The Ventotene manifesto
From SpinelliWiki
On this page, we collect notes and links related to the Manifesto for a free and united Europe, co-authored by Ernesto Rossi and Altiero Spinelli during 1941.
Spinelli and Rossi were at the time political prisoners and exiled to the small island of Ventotene.
Contents |
The manifesto
This section follows the main headings in the three-chapter version of the Manifesto, which was published by Eugenio Colorni in January 1944.
I THE CRISIS OF MODERN CIVILISATION
Critique of the concept of absolute sovereignty of national States.
Critique of Fascism, Corporatism and Racism.
Appraisal of the critical spirit, open-mindedness (spregiudicato atteggiamento), and the progressive forces. These are: the most enlightened groups of the working classes, and the most conscious elements of the intellectual classes.
II POST-WAR DUTIES – EUROPEAN UNITY
A quotation from the Manifesto:
- "Through propaganda and action, seeking to establish in every possible way agreements and links among the single movements which are certainly being formed in the various countries, the foundation must be built now for a movement that knows how to mobilise all forces for the birth of the new organism which will be the grandest creation, and the newest, that has occurred in Europe for centuries; and the constitution of a steady federal State, that will have an European armed service instead of national armies at its disposal; that will break decisively economic autarchies, the backbone of totalitarian regimes; that will have sufficient means to see that its deliberations for the maintenance of common order are executed in the single federal States, while each State will retain the autonomy it needs for a plastic articulation and development of a political life according to the particular characteristics of the various people."[1]
III POST-WAR DUTIES – THE REFORM OF SOCIETY
Quotation from the Manifesto:
- In order to respond to our needs, the European revolution must be socialist, that is its goal must be the emancipation of the working classes and the realisation of more humane living conditions for them.
- For a discission of the political content of this part, see Luciano Patruno: Presentazione - La parte dimenticata del Manifesto di Ventotene: il riformismo sociale dell’Europa libera e unita
- "l’Europa è nata in una prospettiva differente rispetto a quella auspicata nel Manifesto di Ventotene di Altiero Spinelli e Ernesto Rossi, i quali, nel delineare uno stato federale europeo, si riferivano anche ad un «processo storico contro la disuguaglianza e i privilegi sociali", from Algostino, A: Democrazia sociale e libero mercato: Costituzione italiana versus “costituzione europea”? [2]
Webpages
- http://www.altierospinelli.org/manifesto/manifesto_en.html - this page provides links to the text in Italian and to translations of the Manifesto into several languages.
Books
- Angelino, Luciano: Le forme dell'Europa. Genova 2003. Contains (on pp 107-201) the text of the Manifesto in its original four-chapter version.
- Altiero Spinelli - From Ventotene to the European Constitution, an anthology of Spinelli's writings in English. See RECON
