Lelio Basso
Encyclopedia
Lelio Basso was an Italian
democratic socialist
politician and journalist.
(in the province of Savona
) into a Liberal
bourgeois
family. In 1916, he and his family moved to Milan
where he attended the Berchet grammar school. He enrolled at the Faculty of Law at the University of Pavia
in 1921, and joined the Italian Socialist Party
(PSI). He studied Marxist
doctrine, and was close to Piero Gobetti
during his Liberal Revolution phase. In his youth, Basso worked on Critica sociale, Il Caffè, Avanti!
, Coscientia, Quarto Stato, and Pietre - which he directed in 1928, initially from Genoa
, then from Milan. In 1925, he graduated in Law with a thesis on the concept of freedom in Marxist thought.
In April 1928, Basso was arrested by the Fascist
authorities in Milan and interned on the island of Ponza
, where he studied for his degree in philosophy
. He returned to Milan in 1931 and, while practising as a lawyer, graduated with a thesis on Rudolf Otto
. In 1934 he once more took up politics as director of the Centro Interno Socialista, with Rodolfo Morandi, Lucio Luzzatto and Eugenio Colorni. This work was interrupted by his imprisonment in the internment camp
in Colfiorito
(Province of Perugia
) from 1939 to 1940.
was ousted by a coup d'état
inside his Grand Council of Fascism
), the movement joined with the PSI to form the Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity
(PSIUP), with Basso as one of the leading figures. Later in 1943, Basso went against the party line
to found the clandestine newspaper Bandiera Rossa. In the period leading up to the 1945 Liberation, Basso was an active member of the Italian resistance movement
and, with Sandro Pertini and Rodolfo Morandi, he set up the covert executive body of the PSIUP in northern Italy (the territory of the Fascist Italian Social Republic
), which he had the responsibility for running.
Post-1945, Lelio Basso was elected Vice-secretary of the PSIUP, and, in 1946, became a deputy
to the Italian Constituent Assembly
which consecrated the Republic
. He was on the 75-member Commission that was to write the text of the Italian Constitution
, and contributed to the formulation of articles 3 and 49 in particular. From 1946 to 1968, he was consistently elected deputy, and was elected senator
in 1972 and 1976.
schism (1947), Basso became Secretary of the PSI, a role he occupied until the Genoa Congress in 1949. In 1950 he was not re-elected to the leading ranks due to his opposing views on the Stalinist
leanings of the party at the time. At the 1953 Milan Congress he was not included in the central committee, and was only re-admitted in 1955. At the 1957 Venice Congress, he returned to the ruling body. The following year, Basso launched Problemi del Socialismo (still in print today with the new title Parolechiave).
Basso was an active member of the left-wing of the PSI from 1959. In December 1963, he made a voting statement to the Chamber, signed by 24 members of the minority of the Socialist parliamentary group against the first Center-left government (led by Aldo Moro
). This earned him suspension from the party, and, in January 1964, he participated in the constituent assembly of the PSIUP. Basso was one of the leaders of the new party, and was its President from 1965 to 1968, when Warsaw Pact
troops Czechoslovakia
in order to crush the Prague Spring
.
, an international body presided by Bertrand Russell
, established to judge American
crimes in the Vietnam War
. In 1973, he worked to establish a second Russell Tribunal to examine the repression being carried out in Latin America
, and worked to set up the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal
(established after his death, in 1979). In 1973 he also founded the Fondazione Lelio e Lisli Basso in Rome
, and, in 1976, the Fondazione Internazionale and the Lega Internazionale per i Diritti e la Liberazione dei Popoli. He died in Rome.
, he adopted an original approach in his re-elaboration of the view of Socialism
, and drew upon different lines of thought from the sphere of democratic
thought in the broadest possible sense (French
democratic tradition, German
"academic socialism", Italian socialist thought and the Austro-Marxists
). During his internment, he read the works of Rosa Luxemburg
, and worked tirelessly to promote a critical awareness of her thought in Italy.
Basso wrote a huge number of essay
s for periodicals and collections. His most important titles include:
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
democratic socialist
Democratic socialism
Democratic socialism is a description used by various socialist movements and organizations to emphasize the democratic character of their political orientation...
politician and journalist.
Early life
Lelio Basso was born in VarazzeVarazze
Varazze is a comune in the Province of Savona in the Italian region Liguria, located about 30 km west of Genoa and about 11 km northeast of Savona in the Riviera di Ponente...
(in the province of Savona
Province of Savona
The Province of Savona is a province in the Liguria region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Savona.-Overview:...
) into a Liberal
Liberalism and radicalism in Italy
- Background :The formation of political groups in the 19th century in divided Italy is based on personalities, like Camillo di Cavour and Giuseppe Mazzini. Both the Historical Right and the Historical Left were composed of monarchist liberals, while radicals organised themselves as the Radical...
bourgeois
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
family. In 1916, he and his family moved to Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
where he attended the Berchet grammar school. He enrolled at the Faculty of Law at the University of Pavia
University of Pavia
The University of Pavia is a university located in Pavia, Lombardy, Italy. It was founded in 1361 and is organized in 9 Faculties.-History:...
in 1921, and joined the Italian Socialist Party
Italian Socialist Party
The Italian Socialist Party was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy founded in Genoa in 1892.Once the dominant leftist party in Italy, it was eclipsed in status by the Italian Communist Party following World War II...
(PSI). He studied Marxist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
doctrine, and was close to Piero Gobetti
Piero Gobetti
Piero Gobetti was an Italian journalist, intellectual and radical liberal and anti-fascist. He was an exceptionally active campaigner and critic in the crisis years in Italy after the First World War and into the early years of Fascist rule.-Biography:...
during his Liberal Revolution phase. In his youth, Basso worked on Critica sociale, Il Caffè, Avanti!
Avanti! (Italian newspaper)
Avanti! is an Italian daily newspaper, born as the official voice of the Italian Socialist Party, published since December 25, 1896. It took its name from its German counterpart Vorwärts.-History:...
, Coscientia, Quarto Stato, and Pietre - which he directed in 1928, initially from Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
, then from Milan. In 1925, he graduated in Law with a thesis on the concept of freedom in Marxist thought.
In April 1928, Basso was arrested by the Fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
authorities in Milan and interned on the island of Ponza
Ponza
Ponza is the largest of the Italian Pontine Islands archipelago, located 33 km south of Cape Circeo in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It also the name of the commune of the island, a part of the province of Latina in the Lazio region....
, where he studied for his degree in philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
. He returned to Milan in 1931 and, while practising as a lawyer, graduated with a thesis on Rudolf Otto
Rudolf Otto
Rudolf Otto was an eminent German Lutheran theologian and scholar of comparative religion.-Life:Born in Peine near Hanover, Otto attended the Gymnasium Andreanum in Hildesheim and studied at the universities of Erlangen and Göttingen, where he wrote his dissertation on Martin Luther's...
. In 1934 he once more took up politics as director of the Centro Interno Socialista, with Rodolfo Morandi, Lucio Luzzatto and Eugenio Colorni. This work was interrupted by his imprisonment in the internment camp
Internment
Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the meaning as: "The action of 'interning'; confinement within the limits of a country or place." Most modern usage is about individuals, and there is a distinction...
in Colfiorito
Colfiorito
Colfiorito is a village in Umbria, central Italy, a frazione of the comune of Foligno.-Geography:It is located on a plateau at 760 m over the sea level, on the road from Foligno to Macerata, which houses a total of c...
(Province of Perugia
Province of Perugia
The Province of Perugia is the larger of the two provinces in the Umbria region of Italy, comprising two-thirds of both the area and population of the region. Its capital is the city of Perugia...
) from 1939 to 1940.
In the Resistance and the early Italian Republic
After lengthy, secret preparations, he was present at the founding of the Movimento di Unità Proletaria (MUP) on 10 January 1943. The leading group of the movement was formed by Basso, Luzzatto, Roberto Veratti, and Umberto Recalcati. After 25 July (when Benito MussoliniBenito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
was ousted by a coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
inside his Grand Council of Fascism
Grand Council of Fascism
The Grand Council of Fascism was the main body of Mussolini's Fascist government in Italy. A body which held and applied great power to control the institutions of government, it was created as a party body in 1923 and became a state body on 9 December 1928....
), the movement joined with the PSI to form the Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity
Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity
The Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity , was a political party in Italy from 1964 to 1972.-History:...
(PSIUP), with Basso as one of the leading figures. Later in 1943, Basso went against the party line
Party line (politics)
In politics, the line or the party line is an idiom for a political party or social movement's canon agenda, as well as specific ideological elements specific to the organization's partisanship. The common phrase toeing the party line describes a person who speaks in a manner that conforms to his...
to found the clandestine newspaper Bandiera Rossa. In the period leading up to the 1945 Liberation, Basso was an active member of the Italian resistance movement
Italian resistance movement
The Italian resistance is the umbrella term for the various partisan forces formed by pro-Allied Italians during World War II...
and, with Sandro Pertini and Rodolfo Morandi, he set up the covert executive body of the PSIUP in northern Italy (the territory of the Fascist Italian Social Republic
Italian Social Republic
The Italian Social Republic was a puppet state of Nazi Germany led by the "Duce of the Nation" and "Minister of Foreign Affairs" Benito Mussolini and his Republican Fascist Party. The RSI exercised nominal sovereignty in northern Italy but was largely dependent on the Wehrmacht to maintain control...
), which he had the responsibility for running.
Post-1945, Lelio Basso was elected Vice-secretary of the PSIUP, and, in 1946, became a deputy
Italian Chamber of Deputies
The Italian Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Parliament of Italy. It has 630 seats, a plurality of which is controlled presently by liberal-conservative party People of Freedom. Twelve deputies represent Italian citizens outside of Italy. Deputies meet in the Palazzo Montecitorio. A...
to the Italian Constituent Assembly
Constituent Assembly of Italy
The Italian Constituent Assembly was a parliamentary chamber which existed in Italy from 25 June 1946 until 31 January 1948...
which consecrated the Republic
Birth of the Italian Republic
The Italian constitutional referendum which officially took place on 2 June 1946, is a key event of Italian contemporary history. Until 1946, Italy was a kingdom ruled by the House of Savoy, kings of Italy since the Risorgimento and previously rulers of Savoy...
. He was on the 75-member Commission that was to write the text of the Italian Constitution
Constitution of Italy
The Constitution of the Italian Republic was enacted by the Constituent Assembly on 22 December 1947, with 453 votes in favour and 62 against. The text, which has since been amended 13 times, was promulgated in the extraordinary edition of Gazzetta Ufficiale No. 298 on 27 December 1947...
, and contributed to the formulation of articles 3 and 49 in particular. From 1946 to 1968, he was consistently elected deputy, and was elected senator
Italian Senate
The Senate of the Republic is the upper house of the Italian Parliament. It was established in its current form on 8 May 1948, but previously existed during the Kingdom of Italy as Senato del Regno , itself a continuation of the Senato Subalpino of Sardinia-Piedmont established on 8 May 1848...
in 1972 and 1976.
PSI-PSIUP split
In 1946 he set up the review Quarto Stato, which remained in print until 1950. At the time of the Giuseppe SaragatGiuseppe Saragat
Giuseppe Saragat was an Italian politician who was the fifth President of the Italian Republic from 1964 to 1971.Saragat was born in Turin, from Sardinian parents....
schism (1947), Basso became Secretary of the PSI, a role he occupied until the Genoa Congress in 1949. In 1950 he was not re-elected to the leading ranks due to his opposing views on the Stalinist
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
leanings of the party at the time. At the 1953 Milan Congress he was not included in the central committee, and was only re-admitted in 1955. At the 1957 Venice Congress, he returned to the ruling body. The following year, Basso launched Problemi del Socialismo (still in print today with the new title Parolechiave).
Basso was an active member of the left-wing of the PSI from 1959. In December 1963, he made a voting statement to the Chamber, signed by 24 members of the minority of the Socialist parliamentary group against the first Center-left government (led by Aldo Moro
Aldo Moro
Aldo Moro was an Italian politician and the 39th Prime Minister of Italy, from 1963 to 1968, and then from 1974 to 1976. He was one of Italy's longest-serving post-war Prime Ministers, holding power for a combined total of more than six years....
). This earned him suspension from the party, and, in January 1964, he participated in the constituent assembly of the PSIUP. Basso was one of the leaders of the new party, and was its President from 1965 to 1968, when Warsaw Pact
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance , or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe...
troops Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
in order to crush the Prague Spring
Prague Spring
The Prague Spring was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II...
.
As lawyer
Lelio Basso founded and wrote for a number of international publications. He was famous throughout Europe as a criminal lawyer, and sat in the Russell TribunalRussell Tribunal
The Russell Tribunal, also known as the International War Crimes Tribunal or Russell-Sartre Tribunal, was a public body organized by British philosopher Bertrand Russell and hosted by French philosopher and playwright Jean-Paul Sartre...
, an international body presided by Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...
, established to judge American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
crimes in the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. In 1973, he worked to establish a second Russell Tribunal to examine the repression being carried out in Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
, and worked to set up the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal
Permanent Peoples' Tribunal
The Permanent Peoples' Tribunal is international opinion tribunal that was founded in Bologna June 24, 1979 at the initiative of Senator Lelio Basso. - International opinion tribunal :...
(established after his death, in 1979). In 1973 he also founded the Fondazione Lelio e Lisli Basso in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, and, in 1976, the Fondazione Internazionale and the Lega Internazionale per i Diritti e la Liberazione dei Popoli. He died in Rome.
Works
Lelio Basso’s life was a medley of intellectual activity and research on the one hand and the search for an effective political instrument on the other, all on an international scale. As an expert and interpreter of the work of Karl MarxKarl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
, he adopted an original approach in his re-elaboration of the view of Socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
, and drew upon different lines of thought from the sphere of democratic
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
thought in the broadest possible sense (French
Government of France
The government of the French Republic is a semi-presidential system determined by the French Constitution of the fifth Republic. The nation declares itself to be an "indivisible, secular, democratic, and social Republic"...
democratic tradition, German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
"academic socialism", Italian socialist thought and the Austro-Marxists
Austromarxism
Austromarxism was a Marxist theoretical current, led by Victor Adler, Otto Bauer, Karl Renner and Max Adler, members of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria during the late decades of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the First Austrian Republic...
). During his internment, he read the works of Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg was a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and activist of Polish Jewish descent who became a naturalized German citizen...
, and worked tirelessly to promote a critical awareness of her thought in Italy.
Basso wrote a huge number of essay
Essay
An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...
s for periodicals and collections. His most important titles include:
- Due totalitarismi: fascismo e democrazia cristiana (1951);
- Il Partito socialista italiano (1956);
- Il principe senza scettro (1958, re-print 1998);
- Da Stalin a Krusciov (1962);
- Introduction and editorship of R. Luxemburg, Scritti politici (1967, re-print: 1970, 1976);
- Neocapitalismo e sinistra europea (1969);
- Introduction and editorship of R. Luxemburg, Lettere alla famiglia Kautsky (1971);
- Rosa Luxemburg: A Reappraisal (London 1975);
- Introduction and editorship of Stato e crisi delle istituzioni (1978);
- Socialismo e rivoluzione (1980);
- Scritti sul cristianesimo (1983).
External links
- The Italian Left, "Universities & Left Review", 1957.
- The Italian Left, "Socialist Register", 1966.