Foundation In the mid-1890s, the
Italian Socialist Party owned numerous newspapers and periodical journals published in various parts of the
Italian Kingdom, but those had limited runs, and they were funded by the same militants of the Party. However, PSI (the Italian-language abbreviation of the Italian Socialist Party) obtained an important standing in the elections of 1895, and during the IVth Socialist Congress of
Florence in July 1896, programs for the editorial development were promoted along with the origination of a nationwide newspaper. The first number of
Avanti! was published on 25 December 1896, on Christmas, because the new newspaper sought to represent Italian socialism as intended as "a new voice that does not descend from the airy high sky, but it lifts up from workshops and fields and predicts the peace to men of good will" or their own rendition of what they considered a "holy birth". After all, Jesus Christ was referred to as the "first socialist in history" in the contemporary socialist iconography. The first director was
Leonida Bissolati, with
Ivanoe Bonomi, Walter Mocchi, Alessandro Schiavi,
Oddino Morgari and Gabriele Galantara as editors. The last one was a designer and satirical cartoonist who drew the logo for the newspapers, characterized by an italic font and the exclamation point at the end with the typical liberty style of the end of the 19th century. Along with Guido Podrecca, Galantara was also the founder in 1892 of ''
L'Asino, an important satirical journal.''
Avanti! was inspired by the newspaper of the
Social Democratic Party of Germany called . Previously, other newspapers had been founded with the same title: on 30 April 1881
Andrea Costa founded the
Avanti! and philosopher
Antonio Labriola launched
Avanti (without exclamation mark) in May 1896, on which the libertarian socialist
Francesco Saverio Merlino wrote.
Di qui si passa In the editorial of published in the first number of
Avanti!, director Bissolati wrote an ideal and political manifest of the identity of the new newspaper, challenging the contemporary order. Addressing directly to the
Italian Prime Minister and
Minister of the Interior Antonio Starabba, Marchese di Rudinì, who had warned the PSI leaders and subscribed with the intimation "
di qui non-si passa" ('Do not pass from here'), Bissolati answered "
di qui si passa" ('From here we pass'), manifesting the faith and "scientific" certainty in the affirmations of socialist reasons and in the conquest of power by workers: File:Locandina Avanti! 1896.jpg|Advertising poster for the subscription to
Avanti!, 1896 File:1896, 27 dicembre, pubblicità Avanti!.jpg|Advertising of
Avanti!, 27 December 1896 File:Leonida Bissolati.jpg|Portrait of
Leonida Bissolati, first director of
Avanti! in 1896 File:1897 pubblicità Avanti!.jpg|Advertising poster drawn by Gabriele Galantara for the subscription to
Avanti!, 1898 File:1905 - redazione avanti!.jpg|Editorial staff of
Avanti! in 1905. From the left, seated, the first is satirical artist
Gabriele Galantara and the second is
Ivanoe Bonomi. At the middle there is the director
Leonida Bissolati. File:1910 - avanti del 1 maggio.jpg|
Avanti! of 1º May 1910
Format, prize and headquarters The socialist daily newspaper was formed by four
broadsheet pages. One copy cost 5 cents of
lira, the annual subscription 15 lire, the six-monthly one 7.50 lire, the quarterly one 3 lire and the monthly one 1.25 lire. The headquarters was located in Rome, in Palazzo Sciarra-Colonna of Via delle Muratte. In 1911, on the initiative of Turati, the headquarters of the newspaper was moved from Rome (where an office for parliamentary chronicle remained) to Milan, in Via San Damiano. The number of pages became six, including news of Milan.
Repression of 1898 From January to May 1898, several popular protests blew up in almost all the Italian peninsula, for bread, work and against taxes, but the government suppressed the revolts. On 7 May in Milan, the government declared the state of siege and gave full powers to general
Fiorenzo Bava-Beccaris, who ordered to open fire against the crowd. Hundreds of people were killed and thousands were injured. The exact number of victims has not never been clarified. On 9 May, general Bava-Beccaris, with the support of the government, dismantled associations and clubs considered subversives and arrested thousands of people belonging to socialist, republican and anarchical organizations, including some parliamentarians: among others, they were
Filippo Turati (with his partner
Anna Kuliscioff),
Andrea Costa, Leonida Bissolati,
Carlo Romussi (
radical) and Paolo Valera. All anti-government journals and newspapers were banned and on 12 May the entire redaction of
Avanti! was arrested in Rome.
Avanti! and the Red Week On 7 June 1914, in
Ancona, an antimilitarist meeting was held in the local headquarter of the
Italian Republican Party, organized by
Pietro Nenni, a republican leader at the time and director of the local journal
Lucifero, along with the anarchist
Errico Malatesta. At the end,
Carabinieri opened fire on the participants while they were leaving the hall, killing two republicans and an anarchist. As a reaction, The Chamber of Work declared a general strike and various revolts occurred. On 9 June, a great crowd took part to the funerals of the three killed which crossed the whole city. The news about the slaughter spread throughout all Italy and provoked demonstrations, parades and spontaneous strikes. In particular, souls were inflamed by the calls of
Benito Mussolini, socialist at the time and director of
Avanti!, who had caught in Ancona, during the XIV Congress of PSI from 26 to 28 April 1914, an important personal success, with plaudits for the results of dissemination and sells of the party newspaper, granted to him personally by congress members. On the number of 8 June 1914 of the socialist newspaper, Mussolini wrote: With his articles, Mussolini, by leveraging on his popularity inside the socialist movement and on the great diffusion of the newspaper, forced the
Confederazione Generale del Lavoro (CGdL) to declare a general strike, an instrument which stopped every activity in the country and that the labour union believed it had to be used only in exceptional circumstances. Mussolini exploited the popular revolts for political purposes within the socialist movement: leadership of PSI was in the hands of revolutionary maximalists after the congress of Ancona, but reformist were still the majority in the parliamentary group and in CGdL. On 10 June 1914, a political rally was held in the
Arena di Milano in front of 60,000 people, while the rest of Italy was struggling and paralysed,
Romagna and
Marche were insurgent and rail workers finally announced to join to the general strike. After reformists of all parties said that the strike was not the revolution but only a manifestation against the massacre of Ancona, and that they would not be dragged into a useless carnage,
Filippo Corridoni and Mussolini intervened. The latter exalted the revolt and his speech was reported and published by
Avanti! on the following day: To prevent the monarchy from feeling threatened and declaring the state of siege, giving public powers to the army, the CGDL concluded the strike after 48 hours and invited workers to resume their activities. That move frustrated the warlike and insurrectionist purposes of Mussolini who, on the
Avanti! of 12 June 1914, accused the syndicalist leaders of felony saying: "The Labour Confederation, in ending the strike, has betrayed the revolutionary movement." The general strike lasted only two days, while the revolutionary movement was gradually running out after keeping entire zones of the country in check. On 20 June 1914, the socialist parliamentary group, formed in majority by moderates and reformists, disproved Mussolini about the events of the "Red Week" and confirmed the traditional gradualist and parliamentary position of the "historical" leadership of PSI, saying that the revolt was: At the end of the same month, on 28 June 1914, the
assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in
Sarajevo shifted Italian attention on the European dynamics which will lead to
World War I, opposing interventionist to neutralist, until the
entry into war of Italy on 24 May 1915.
Avanti! during WWI In 1914–1915,
Avanti! supported an important campaign for the absolute neutrality towards the opposite sides in WWI. After maintaining that position, decided by the vast majority of PSI, Benito Mussolini pushed the socialist newspaper into an interventionist campaign with his articles as director. Thanks to his retinue within the party, Mussolini asked to the national direction of PSI to endorse his new line or otherwise he would resign, as he did in the following day. The new interventionist newspaper of Mussolini, ''
Il Popolo d'Italia'', would be published on 15 November 1914, with
syndicalists and dissidents from the Socialist Party. On 23 November, Mussolini was expelled from the Socialist Party and the satirical cartoonist of
Avanti!, Giuseppe Scalarini, drew the cartoon
Giuda for the newspaper, representing Mussolini, with a dagger and the money of betrayal, approaching silently to hit Christ (the socialism) in the back.
Giacinto Menotti Serrati was appointed as new director of
Avanti! during all the WWI, and he will be one of the leaders of the maximalist side of PSI and he will adhere in 1924 to the diktat of
Lenin and
Trotsky, joining the
Communist Party of Italy. File:1915 - avanti del 1 maggio.jpg|
Avanti! of 1 May 1915 File:1916 - avanti del 1 maggio.jpg|
Avanti! of 1 May 1916 with censor cuts File:1917 - avanti del 1 maggio.jpg|
Avanti! of 1 May 1917 with censor cuts File:1918 - avanti del 1 maggio.jpg|
Avanti! of 1 May 1918 File:1919 - avanti del 1 maggio.jpg|
Avanti! of 1 May 1919
Five squadrist assaults against Avanti! Between 1919 and 1922,
Avanti! was attacked and devastated by five
squadrist assaults:
Assault against Avanti! of 15 April 1919 in Milan On 15 April 1919, in Milan, nationalists, fascists, officer cadets and
Arditi were responsible for the first
squadristi assault, during which they burnt down the headquarters of
Avanti!. Under the title ''Viva l'Avanti!
("Long live Avanti!''"), the first comment about the fact said: On 23 April 1919, the newspaper, printed in Turin, launched a "solidarity plebiscite" urging its readers and militants to subscribe to support the rebuilding of the Milan headquarters. On 3 May 1920,
Avanti! reappeared in the city.
Attack on the Roman headquarters of Avanti! In July 1920, the headquarter of
Avanti! in Rome was besieged by a group of Arditi during clashes with workers and tram drivers who were doing a strike. Ugo Intini wrote:
Bombs against the new headquarter in Milan A new attack occurred in Milan during the night between 23 and 24 March 1921: the new headquarter in Via Lodovico da Settala 22 was devastated by bombs thrown by a fascist squad, with the purpose of an immediate retaliation to the massacre of Hotel Diana, provoked a few hours before by some anarchists. In this occasion,
Pietro Nenni, still a republican leader at the time, intervened in favour of the socialist newspaper. Director Giacinto Menotti Serrati, after a few days, asked him to go in Paris as correspondent for
Avanti!, in trial for six months.
Pietro Nenni at Avanti! On 19 April 1921, Nenni signed its first article for the socialist newspaper under the title of "The failure of Versaglia policy". In Paris, Nenni subscribed to PSI and began a path which, in around two years, would lead him to the leadership of the autonomist side of the Party. During the Congress of Milan in 1923, it was in favour of the merger between PSI and the Communist Party of Italy, as imposed by the Soviets and supported by Serrati and the Party secretary
Costantino Lazzari. The congress appointed Nenni as new director of
Avanti!. Since then, during the whole exile in France and the period of underground in Italy, the relationship between Pietro Nenni and
Avanti! had become stronger until 1948. On 31 December 1925, the
Mussolini Cabinet made the law n. 2037 on press passed by the Chamber of the Deputies and on 31 October 1926 the newly established
fascist regime closed all the publications issued by the opposition.
Avanti!, like all the other antifascist newspapers, was obliged to interrupt their prints in Italy but continued to be published in exile, under the impulse of Nenni, in Paris and
Zürich every week.
Fall of fascism and 1946 referendum Underground Avanti! The socialist newspaper reappeared in Italy in hiding on 11 January 1943: a publication named
Avanti!, without using the historical header with an italic type in liberty style, was distributed as the
giornale del Movimento di Unità Proletaria per la repubblica socialista ("newspaper of the Movement of Proletarian Unity for the socialist republic"). After the establishment of the Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity (PSIUP) on 22 August 1943 (with the merger between the Italian Socialist Party and the
Movement of Proletarian Unity),
Avanti! began to use again the traditional header of Galantara, proclaiming itself as the
giornale del Partito Socialista Italiano di Unità Proletaria ("newspaper of the Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity"). Giving the news of the stipulation of the
Armistice of Cassibile, the issue n. 2 of the 47th year, published on 9 (incorrectly printed as 3) September 1943, was entitled
La guerra fascista è finita ("The fascist war is over"), while the subheading said
La lotta dei lavoratori continua ("The struggle of workers continues") mocking the
Badoglio Proclamation of 25 July (
la guerra continua, "The war continues").
Avanti! of 16 March 1944, printed and distributed illegally in the territories of the
Italian Social Republic and whose occupied by
Nazi Germany, proclaimed: ''La classe operaia in prima fila nella lotta per l'indipendenza e per la libertà'' ("The workers' class in the front row in the fight for independence and freedom"), with the sub-header: ''Lo sciopero generale nell'Italia Settentrionale contro la coscrizione, le deportazioni e le decimazioni'' ("The general strike in Northern Italy against conscription, deportations and decimations"). The Roman edition of clandestine
Avanti! was edited by
Eugenio Colorni and Mario Fioretti, as
Sandro Pertini remembered: The newspaper was published in clandestinity in Rome until the liberation of the Italian capital on 4–5 June 1944. The extraordinary edition of 7 June 1944 gave the news about the
La Storta massacre of 4 June, heading:
Bruno Buozzi Segretario della Confederazione Generale del Lavoro assassinato dai nazisti con 14 compagni ("Bruno Buozzi secretary of General Confederation of Labour murdered by Nazis along with 14 comrades").
Avanti! resumed the public diffusion in Rome and the Italian territory gradually freed, while it remained illegal in the Social Republic. Pertini was a protagonist in the printing and spreading of the first issue in Florence, immediately after the liberation of the city: in the period between September 1943 and May 1944, twenty-eight issues were published. Immediately after the arrest of the editorial staff, the direction of the clandestine newspaper was given to Guido Mazzali, and thanks to his diligence
Avanti! reached a circulation of 15,000 copies. Sandro Pertini had remembered the diligence of Mazzali for the socialist newspaper:
Return to the news-stands On 27 April 1945, while the Northern Italy was being freed from the German occupation, an article signed by Pietro Nenni was published by
Avanti! with the title
Vento del Nord ("Wind of North"). The leader of PSIUP, exalting the struggle of
partisans who succeeded in ousting or forcing the surrender of nazi fascists, found, within the will of redemption and renovation of northern people, the "wind" which would have swept away the residuals of the regime that governed Italy for over twenty years, a "liberation wind against the enemy from outside and those from inside". On 28 April 1945, news about the
execution of Mussolini reached Rome and Sandro Pertini told that Nenni, brotherly friend and jail-mate of the duce in the past during his socialist period, "had red eyes, he was very moved, but he wanted to dictated the title anyway: Justice is done!». On 1 May 1945, after the liberation, the first number of
Avanti! was published in Milan and it was dedicated to the
International Workers' Day for the first time in twenty years with an historical political rally of Sandro Pertini. On the front-page, there was an article with photo portraying Bonaventura Ferrazzutto, under the title
Gli assenti ("The missing ones"), where comrades fallen or victims of the deportation in Nazi
Extermination camps were remembered.
Fight for the Republic After the liberation,
Avanti! built an important instrument of propaganda promoting the vote in favour of the republic for the
1946 Italian institutional referendum, thanks also to the articles written by Nenni, and for the PSIUP for the
general elections both held on 2 June 1946. On 5 June 1946, the newspaper proclaimed the results of the institutional referendum with the title:
REPUBBLICA! – IL SOGNO CENTENARIO DEGLI ITALIANI ONESTI E CONSAPEVOLI È UNA LUMINOSA REALTÀ ("Republic! – The centennial dream of honest and aware Italians is a shining reality") In a dedicated section dedicated, director
Ignazio Silone expressed the gratitude of socialist electors towards their leader, who fought for the pairing between the election for the Constitutional Assembly and the referendum, with the title
Grazie a Nenni ("Thanks to Nenni").
Second post-war period During the second post-war period,
Avanti! had not reached the same circulation and influence obtained between the two wars but it became a witness, through its titles, of the rebuilding of Italy and its democratic evolution.
Center-left The newspaper gave more emphasis on the creation of the first Italian center-left government with the direct participation of socialists after 16 years of opposition along with communist. On 6 December 1963, on the occasion of the oath of
Moro I Cabinet with
Antonio Segni as
President of Italy, the front-page of
Avanti! was entitled:
DA OGGI OGNUNO È PIÙ LIBERO – I lavoratori rappresentati nel governo del Paese ("FROM TODAY EVERYONE IS MORE FREE – workers are represented in the government of the Country").
Avanti! continued to report the results of the reformative activity made by socialists within the center-left side of the government. The number of 15 May 1970 was entitled
LO STATUTO DEI LAVORATORI È LEGGE ("WORKERS' STATUTE IS NOW A LAW"), announcing the approval of law n. 300 promulgated on 22 May 1970, and the subheading stated:
IL PROVVEDIMENTO VOLUTO DAL COMPAGNO GIACOMO BRODOLINI È STATO DEFINITIVAMENTE APPROVATO DALLA CAMERA ("The provision wanted by comrade Giacomo Brodolini has been definitely approved by the Chamber)". The newspaper remembered the role of the then socialist Minister of Labour, dead on 11 July 1969 and considered as the real "political father" of the Workers' Statute, and attacks "the attitude of communists, ambiguous and clearly electoral" which determined the
Italian Communist Party (PCI) to prefer the abstention on the provision. The Fortuna project was of 1965 and it was stubbornly repurposed by the socialist deputy at the beginning of every legislature in which Fortuna was elected. On 14 May 1974, about three years after the approval of the law, the socialist newspaper proclaimed the result of the
divorce referendum, promoted by Gabrio Lombardi, president of the
Comitato per il referendum sul divorzio ("Committee for the divorce referendum"), and Luigi Gedda, president of Civic Committees, and supported by
Vatican hierarchies and
Amintore Fanfani, secretary of
Christian Democracy at the time: the front page was covered by the title
Una valanga di NO – Strepitosa vittoria delle forze democratiche ("An avalanche of NOs – Outstanding victory of democratic forces"). On 31 December 1975,
Francesco De Martino wrote an editorial entitled
Soluzioni nuove per una crisi grave ("New solutions for a serious crisis") which announced the withdrawal of PSI trust on
Moro IV Cabinet, confirmed on 7 January 1976 and provoking the fall of the government.
From 1977 to 1994 With the n.1 of 6 January 1977,
Avanti! renovated its graphic layout: following the success of
la Repubblica, which appeared in news-stands a year before, the socialist newspaper abandoned the traditional broadsheet format and adopted the
tabloid one, the header had been coloured in red and the number of pages increased. The editorial, signed by director Paolo Vittorelli and entitled
Anche questa volta si passerà ("We pass this time too"), made a reference to the article written by Bissolati on the first number of the newspaper in 1896 with the title
Di qui si passa. Director
Roberto Villetti resigned under request of the editorial staff committee by the National Direction of the Socialist Party for the disastrous management of the newspaper. Francesco Gozzano, already editor-in-chief, replaced Villetti. In 1993, circulation of
Avanti! fell from 200,000 copies to a few thousand. Wastes and bad management during the eighties, despite the important funding for the modernization of the newspaper strongly desired by Craxi, provoked an accumulation of debts for about 30–40 billions lire;
Avanti! lost also the public contribution for publishing (6 billions lire) because it did not certify the financial statements for the 2 billions lire deficit, causing the revocation of bank loans and of the return request of debt exposures. In March 1993 wages for employee were suspended for lacking funds.
Ottaviano Del Turco, new PSI Secretary from February 1993, tried to mediate a solution to avoid the closure of
Avanti!. In August 1993, a series of fund-raising events were organised but the newspaper failed to revive. The company in charge of the newspaper Nuovo Editrice L'avanti! was formally declared bankrupt in March 1994 after the
electoral collapse of the Italian Socialist Party which had failed to gain a minimum of 3% of the vote. The fact that the paper was a political newspaper and the influence of the Craxi in a way contributed to its fall when the PSI was hit by heavy corruption scandals. In October 1993, desks and typewriters were seized to pay 105 million lire. The newspaper was in a chronic crisis and closed in November 1993: after nine months of work without retributions, journalists not longer judged as credible the reassurance made by newspaper and party leaders and they ceased to come to the redaction by voting the start of bankruptcy procedure during an assembly. Publishing house "Nuova Editrice Avanti!" was liquidated in January 1994.
After 1994 With the dismantling of PSI, the newspaper fell under liquidation, as other assets of the party. The last congress, held in Rome on 12 November 1994, appointed a liquidator commissioner, Michele Zoppo, to whom was given
Avanti among with other assets. After that date, three different periodical appeared in news stands that, though all of them recalled to the historical socialist newspaper, were completely different politically aligned: • In 1996, the clone newspaper ''L'Avanti!
(with the "L
") was published by the International Press of Valter Lavitola and directed by Sergio De Gregorio, founder in 2000 of the political movement Italians in the World and elected as senator with Italy of Values in 2006 and then with The People of Freedom in 2008. This newspaper ceased its publication after a few months and reappeared in 2003. Lavitola made of his periodical an instrument for political movements that had nothing in common with the editorial line of the original socialist newspaper. Furthermore, L'Avanti
was close to the center-right premier Silvio Berlusconi. Lavitola and De Gregorio were investigated by prosecutor of Naples for criminal association aimed to fraud against the State: Lavitola, as de facto
owner and co-administrator of International Press, and De Gregorio, as effective partner since 1997 and hidden co-administrator of the same company, along with other ten defendants, declared that the publisher of L'Avanti!
had the requirements for obtaining the funds provided by the law for publishing, cashing illegally a total of €23,200,000 received between 1997 and 2009. For this crimes, Lavitola and De Gregorio suffered a preventive seizure of assets for €9 million in July 2012. On 9 November 2012 Lavitola negotiated a sentence of 3 years and 8 months in front of the Judge for preliminary investigations of the Court of Naples, while the process of De Gregorio, whom sentence was reduced to house arrest in his Roman apartment of Parioli following a failed re-election during the political election of 2013, was still in progress on 4 June 2015, with the request of plea bargaining by the former parliamentarian. Court of Accounts of Lazio, with sentence n. 24/2015 of 11 March 2015, condemned Valter Lavitola and Sergio De Gregorio to give back €23,879,000 to the State for the publishing funds obtained illegally by L'Avanti'' between 1997 and 2009. • In 1998,
Avanti! della domenica began to be published weekly as the body of
Italian Democratic Socialists (SDI), sided on center-left, and it directly referred to the Sunday supplement of the historical
Avanti!, issued between January 1903 and March 1907. After ceasing the publications in 2006, the weekly was issued again since 7 February 2010 (with Dario Alberto Caprio as editor-in-chief) as the official body of the new
PSI (heir of SDI), member of
Socialist International and the
European Socialist Party. In this occasion, Ugo Intini, former director of
Avanti!, greeted the new release of the socialist weekly with an editorial entitled
Di qui si passa, quoting the title of the inaugural editorial wrote by Leonida Bissolati in 1896; • In 2003,
Fabrizio Cicchitto and other former socialists re-constructed
Avanti!, with
Bobo Craxi as director. Although this
Avanti! was formally neutral, its former director was a close friend of another former socialist
Gianni De Michelis, who was then secretary of the
New Italian Socialist Party (NPSI). The NPSI, which was in coalition with the centre-right, was an antagonist of the socialists who found home in the centre-left led by the
Italian Democratic Socialists, who created an opposing weekly paper with the name of
Avanti della Domenica which however ran out of funds and closed soon after. In 2006,
Fabio Ranucci becomes director and quickly defines the paper an independent "socialist" newspaper of information. However, with the re-composition of the small often tiny Socialist political formations into the modern-day
Italian Socialist Party in 2007, the paper became strongly associated with the latter. ==Headquarters==