IN the coming weeks, many European countries will mark the 80th anniversary of liberation from Nazi-fascist occupation. Italy is among the first, with dozens of events organised for April 25 — Liberation Day — despite ongoing attempts by the Meloni government and right-wing forces to rewrite or erase the memory of the Resistance. 

For most grassroots groups, this year’s events aim to locate the values that inspired partisan fighters in the 1940s into today’s context, marked by an aggressive rearmament agenda, support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and domestic repression of civil rights.

“80 years ago, our grandparents freed us from the grip of fascism. But remembering the past is not enough, especially not in the stale, institutional way the Democratic Party and centre-left do,” Giuliano Granato of Potere al Popolo said during the demonstration in Naples. 

Along similar lines, the Unione Sindacale di Base (USB) stated that April 25 should not be reduced to a mere ritual or commemoration. “It should actualise the values and ideals of the partisan Resistance, which freed, perhaps not once and for all, this country from the barbarity of war and Nazi-fascism and provided an inescapable push toward better democratic, working, and living conditions for the people of this country,” the trade union declared in its call to action.

Against Israeli genocide

These values, according to USB, Potere al Popolo, and other left groups, must necessarily include opposition to genocide. In many cities, protesters have insisted that Italy’s ongoing ties with the Israeli occupation are unacceptable. These ties, they argue, are evidence that the political establishment has failed to grasp the true meaning and importance of the Resistance. 

Ahead of Liberation Day, the Genoa chapter of Potere al Popolo organised an action addressing President Sergio Mattarella, criticising him for formally honouring the Resistance while remaining silent on the genocidal war against Palestinians and on the breakdown of democratic rights under the current government.

“To do so [speak of the Resistance] after cosying up to the president of the criminal state of Israel, effectively supporting the ongoing genocide of the Palestinians, is an insult to those who, since the days of the partisan struggle, have fought against all genocide,” Potere al Popolo Genoa stated. “To honour the Resistance while equating the Soviet communists who liberated much of Europe from Nazism with the Third Reich is an insult to history and memory.”

Against armament

Equally prominent as the call to stop the genocide and sever ties with Israel is the demand to reject Europe’s new armament agenda, which will come at the cost of public services, education, healthcare and climate justice. Giorgia Meloni’s administration and mainstream opposition parties alike have supported this agenda in different ways, endorsing increased spending on so-called defence and entertaining proposals for a joint European army. These priorities stand in stark contrast with the interests of Italy’s working class and the vision of a more just society that accompanied the antifascist Resistance.

“The rearmament plan launched by the EU represents the latest folly of a continental political class disinterested in building a present and future of peace and prosperity for the peoples of Europe,” warned USB. Similarly, Potere al Popolo called on people to rally around an alternative set of priorities: “We don’t need more money to enrich the arms industry. We need money for wages, for healthcare and services, for envisioning an ecological revolution and addressing the real challenge of our time, which is the climate crisis.”

Against new iterations of fascism

Meanwhile, Meloni and her ministers are pursuing a different kind of battle, one aimed at minimising the role of the anti-fascist struggle, led largely by communists, in shaping modern Italy. While the mainstream opposition tends to fixate on this behaviour by the right wing, Granato warns that doing so risks missing important pieces of the puzzle.

“For us, Giorgia Meloni is simply following the path she’s always been on, one clearly tied to the rise of neofascism. After the defeat of Nazism, the slogan of the Italian Social Movement [neofascist party] was ‘neither renounce nor restore’ — and that’s exactly what Meloni is doing today. She doesn’t outright deny their fascist roots, but she also doesn’t walk around openly glorifying Benito Mussolini,” Granato told Peoples Dispatch.

The most recent attempt of the right to undermine the legacy of the Resistance came in the wake of the death of Pope Francis, when the government declared a record five days of mourning and called for “sobriety” at all public events. Many understood this to be an attempt to minimise the April 25 events. Liberal and right-wing local administrations seized the opportunity to scale down and cancel rallies, while far-right media ran headlines such as “April 25: Day of mourning.”

“Sure, they can claim they were referring to the death of the pope, but the truth is, they’ve been waiting 80 years for an excuse to print something like that, because for them, April 25 has always been a defeat,” says Granato.

Progressive forces, however, resisted, criticising the government for using the death of a pope who — unlike the administration, called for peace and solidarity — to advance its agenda. They also refused to limit the day’s activities to commemorations, echoing the partisans’ revolutionary vision of a radically different society. 

“We don’t stop at the official ceremonies, not just because they’re cold and formulaic, but because we believe the fight for liberation and resistance isn’t over,” Granato explains. “Just like many partisans understood back then that toppling fascism wasn’t enough, we believe that defeating the Meloni government wouldn’t be enough either.”

Instead, Granato calls on the people to work together to free themselves from contemporary forms of danger and oppression: first and foremost, genocide and militarisation. “We worked to make today a day of liberation from militarism and genocide and to link it to the mobilisation we are building, including a national assembly in Rome on May 24, and a mass demonstration on June 21, just days before the Nato summit in The Hague,” he adds.

“We believe militarism has always been a tool of fascism. The militarisation of Europe today goes hand-in-hand with growing authoritarianism at home and worsens conditions for the working class across the continent.”

This article appeared at peoplesdispatch.org.