Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals
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The Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals was written by Benedetto Croce in response to the Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals, and it approved of the definitive split between philosophy and the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini that had been introduced in 1922. The idea of an anti-Fascist manifesto came to Giovanni Amendola, who wrote to the well-loved anti-Fascist idealist Benedetto Croce for his opinions of it on April 20, 1925:
Dear Croce, have you read the Fascist manifesto to foreign intellectuals? Today, I have met several people who feel that, after the Fascist address, we have the right to speak and the obligation to respond. What do you think yourself? Would you be willing to sign such a document, or even write it yourself?
Croce replied a day later, saying that he would be more than willing to, but that the document would have to be short, "so as not to alienate the common folk."
The manifesto was published by Il Mondo on May 1, 1925, which was Workers' Day. This was a response to the Fascist manifesto's having been published on the Natale di Roma, the birthday of the city of Rome. The Fascist press claimed that the Crocian manifesto was 'more authoritarian' than its Fascist counterpart.
Il Mondo published three lists of prominent supporters of the manifesto, first on May 1, 1925, and then longer lists on May 10th and May 22nd. Among the supporters were Sibilla Aleramo, Giovanni Amendola, Piero Calamandrei, Luigi Einaudi, Giustino Fortunato, Giorgio Levi Della Vida, Eugenio Montale, Giorgio Pasquali, Francesco Ruffini, Gaetano Salvemini and Matilde Serao.
