LA ‘RESISTENZA’ DELLA SINISTRA POPOLARE DINANZI AL FASCISMO: IL DIALOGO CON I SOCIALISTI NELLE PAGINE DEL «DOMANI D’ITALIA» (1922-1924)

On December 24 1922, in the midst of the tensions of the post- war crisis and the reactionary offensive, and just two months after the “March on Rome”, the left-wing of the Italian Popular Party published in Milan the weekly «Il Domani d’Italia» (December 1922-July 1924) taking the title of the Chris- tian Democrat weekly (1901-1903) edited by Romolo Murri. The deep religious, democratic and moral crisis pushed the editors – among others Francesco Luigi Ferrari, Gerolamo and Luigi Meda, Cesare and Luigi Degli Occhi – to a political commitment to the struggle and the related social culture. The condemnation of fascist authoritarianism, the need for an internal clarification of the PPI against the clerical-fascist tendencies (favourable to a political compromise with Musso- lini), the defence of the local autonomy and the white trade union movement (as opposed to red trade unionism), were questions openly addressed by the editors with neither uncertainty nor hesitation. This article aims to examine the political, institutional and social debate, carried out on the pages of «Il Domani d’Italia» in order to reconstruct the position taken by the left of the PPI that would lead to the republican choice. The common thread that binds all the contributions of the periodical emerges: the need to be the architects of the new democracy, to put forward unitary proposals from the opposition (via an agreement between the Popular and the Unitary Socialists), and to prepare a common strategy after the fall of Fascism.