 | |
| Type | weeklynewspaper |
|---|---|
| Owner(s) | Giornalisti Editori scarl |
| Publisher | Ugo Finetti, Sergio Scalpelli |
| Editor | Stefano Carluccio |
| Founded | 15 January 1891 |
| Political alignment | Social-democratic, formerlyMarxist/Socialist |
| Ceased publication | Suspended 1926, revived 1946 |
| Headquarters | Milan[1] |
| Website | www.criticasociale.net |
Critica Sociale is a left-wingItalian newspaper. It is linked to theItalian Socialist Party. BeforeBenito Mussolini banned opposition newspapers in 1926,Critica Sociale was a prominent supporter of the originalItalian Socialist Party (PSI), which included a spectrum of views fromsocialism toMarxism.
Arcangelo Ghisleri founded a republican political journal calledCuore e Critica in the late 19th century. A former employee,Filippo Turati, succeeded Ghisleri on 15 January 1891 and renamed itCritica Sociale. On 1 January 1893 it moved its political stance, towardssocialism. It backed the founding of the PSI at the party's Genoa Conference and changed its masthead to read: "Weekly review of social, political and literary studies of scientific Socialism".
It became the most influentialMarxist review in Italy from 1891 to 1898, tackling all the serious public problems of 1890s Italy: banking scandals, repression of theFasci Siciliani unrest, the colonial war in Africa, and food riots. It featured writing by the most influential socialist thinkers in Italy and abroad, includingEnrico Ferri,Lelio Basso,Paul Lafargue,Ivanoe Bonomi,Antonio Graziadei,Antonio Labriola and many others. From 1 May 1898 to 1 July 1899, it was seized by the government and its editor was briefly imprisoned.
In 1901 the journal restarted, asTurati, its editors, and the PSI were entering parliament with the support ofGiovanni Giolitti's powerfulLiberal Party. In this phase the review became the expression of thereformist tendency inside of the PSI.
From 1902 to 1913 the review was involved in the debate overanti-clerical school reform; discussing the role teachers, their organisation, school building and hygiene, while opposing government budgets that favoured the Ministry of War over the needs of public education.
Critica Sociale adopted, in discussing literature, apositivist and Marxist critical methodology and, convinced of the importance of literature, education and libraries, printed the sociological writing ofPietro Gori beside the poetry ofAda Negri and serialized novels byItalo Svevo. Even if seen as lagging the ideological-literary fashions of the age, Critica Sociale tried to inform its readers on new tendencies, giving judgments and appraisals filtered through its socialist outlook.
Showing little acceptance of the then popular ideas ofNietzsche andd'Annunzio, Critica Sociale editors were instead convinced that intellectuals must open themselves up to and promote new modern ideas while inculcating culture with 'scientific' truth and the requirements of a life led for the benefit of society.
When Italy entered theFirst World War in May 1915, Critica Sociale did not lose its neutrality nor did it lose its reformist ideals when faced with theBolshevik Revolution in October 1917. While not denying the legitimacy ofVladimir Lenin's revolutionary method,Critica Sociale editors argued it was inapplicable to the Italian situation. But from 1917, the positions of the two wings the PSI became intractable. At theLivorno Conference of January 1921, the nascentMarxist-Leninist wing led byAmadeo Bordiga left the PSI to become theItalian Communist Party.Critica Sociale continued to support the reformistUnitary Socialist Party.
Benito Mussolini's rise to power was a second blow to Critica Sociale. Press censorship and seizures by the government led to irregular publication.
Deprived of resources, writers such as Turati,Anna Kulischov,Giacomo Matteotti,Claudio Treves, andCarlo Rosselli continued to defend the democratic order which was being swept away by the Fascists, and total censorship loomed. Its last political article was published the day after the murder of Giacomo Matteotti on 10 June 1924, an act which Mussolini used to take absolute power in Italy.
Thereafter the editors sheltered behind inoffensive cultural and doctrinale essays. The next year the Fascist government pronounced a blanket ban on opposition press; the last issue was dated 16 September - 15 October 1926.
Following the fall of theFascist regime in 1946, it was reestablished, and has remained in print under a succession of editors-in-chief:Ugoberto Alfassio Grimaldi,Umberto Giovine andCarlo Tognoli (withPaolo Brera as deputy editor). It is currently the official publication of theNew Italian Socialist Party, a minorsocial-democratic political party. In recent years it has paid particular attention to the reinvention of British centre-left politics underNew Labour, and has published articles by bothTony Blair andGordon Brown.[1]