Action Party (Italy)

The Action Party ("Partito d'Azione", Pd'A) was an Italian political party.

History

An anti-fascist political party in the tradition of Giuseppe Mazzini and the Risorgimento. Founded in July 1942 by former militants of Giustizia e Libertà (Justice and Liberty), liberal socialists, democrats. Ideologically they were heirs to the "liberal Socialism" of Carlo Rosselli and to Piero Gobetti's "liberal Revolution" , whose writings rejected Marxist 'economic determinism' and aimed at the overcoming of class struggle and for a 'new' shape of Socialism, respect for civil liberty and for radical change in both the social and the economic structure of Italy. From January 1943 it published a clandestine organ, "Free Italy". Central members of the National Liberation Committee they participated actively in the Italian resistance movement with units of Giustizia e Libertà (Justice and Liberty), commanded by Ferruccio Parri. It maintained a clear antimonarchical position and it was opposed to Togliatti and the Italian Communist Party's Salerno Initiative for postwar governance.

For Partito d'Azione units and involvement in the Italian resistance movement, see Giustizia e Libertà.

In the immediate post-war period it joined the government securing the post of Prime Minister for Ferruccio Parri (June-November 1945). However as a result of the internal conflict between the democratic-reformist line of Ugo La Malfa and the socialist line of Emilio Lussu,combined with the electoral defeat of 1946, the party folded. The main group of former members, led by Riccardo Lombardi, joined the Italian Socialist Party, while the Malfa group entered the Italian Republican Party.

Prominent Members

*Giorgio Agosti
*Giorgio Bassani
*Riccardo Bauer
*Norberto Bobbio
*Andrea Caffi
*Piero Calamandrei
*Guido Calogero
*Aldo Capitini
*Nicola Chiaromonte
*Carlo Azeglio Ciampi President of Italian Republic (1999-2007)
*Tristano Codignola
*Enrico Cuccia
*Guido Dorso
*Francesco de Martino
*Enzo Enriques Agnoletti
*Vittorio Foa
*Alessandro Galante Garrone
*Ettore Gallo
*Aldo Garosci
*Leone Ginzburg
*Natalia Ginzburg
*Ugo La Malfa
*Massimo Mila
*Carlo Levi
*Primo Levi
*Riccardo Lombardi
*Emilio Lussu
*Raffaele Mattioli
*Ferruccio Parri Prime minister of Kingdom of Italy (1945)
*Ernesto Rossi
*Manlio Rossi Doria
*Joyce Salvadori Lussu
*Gaetano Salvemini
*Altiero Spinelli
*Alberto Tarchiani
*Adolfo Tino
*Silvio Trentin
*Leo Valiani
*Franco Venturi
*Paolo Vittorelli
*Bruno Zevi

ee also

*Liberalism and radicalism in Italy
*Italian resistance movement

Sources

Website of the Italian Resistance Historical Society: http://www.romacivica.net/anpiroma/antifascismo/antifascismo15.html [http://www.romacivica.net/anpiroma/antifascismo/antifascismo15.html] Includes in-depth bios, recent remembrances, and selections from party documents.

Historical Dictionary entry from Paravia Mondadori Editori, an Italian Educational publishing house: http://www.pbmstoria.it/dizionari/storia_mod/p/p062.htm [http://www.pbmstoria.it/dizionari/storia_mod/p/p062.htm]