Italian Communist Party 1955
Source: Palmiro Togliatti, Il contributo dei comunisti alla Resistenza italiana. Sezione stampa e propaganda della direzione del Partito Comunista Italiano, Milano, 1955;
Translated: for marxists.org by Mitch Abidor.
One could observe in the life of our Italy over the past decades the uneven, sometimes interrupted advance of a great wave of popular renewal. During the period after the First World War it seemed that this wave, still cloudy and confused, would submerge the entire old, reactionary order of the Italian state. Then came fascism, and it seemed to the superficial and inexpert that everything was finished. But after the collapse of fascism, caused in large part by the struggle consciously carried out to overthrow it, the tide went out again, reversing all barriers, taking the high points won by the insurrection of April 25. It now seems that all must go backwards for a long period, but this isn’t true. That which was conquered is not lost. It is written in the Republican constitution, it is engraved in the souls of the great majority of Italians. A new wave is already being prepared and we will see — and we will again make — advances all over the country towards the radical renewal of its social and political order.
Let us remember and celebrate the contributions the Communists made to the fight for liberation. For this contribution was, in key moments, a decisive contribution. And so it will be today and in the future.
Let us remember and celebrate that unity in the name of which the fight for liberation was fought and won. We will maintain this twofold capital, reinforce it, and will consolidate the strength of the vanguard party of the working class, of the Communist Party, of this party which, in the factories, in the fields and in the offices, wherever people work, produce and suffer, has such profound roots. Up till this day we have known how to fulfill the tasks posed by history. We are sure that we will know how to fulfill the new tasks that are today ripening, whatever the obstacles that must be overcome.
Forward, comrades, forward citizens! Gather around the banner of our great Party in the name of the Resistance, in the name of anti-fascist and democratic unity, in the name of social progress, of labor, of freedom, of the fatherland, and of socialism.