ITALY: No More Blue Serge

Italy’s Communist Boss Palmiro Togliatti has long been the most prominent exponent of the respectable (or blue-serge-suit) school of Communism, which advocates conquest of power by fooling the people instead of shooting them. Last week, Togliatti decided that, since his party was losing ground, he would be a Communist with hair on his chest. Cried he before a cheering crowd at Modena:

“We have 30,000 well-armed partisans at our disposal, and if the Government doesn’t give us prompt proof of its democratic spirit, we shall have to fight, because only by fighting can we obtain any positive results. . . .”

Present to hear this challenge to Christian Democratic Premier De Gasperi was Luigi Longo, Italian Communism’s unofficial minister of war. As 32 of his well-organized partisan brigades paraded, he remarked tersely that this was “a solemn warning to those who need it.”