Crisis in Italy

Series

Series Name

The March of Time 13th Year

Issue

Issue No.

8

Date Released

1948

Length of issue (in feet)

1519

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1Crisis in Italy

Story

Story No. within this Issue

1 / 1

Summary

The March of Time synopsis: Stressing the seriousness of the "cold war" in Italy, this month’s March of Time emphasises the need of economic and social reforms for a nation that finds democracy a strange and all but forgotten kind of government after twenty years of Fascist rule and four hard years of war. With the aid of Time and Life Correspondent Emmet Hughes, the film pictures the present political situation in Italy, where rising discontent finds expression in the growing power of the Communists, now so confident of their strength that they fully anticipate gaining control of the country by peaceful methods.

By agitating noisily for overdue reforms, and claiming credit for any which the de Gaspari Government have instituted, the Communists have swelled their ranks in loss than three years from a bare four hundred thousand to well over two and a quarter million. Nor, warns the film, is their success merely accidental. Led by Moscow trained Palmiro Togliatto, they are better organised than any other party, and have already won control of some three thousand municipal administrations throughout the country, including many of the biggest cities, which enables them to claim credit for such relief measures as the communal restaurants set up in Milan and other large centres. Through their control of the powerful Italian Confederation of Labour, they have been able to win important concessions for the workers in furtherance of their policy of identifying the Communist Party with progressive reform. One of those concessions is an over-increasing power in the management-production committees of Itlay’s bigest industrial plants, as in the case of Turin’s huge Fiat factory. Now concentrating with considerable success on the agricultural South they have, by urging the break-up of large estates, won over enough of Italy’s farming population to account for one third of the party’s membership. The March of Time also discuesses the strategic value of Trieste, where the presence of British and American troops provides the chief obstacle to Communist ambitions of gaining control. In their hands Trieste, linked by rail with all the important key centres of Middle Europe, would give Russia’s nearby satellite states a valuable outlet to the Adriatic and Mediterranean. Aid from the United States, negotiated by the Foreign Minister, Count Carlo Sforza, has already strengthened Italian resistance to Communist pomises but, warns The March of Time, unless an effective democratic leadership is established, capable of controlling the country’s economy and evenly distributing the benefits of this aid, there still remains the danger that Italy’s people may fall victim to totalitarian doctrines.

Researcher Comments

This story was included in Vol.14 No.8 of the US edition.

Keywords

Politics and government

Written sources

The March of Time Promotional Material   Typed Notes, Used for synopsis

Credits:

Production Co.

Time Inc.