deffenu - Aurelio Galassi - AO Olivetti - Decio Papa - Cesare Rossi - Silvio Rossi - Sincero Rugarli - Libero Tancredi.
While the battle of the Marne is raging in France, in Milan on 15 and 16 September - organized by the Futurists, led by Marinetti and Boccioni - the first street demonstrations against Austria took place. They were also backed by Filippo Corridoni and the revolutionary leftist groups.
On 5 October 1914, the revolutionary Fascio of international action launched its first appeal to the Italian workers to lead them to war.
An alliance between futurists and men of the extreme left who find occasional support in groups of workers or socialists.
TO THE WORKERS OF ITALY
In the tragic hour that passes, while the bloody great war rages with glory in Europe, while civilizations are overwhelmed under the tide of the rising barbarism, we militants in different fractions of the revolutionary side, have the duty to say a word to you. We seek to be clear and sincere, so that our silence is not interpreted as acquiescence or cowardice at a time when it is the absolute duty of every revolutionary to express his thoughts and clarify his attitude in the face of the onset of events.
Let us not seek - which would be vain and idle - the genesis of the great tragedy. If as revolutionaries we could only consider the international bourgeoisie jointly and severally responsible for the scourge of the peoples, on the other hand it would be insincere and dishonest not to recognize that much of the responsibility that belongs to us revolutionaries, to the working class of the various countries, to the avant-garde elements, in a word, who have in their program the aversion to war and the fight against militarism, for the insufficient and ineffective work carried out in order to prevent the imperialist designs of the bourgeois governments and militaristic castes of Europe from being implemented through the war.
The workers' international - it should be acknowledged without ambiguity - has proved itself in the current struggle, more than powerless to face the events and prevent them, While in fact the comrades of France, Belgium and England knew how to fulfill their duty as socialists to the end, ready to start with the international general strike the movement of revolt against the blood thirsty attacks of the bourgeoisie, those of Germany and Austria, namely of the States that appeared to the whole world as the architects of the dark conspiracy arising from the resurrected forces of the European Middle Ages against every light of civilization and every element of progress.
Not a vain word, perhaps, would have been our dream of brotherhood of peoples beyond every frontier, if the German and Austro-Hungarian socialists had risen against the ignoble ultimatum of the Austrian government to the small Serbian people, if they had been moved to the anguished cry of Luxembourg and Belgium, vilified and offended in their sacrosanct right to freedom and independence, if, in a word, they had affirmed the reasons of the proletarian interest and of socialist civilization against their governments banner of militarist tyranny and of imperialism.
Thus war is today a tragic reality of which we cannot be indifferent spectators to without betraying the very cause of the revolution, without denying our socialist principles which speak to peoples in the name of civilization and freedom. And then it is worth asking whether the most vital interests of the working class of the various countries, whether the cause of the social revolution, are better protected by the attitude of rigorous neutrality desired for Italy by the official Socialist Party, in full agreement with the clerical elements, and all to the advantage of German arms, or rather from intervention in favor of the states that represent the cause of freedom and peace in Europe: in favor of France, the cradle of a hundred revolutions, of England, the garrison of all political freedom, of generous and heroic Belgium. The answer cannot be doubtful for us revolutionaries who, faithful to the teaching of our great, believe that we cannot overcome the limits of national revolutions without first having reached them, so class struggle is a vain formula, not a practical and fruitful force where every people is not integrated into its natural boundaries of language and race, and, once the question of nationalities is definitively resolved, the historical climate necessary for the normal development of the class movement, for the progress and triumph of the very ideas of internationalism, has not formed. The triumph of the Austro-German bloc would be in Europe the renewed triumph of the Holy Alliance, the strengthening of the cause of the reaction and militarism against that of the revolution, in a word the persistence and consolidation of those forces of militaristic and feudal preservation that have produced the immense catastrophe of today, which will produce other wars tomorrow, other mourning and other ruins for the working plebs arrested in the upward march for the conquest of their own economic emancipation. The great historical contrasts are not resolved by denying them ideologically, but by practically overcoming their terms: war is not fought by ruminating on formulas or by opposing it with sterile verbal
negations.
The stubborn advocates of neutrality appear today to be the true friends of war. We, fighting alongside the revolutionaries of France, Russia, Belgium and England for the cause of freedom and civilization against that of authoritarianism and Teutonic militarism, for reason against force, for the European revolution against the crazy and criminal dream of the establishment of a universal empire - medieval vision that must die with the Middle Ages - we believe we are doing the most useful work that can be done today in favor of European peace, for the cause of the social revolution, for the reconstitution of the Workers' International on the new foundations of systematic aversion, pursued by all means,
WORKERS,
Events are pressing. Italy, alongside the powers fighting for the freedom and independence of the peoples, would make the outcome of the war more prompt and decisive, mitigating the huge disasters. Armed neutrality does not spare the serious consequences that war derive from our country and at the same time it does not immunize us from the danger of war: it rather gives the government, with the mobilization of the army, the possibility of catching us off guard tomorrow with that any war that he will like to declare, even against the reasons of civilization and our own interests, and moreover - which would be even worse - the means of covering us with shame, with a vile blackmail by putting our non-intervention at a price.
We revolutionaries have no interest to keep, we have no reason to deceive the people. Let us also speak of neutrality for the parties that have to preserve honors, salaries, political positions, blind or interested supporters of a wicked national cowardice and great historical infamy, allied to dynastic and clerical politics and accomplices of the slaughterers and looters. We revolutionaries want the tradition of reason and goodwill that moved the wheels of progress. Our cause is that of Amilcare Cipriani, of Kropotkine, James Guillaume, Vaillant and that of the European revolution against barbarism, authoritarianism, militarism, Germanic feudalism and the Catholic perfidy of Austria. Each one fulfills his duty to the last and in every way. All the living forces of the world, all those who wish working humanity a better future and fight for the triumph of the workers' cause and the social revolution, for the brotherhood of peoples and the end of all wars, must take the field resolutely. . We must compel the government to stop dishonoring us or disappearing, and now we must separate responsibilities and prepare for action. authoritarianism, militarism, Germanic feudalism and the Catholic perfidy of Austria. Each one fulfills his duty to the last and in every way. All the living forces of the world, all those who wish working humanity a better future and fight for the triumph of the workers' cause and the social revolution, for the brotherhood of peoples and the end of all wars, must take the field resolutely.
We must compel the government to stop dishonoring our people, and we must prepare for action.
Milan, 5 October 1914.
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