| Action Party Partito d'Azione |
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|---|---|
| Former leaders | Ferruccio Parri, Ugo La Malfa, Emilio Lussu |
| Founded | July 14, 1942 |
| Dissolved | April 25, 1947 |
| Newspaper | L'Italia Libera |
| Membership (1945) | ? (max) |
| Ideology | Antifascism, Social liberalism |
| Politics of Italy Political parties Elections |
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The Action Party (Partito d'Azione, Pd'A) was an Italian political party.
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It was an anti-fascist political party in the tradition of Giuseppe Mazzini and the Risorgimento. Founded in July 1942 by former militants of Giustizia e Libertà (Justice and Liberty), liberal socialists, democrats. Ideologically they were heirs to the "Liberal Socialism" of Carlo Rosselli and to Piero Gobetti's "Liberal Revolution", whose writings rejected Marxist "economic determinism" and aimed at the overcoming of class struggle and for a new shape of Socialism, respect for civil liberty and for radical change in both the social and the economic structure of Italy. From January 1943 it published a clandestine newspaper, L'Italia Libera ("Free Italy"), edited by Leone Ginzburg.
Central members of the National Liberation Committee, they participated actively in the Italian resistance movement with units of Giustizia e Libertà (Justice and Liberty), commanded by Ferruccio Parri. It maintained a clear antimonarchical position and it was opposed to Togliatti and the Italian Communist Party's Salerno Initiative for postwar governance. The party adopted the symbol of a flaming sword. (For Partito d'Azione units and involvement in the Italian resistance movement, see Giustizia e Libertà.)
In the immediate post-war period it joined the government securing the post of Prime Minister for Ferruccio Parri from June to November 1945. However as a result of the internal conflict between the democratic-reformist line of Ugo La Malfa and the socialist line of Emilio Lussu, combined with the electoral defeat of 1946, the party folded. Unwillingness of the "Actionists" to work with reviving political parties "tainted by association with Fascism" also resulted in the decline of the Partito d'Azione. The main group of former members, led by Riccardo Lombardi, joined the Italian Socialist Party, while the Malfa group entered the Italian Republican Party.
Website of the Italian Resistance Historical Society: http://www.romacivica.net/anpiroma/antifascismo/antifascismo15.html [1] Includes in-depth bios, recent remembrances, and selections from party documents.
Historical Dictionary entry from Paravia Mondadori Editori, an Italian Educational publishing house: http://www.pbmstoria.it/dizionari/storia_mod/p/p062.htm [2]
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