Vittorio Foa (18 September 1910 – 20 October 2008) was an Italian politician, trade unionist, journalist and writer.
Biography
Foa was born in
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
in 1910 into a middle-class
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
family.
He attended
Liceo Classico Massimo d'Azeglio
Liceo Classico Massimo d'Azeglio is a public sixth form college/senior high school (''liceo classico'') in Turin, Italy. It is named after the politician Massimo d'Azeglio.
History
It was established as the Collegio di Porta Nuova in 1831 and be ...
in Turin for his sixth form/senior high school studies.
[Ward, David. "Primo Levi's Turin." In: Gordon, Robert S.C. (editor). ''The Cambridge Companion to Primo Levi'' (Cambridge Companions to Literature). ]Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press
A university press is an academic publishing hou ...
, 30 July 2007. , 9781139827409. CITED: p
11
In 1931, Foa graduated in Law from the
University of Turin
The University of Turin (Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Torino'', UNITO) is a public research university in the city of Turin, in the Piedmont region of Italy. It is one of the oldest universities in Europe and continues to play an impo ...
and worked in a bank. In 1933, he joined
Giustizia e Libertà
Giustizia e Libertà (; en, Justice and Freedom) was an Italian anti-fascist resistance movement, active from 1929 to 1945.James D. Wilkinson (1981). ''The Intellectual Resistance Movement in Europe''. Harvard University Press. p. 224. The mov ...
, an anti-fascist political movement. He was arrested by the
OVRA
The OVRA, whose most probable name was Organization for Vigilance and Repression of Anti-Fascism ( it, Organizzazione per la Vigilanza e la Repressione dell'Antifascismo), was the secret police of the Kingdom of Italy, founded in 1927 under the ...
in May 1935 and was condemned to 15 years in prison. He shared his cell with
Ernesto Rossi,
Massimo Mila
Massimo Mila (14 August 1910 – 26 December 1988) was an Italian musicologist, music critic, intellectual and anti-fascist.
Biography
He studied at the Liceo classico Massimo d'Azeglio in Turin, where he was a pupil of Augusto Monti and wher ...
and
Riccardo Bauer
Riccardo Bauer (1896–1982) was an Italian anti-fascist journalist and political figure. He was one of the early Italians who fought against Benito Mussolini's rule. Due to his activities Bauer was imprisoned for a long time and was freed only a ...
.
Foa was released in August 1943. He joined the resistance movement and entered the
Action Party (''Partito d’Azione''; PdA). As a PdA member, he was involved with the
National Liberation Committee
The National Liberation Committee ( it, Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale, CLN) was a political umbrella organization and the main representative of the Italian resistance movement fighting against Nazi Germany’s forces during the German occup ...
(''Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale''; CLN)
On 2 June 1946, Foa was elected a member of 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 he also became a member of the
Commission of the Seventy. Foa’s name was linked to articles 39 and 40 of the
Constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When ...
dealing with the freedom of trade union organisation.
When the PdA dissolved in 1947, Foa joined 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, ...
(''Partito Socialista Italiano''; PSI) and was elected an MP in 1953 (and again in 1958 and 1963). In 1957, he joined the left-wing trade union of
Giuseppe Di Vittorio
Giuseppe Di Vittorio ( Cerignola, 11 August 1892 – Lecco, 3 November 1957), also known as Nicoletti, was an Italian trade union leader and Communist politician. He was one of the most influential trade union leaders of the labour movement after ...
, the
Italian General Confederation of Labour
The Italian General Confederation of Labour (; CGIL) is a national trade union based in Italy. It was formed by agreement between socialists, communists, and Christian democrats in the "Pact of Rome" of June 1944. In 1950, socialists and Christi ...
(''Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro''; CGIL), and became an influential and highly charismatic trade union leader.
A leading intellectual of the Italian non-Communist left, Foa supported the theory of the political
autonomy of the working class, which would later inspire the foundation of several extra-parliamentary leftist groups of which Foa was to become a member, including the
PSIUP
The Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity (''Partito Socialista Italiano di Unità Proletaria'', PSIUP) was a political party in Italy, active from 1964 to 1972.
History
The PSIUP was formed on 12 January 1964 by a leftist section of the ...
,
PdUP and
DP.
At the end of the 1970s, Foa left trade union and political life to devote himself to historical research and publishing. He taught Modern History at the Universities of Modena and Turin and researched the history of the working class and of the trade unions. Publications of this period include ''La Gerusalemme rimandata: Domande di oggi agli inglesi del primo Novecento'' (1985), a study of English working class movements at the beginning of the twentieth century.
In the late 1980s, Foa played an active part in the re-thinking of the Italian left and took a keen interest in the debates within 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). ...
(''Partito Comunista Italiano''; PCI). In 1987 he was elected Senator from the PCI’s list of candidates.
In 1992 Foa retired, dividing his time between Rome and
Formia
Formia is a city and ''comune'' in the province of Latina, on the Mediterranean coast of Lazio, Italy. It is located halfway between Rome and Naples, and lies on the Roman-era Appian Way. It has a population of 38,095. Istat 2017
History
...
. One of his last public appearances took place in 2002, when he joined the
“Manifestazione dei Girotondi”, a spontaneous civil movement that developed between 2002 and 2003 in several Italian towns.
Defined as "the critical voice of the Italian left", Foa devoted his life to Italian and European politics in their widest sense, and constantly expressed his confidence in the young. From the role of the trade unions, to the place of science in our contemporary society, his interests embraced crucial aspects of modern life and society.
He died on 20 October 2008 in
Formia
Formia is a city and ''comune'' in the province of Latina, on the Mediterranean coast of Lazio, Italy. It is located halfway between Rome and Naples, and lies on the Roman-era Appian Way. It has a population of 38,095. Istat 2017
History
...
.
On 21 October 2008, Italian newspapers were filled with tributes to Foa. In ''
La Repubblica
''la Repubblica'' (; the Republic) is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and led by Eugenio Scalfari, Carlo Caracciolo and Arnoldo ...
'', the journalist
Miriam Mafai
Miriam Mafai (24 March 1931 - 11 January 2011) was an Italian journalist, author and politician.
Life and career
Born in Florence, the daughter of the Scuola Romana artists Mario Mafai and Antonietta Raphaël and the sister of the politician ...
recalled his impatience when asked what the beleaguered Italian left should do. "It’s a waste of time and sense to try to define a leftist identity" – Mafai recalled Foa saying – "You have to do what is right and necessary for the country. It is up to posterity to decide whether it came from the right or the left."
Selected bibliography
*''La cultura della CGIL. Scritti e interventi 1950-1970'' (1984)
*''Riprendere tempo: Un diaologo con postilla'' (1982, with Pietro Marcenaro)
*''La Gerusalemme rimandata: Domande di oggi agli inglesi del primo Novecento'' (1985)
*''Il difficile cammino del lavoro'' (1990, with Vittorio Rieser)
*''Il Cavallo e la Torre: Riflessioni su una vita'' (1991)
*''Le virtù della Repubblica'' (1994, with Paul Ginsborg)
*''Del disordine e della libertà: Padre e figlio tra incertezze e speranze'' (1995, with Renzo Foa)
*''Il sogno di una Destra normale'' (1995, with Furio Colombo)
*''Questo Novecento'' (1996)
*''Lettere della giovinezza. Dal Carcere, 1935-1943'' (1998, edited by Federica Montevecchi)
*''Lavori in corso, 1943-1946''(1999, edited by Federica Montevecchi)
*''Il tempo del sapere'' (2000, with Andrea Ranieri)
*''Il ritorno dell'individuo: Cosa cambia nel lavoro e nella politica'' (2000, with Massimo Crosti)
*''Passaggi'' (2000); ''Sulle montagne'' (2002)
*''Il silenzio dei comunisti'' (2002, with Miriam Mafai and Alfredo Reichlin)
*''Un dialogo'' (2003, with Carlo Ginzburg)
*''La memoria è lunga'' (2003, with Federica Montevecchi)
*''Il linguaggio del tempo'' (2004, with Valter Casini)
*''Cent’anni dopo: Il sindacato dopo il sindacato'' (2006, with Gugliemo Epifani)
*''Le parole della politica'' (2008, with Federica Montevecchi)
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Foa, Vittorio
1910 births
2008 deaths
Politicians from Turin
20th-century Italian Jews
Action Party (Italy) politicians
Italian Socialist Party politicians
Proletarian Democracy politicians
Italian Communist Party politicians
Democratic Party of the Left politicians
Democrats of the Left politicians
Democratic Party (Italy) politicians
Members of the Constituent Assembly of Italy
Deputies of Legislature II of Italy
Deputies of Legislature III of Italy
Deputies of Legislature IV of Italy
Deputies of Legislature VII of Italy
Senators of Legislature X of Italy
Members of Giustizia e Libertà
Writers from Turin
Jewish socialists
Journalists from Turin
Italian male journalists
Italian male writers
20th-century Italian journalists
Il manifesto editors