Pietro Secchia (19 December 1903 – 7 July 1971) was an Italian politician, anti-fascist partisan leader and a prominent leader of the

Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy. The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI). ...

Biography

Early life

Secchia was born into a working-class family. His father was a member of the

Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a socialist and later social-democratic political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the longest-living parties of the country. Founded in Genoa in 1892, ...

. In 1919, he joined the Socialist Youth Federation, where he quickly rose trough its ranks after he participated in strikes and anti-fascist actions in the "

Biennio Rosso The Biennio Rosso (English: "Red Biennium" or "Two Red Years") was a two-year period, between 1919 and 1920, of intense social conflict in Italy, following the First World War.Brunella Dalla Casa, ''Composizione di classe, rivendicazioni e prof ...

". Being an active and well-known political activist, Secchia joined the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1921 at the time of its formation.

Anti-fascist resistance

In 1924, Secchia was elected to the Central Committee of the Communist Youth Federation, takes part in the work of the Vth Congress of the Communist International. From 1926, he was one of the leaders of the communist underground in fascist Italy. In 1928, he became a member of the Central Committee of the PCI, then a member of its Politburo. In April 1931, he was arrested and sentenced by the Special Tribunal to 18 years in prison. Until 1943, he was in prison and in exile, from where he was released by partisans. Secchiq participated in the

Resistance Movement A resistance movement is an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to withstand the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability. It may seek to achieve its objective ...

and beame the general commissar of the

Brigate Garibaldi The ''Brigate Garibaldi'' or Garibaldi Brigades were partisan units aligned with the Italian Communist Party active in the armed resistance against both German and Italian fascist forces during World War II. The Brigades were mostly made up of ...

brigades.

Post WW2

In February 1948, following the VI National Congress of the PCI, he was elected Deputy Secretary General, a position he held until 1955. In 1946 he was elected as a deputy to the

Constituent Assembly A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...

and in 1948 he was elected senator in the ranks of the Popular Democratic Front, remaining in the Senate until his death. Despite the party line, Secchia kept with him a group of loyal comrades from the former partisan groups who did not surrender their weapons, in case of an attempted ''coup d'état'' by the right. Often not in line with

Palmiro Togliatti Palmiro Michele Nicola Togliatti (; 26 March 1893 – 21 August 1964) was an Italian politician and leader of the Italian Communist Party from 1927 until his death. He was nicknamed ("The Best") by his supporters. In 1930 he became a citizen of ...

's policy and sometimes considered as his possible alternative, in 1954 Secchia's position within the party began to weaken: in fact he was first joined and then replaced by

Giorgio Amendola Giorgio Amendola (21 November 1907 – 5 June 1980) was an Italian writer and politician. He is regarded and often cited as one of the main precursors of the Olive Tree. Born in Rome in 1907, Amendola was the son of Lithuanian intellectual Eva K ...

in the organizational direction. Secchia and other elements were thus progressively marginalized for their more radical stance and opposition to the "reformist" trend within the PCI. Furthermore, the death of Stalin and the his denunciation the

20th Congress of the CPSU The 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was held during the period 14–25 February 1956. It is known especially for First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev's "Secret Speech", which denounced the personality cult and dictatorship ...

had made the position of the components that were linked to a more organically Leninist vision (of which Secchia was the leading exponent) particularly uncomfortable both in the party and within the broader electorate of the PCI. Eventually, as a result of theft from the party's secret funds by one of Secchia's closest associates, he disappeared from positions of national importance. He was removed from his role in the national organization, and was instead appointed head, from 1955 to the beginning of 1957, of the Lombardy regional secretariat. He subsequently directed the party's publishing business until the end of 1962.

Later life

For most of the early sixties, he was working on the study of the history of the PCI and the resistance movement, and published multiple books and memoirs. From the end of the sixties he devoted himself to international politics. He advocated for the emancipation and independence of Africa, visiting Egypt and Syria in July-August 1967, North Africa in October-November of the same year; Jordan, and again Syria in December 1969; Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia in October 1971. In January 1972, he traveled to Chile, where he supported the government of

Salvador Allende Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (, , ; 26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean physician and socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 3 November 1970 until his death on 11 September 1973. He was the fir ...

, making him the last Western leader to visit the Latin American nation before the advent of the dictatorship of

Augusto Pinochet Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (, , , ; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean general who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being declared President of ...

. On his return to Italy, he suffered an illness that held him between life and death for a few months. The unusual nature of this illness led Secchia, despite having no proof, to believe that he had been poisoned by the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

.Roberto Gremmo, ''Pietro Secchia. Un comunista scomodo,'' 1978 Secchia died in July 1973.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Secchia, Pietro Italian politicians 1971 deaths 1903 births Italian Communist Party politicians Italian Comintern people Italian anti-fascists 20th-century Italian journalists Italian memoirists 20th-century Italian historians Members of the National Council (Italy) Members of the Constituent Assembly of Italy Senators of Legislature I of Italy Senators of Legislature II of Italy Senators of Legislature III of Italy Senators of Legislature IV of Italy Senators of Legislature V of Italy Senators of Legislature VI of Italy