How to Fight Communists

In 6,000 Italian towns and villages last week workers attended "feasts of liberty." Fireworks and oratory popped triumphantly. Two thousand anti-Communist soapboxers, doorbell ringers and pamphlet carriers crowded into Rome's shiny, modern Cinema Metropolitan, hoarsely chanting the name of Luigi Gedda. Finally, a brawny, firm-jawed man rose from his seat in the first row and brusquely acknowledged the cheers. He was the chief strategist of Italy's Catholic Action movement; he had just led his followers to a notable victory.

Plan S. Last winter, Luigi Gedda called on Catholic Action's comitati civici (citizens' committees) for a major effort. He named it Plan S (for syndicalism). He wanted to build up the Free Federation of Italian Labor, to rival the Red-run Italian Confederation of Labor (C.G.I.L.) through which the Communists have kept an iron grip on four million of Italy's workers. Gedda's goal was to enlist two million members for the Free Federation.

Last week's reports from half of Gedda's provincial headquarters showed more than a million enrolled. When all the returns are in, Gedda is confident that the two million goal will be exceeded. His fingertips casually joined, his eyes on the ceiling, Gedda last week sat behind his cluttered mahogany desk and reviewed the campaign. "It went as we planned," he said calmly. "There was a lot of hard work . . ."

And Mother-in-Law, Too. Catholic Action reaches into every town, every slum, every factory and every village. Its agents are a strangely assorted phalanx-schoolteachers and schoolchildren, lawyers and factory workers, nuns and union leaders. At Catholic Action headquarters, pink-cheeked girl secretaries race through the long, whitewashed corridors, barely dodging pale, serious priests. They all take their orders from Catholic Action executives.

When the Communists set up low-cost lunch counters in factories, Catholic Action did the same--and tried to serve better food. When Communist women's organizations sent poor children to the country, Catholic Action went to work until its own kids-to-the-country program by far outdid the Reds'. Last year Catholic Action helped send over a million needy youngsters to summer camps.

When Communists organize rallies, Catholic Action organizes bigger ones. At a recent demonstration in Rome, Catholic Action provided the loudspeakers, the spectators' platforms, the slogans, the music, the buses, boats and trains that carried out-of-towners to the city. It even organized the housewives to pack box lunches and send their husbands to the meeting. It was typical of Catholic Action's zealous exuberance that brown-robed Franciscan monks climbed on lamp posts and snapped pictures of the rally. Catholic Action speakers frequently engage Communist leaders in public debates. One of the most tireless debaters is a Dominican, Father Felix Morlion, who challenged Red Boss Palmiro Togliatti to a debate over Cardinal Mindszenty's trial. Togliatti sent a substitute, Communist Senator Ottavio Pastore. When Pastore was through, Father Morlion quietly mounted the rostrum beneath a huge portrait of Togliatti and smilingly proceeded to answer the Senator's ranting. "To conquer misery," Father Morlion concluded, "it is not necessary to suppress religion."

Catholic Action wives are encouraged to work on recalcitrant husbands. In Valle Aurelia (one of Rome's Reddest districts), a worker explained his recent break with Communism. When his wife came home from church on Sundays she repeated the priest's sermons; his children played on the Catholic Action playground; and finally, Catholic welfare workers took his sick mother-in-law to a hospital and paid her expenses. At that point he tore up his party card.

How People Live. A typical example of how Catholic Action organizes the workers is provided by drab Prima Valle, a working-class quarter built by Mussolini. It had been a neat village of tree-shaded squares and cheerful flowerbeds. Neglect and overcrowding during the war had ruined it. Now cold winds blow through the gaping windows. The trees have been cut down for firewood, and the flowerbeds are grey dust. "We live," an old man said, "in a very expensive graveyard."

The Catholic Action comitati for Prima Valle is headed by Galeazzo Galletti, a pale, bespectacled clerk. He has 13 district commanders, each of whom controls a dozen capo-scala ("stair-leaders"). The Communists poked fun at "Father Galletti and his 13 apostles." The Catholic Actionists rounded up 1,500 likely prospects, began bombarding them with pamphlets. In the 1946 elections, Prima Valle had voted six-to-one for Communism. Last year, less than half of Prima Valle's vote was Red. Says Galletti: "We learned that we could make better propaganda than the Communists,"

Propaganda alone would not have been enough to divert the leftward drift of Italian workers who want higher pay and better hours. Catholic Action had to demonstrate that it could operate as effectively as the Reds in reaching those goals. One of Galletti's lieutenants, quiet, earnest Luigi Giacomini, recently faced that problem headon. He went straight to the manager of the machine shop in which he works and on behalf of his comrades asked for overtime pay and elimination of Sunday work. The manager brusquely declined. Galletti advised: "Invite the man to Prima Valle and let him see how people live."

A few nights later the manager strode into a meeting of a Prima Valle citizens' committee. Galletti told the manager: "You want us to convince the workers that they should not follow Communist orders. How can we do that unless you do your share and give them their due?" A few days later, the manager met the workers' demands. A fourth of the workers in his plant promptly joined the free labor organization.

Plan D. Luigi Gedda was not resting on Catholic Action's laurels. He said that the citizens' committees would continue their drive for the Free Federation. He wants to keep the committees in fighting trim for his spring campaign which he has already planned. It is called Plan D (for disoccupazione) and will fight unemployment.

Gedda was still far from having won the battle against the Italian Communists. His Catholic Action, however, had demonstrated the most effective way of fighting Communists: to match their faith with firmer faith, their discipline with greater discipline, and their hard work with harder work.

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