A short one about the 25th of April + two tidbits to celebrate and be angry
As most of you may know by now, I am from Italy. April 25th is the day we conventionally celebrate and commemorate the liberation of most of the main Italian cities from Nazifascist occupation armies. It's not a great time right now to be an antifascist in Italy: just yesterday daniela santanchè, current representative of the Fratelli d'italia government — the same party, mind you, who keep in their emblem the tricolor flame, symbol invented by the Movimento Sociale Italiano, founded in 1948 by notorious fascist bureaucrats and racists such as giorgio almirante — proudly declared herself a fascist in front of a cheering audience. Not to mention the Antonio Scurati speech débâcle (for those not in the know: RAI, the Italian national television, network censored a speech meant to air in commemoration of April 25th, in order to give more space to anti-abortion activists on a TV show called Che sarà) which led prime minister giorgia meloni to publicly denounce some sort of conspiracy on the left's part to her damage or some shit, despite the fact that RAI journalists have been reading multiple speeches concerning a number of recently passed laws that are clearly meant to turn TV into the government's personal PA system. Among these laws, one of them allows for government representatives to speak without any time limits and without a journalist's questions or counter-statements. I'm assuming I don't have to tell you how worrying this is.
The Italian left is perennially plagued by inner divisions and schisms, even nowadays — a time where it barely exists at all. The one thing it agrees on is the Resistance, the grassroots movement which had the American army finding most of the big cities in the country already freed of fascists by the time it marched into the streets. It's very easy to use it as a trump card: if you have no political plan, no ideals, nothing to convince people with, you turn to the Resistance and everyone claps and laughs. I find it horrifying that what is a beacon of hope from the past is now reduced to a mere, useless talking point for gutless bureaucrats of the centrist variety (at best). The bloodlessness is what will ultimately lead this whole thing to failure — the way a liver fails.
But this is mainly a music blog, right? So music you shall have. I want to leave you with two links.
Canadian sound artist and urban scientist Tim Hecker made a record in 2006 called Harmony in Ultraviolet. On the cover of the album is a close-up of a monument dedicated to the people who died being part of the Resistance between the years of 1943 and 1945. The record stands as a marvelous sound sculpture of lacerating beauty and those in the know have an element to relate to: even people on the other side of the world look at what we have accomplished in the past, and gave us a reminder that we can accomplish it now, again. Despite the greying and wearing of trite talking points, something dangerous, vital, sparkling, shining still exists and blares through, now and again, time and time again.
There is a song I always think of on the 25th of April, every year. It's called Lettera del compagno Laszlo al comandante Valerio, written and performed by Giorgio Canali and his band Rossofuoco. Italy has never had its own personal Nuremberg; quite the opposite, actually, with Palmiro Togliatti (president of the National Liberation Committee) signing an amnesty in order to keep the preexisting structures running, which for fuck's sake, who the fuck does that? So this song is exactly about that. It goes something like this and I'd like you to keep it in mind.
Buon 25 Aprile / Happy April the 25th
