Futurist Political Party

Political party in Italy

Politics of Italy
Political parties
Elections

The Futurist Political Party (Italian: Partito Politico Futurista) was an Italian political party founded in 1918 by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti as an extension of the futurist artistic and social movement. The party had a radical program which included promoting gender parity and abolishing marriage, inheritance, military service and secret police. The party was absorbed into the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento in 1919.

Ideology

Futurist Democracy

The abolition of marriage,^[1] with children raised by the state with funds raised by a tax on free love.
Bureaucratic decentralization and abolition of seniority in state careers.
"Technical government without Senate", i.e. a youth council made up of a dozen people under 30 years, elected by universal suffrage direct.
Land reform similar to that of Henry George.
Gender equality in employment and participation in political life.
Creation of "schools of courage and patriotism", which eventually became the Opera Nazionale Balilla.^[2]
Prison reform and abolition of the political police.

History

Background

Italian Futurism arose in the years prior to World War I with Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and his publication of the Manifesto of Futurism in 1909. Around that time, Furturism in Italy was, according to the book International Futurism in Arts and Literature, more of a Futurist "attitude" towards politics rather than of a true political creed. The idea of Futurism was a modern nationalist movement, diverging from past nationalism which was seen as cultist or fetishistic towards the past and its traditions. Instead, futurists enthusiastically embraced modernity and the industrial transformation of Italy. Futurist nationalism was anti-authoritarian, anti-clerical, and never ruled out the idea of joining forces with the revolutionary Left, anarchists, and syndicalists in order to combat the bourgeois liberal society and the bureaucratic and centralist state, which was seen as a common enemy.^[3]

Despite attempts, Futurist dedication to nationalism and internationalism prevented the movement from ever forming a stable alliance with the left. Futurists thought that the proletariat could only be emancipated through nationalist pride, energy, and territorial expansion. This stance led it to oppose the Italian Socialist Party and socialism as a whole, as the party was both pacifist and internationalist.^[3]

With the Italo-Turkish War in 1912, politics assumed a major role within the futurist movement. With the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, they were the first to call for intervention against the Austrians and Germans and joined the country's armed forces once Italy entered the war. Futurists envisioned the war as a catalyst for dismantling the old order, anticipating the realization of Futurist prophecies in what Marinetti referred to as the "Italian Revolution."^[4]

Founding

According to author Selena Daly, Marinetti's interest in engaging with politics was half-hearted at best. In previous years most political attempts by the futurist were mainly excuses to rowdly violence or gain cheap publicity. There were expectations that Marinetti would run in the 1913 general election, as evidenced by the printing of 100,000 copies of the third Futurist political manifesto, but he ultimately rejected the idea of candidacy. The idea of an actual Fururist Political Party arose in 1917 and was first mentioned in the 9 December issue of the L'Italia futurista. The party's manifesto was published two months later in February 1918 in the final issue of L'Italia futurista, although the party wouldn't be formed until November 1918.^[5]^[6]

The Roma Furturista was founded in the same year by Mario Carli, Marinetti, and Emilio Settimelli in order to spread the ideas of the new party. The party was the first of its kind, and the requirements to join it was to be an interventionist, glorify war, and be opposed to neutralist, the liberal state, the monarchy, and the church.^[6]

Merger and collapse

The futurists were amongst the first fascists as the party was absorbed into the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento in 1919 and Marinetti becoming a member of its central committee. While fascism drew much inspiration from the Futurist party program, both Futurism and Fascism lived side by side without losing their own individual characteristics. One was a movement of artists seeking to influence politics, the other was a movement of politicians who wanted to use art to extend their sphere of influence.^[7]

This symbiotic relationship endured for less than a year before it began to fall apart after the 1919 Italian general election in which the fascists were defeated. In its aftermath, Fascism underwent a transformation, veering towards the right in the pursuit of better prospects, abandoning its previous libertarian, anti-conservative, and anti-clerical direction.^[8]

During the National Fascist Congress in May 1920, Carli and Marinetti walked out in disgust, denouncing fascism as "reactionary." This was the final conclusion to a split which had emerged within the Futurist party itself during the early months of 1920. The party had struggled to establish itself as a cohesive political force and faced rapid disintegration due to the lack of uniformity among its artists, arditi, and intellectuals.^[8]

A faction of the remaining Futurist movement shifted towards the left, finding renewed inspiration in the Italian Regency of Carnaro. They carried on the fight for the "Italian revolution" by utilizing Carli's journal, La testa di ferro, which adopted an openly anti-Fascist stance. The journal aimed to establish a fresh alliance between Futurism and the working class, fostering collaboration between "revolutionary Italians" and "revolutionary Bolsheviks," particularly during the Biennio Rosso period.^[8]

Following the March on Rome, several intransigent Futurist leaders, including Marinetti, returned to the fold of Mussolini's Fascist Party in the hopes that they could at least influence the regime's cultural policy.^[9]

References

^ Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. Reprinted in Teoria e invenzione futurista (1983). p. 374.
^ Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. Il cittadino eroico, l'abolizione delle polizie e la scuole di coraggio. Reprinted in Teoria e invenzione futurista (1983). p. 442.
^ ^a ^b Berghaus 2012, p. 5–7.
^ Berghaus 2012, p. 7.
^ Daly 2016, p. 123–124.
^ ^a ^b Berghaus 2012, p. 8.
^ Berghaus 2012, p. 9.
^ ^a ^b ^c Berghaus 2012, p. 10.
^ Berghaus 2012, p. 10–11.

Works cited

Daly, Selena (2016). Italian Futurism and the First World War. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 9781442619357.
Berghaus, Günter (2012). International Futurism in Arts and Literature. De Gruyter. ISBN 9783110804225.