Word: gasperi
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...great catch which seemed within its grasp a little more than a year ago. Then it had threatened to sweep the national elections and engulf democracy. Now it was in retreat, fighting guerrilla actions, terrorizing farmhands, harassing production, sniping at the Christian Democratic government of Premier Alcide de Gasperi...
...Fear but Firmness. Christian Democrat de Gasperi understood the Red game. He also understood that democracy's first job had been to curb communism as a brass-knuckled force beyond the law. Despite Red violence in the farmhands' strike, he had established his government's authority...
...Communists have exploited the peasants' land hunger for political ends. De Gasperi has countered with the slogan, "We must have land reform, but first we must develop our land." Last summer ECAgriculturists revived the old Fascist program of land reclamation (as it was carried out in the Pontine Marshes) as a sensible way to more productivity and less agrarian discontent. With U.S. prodding and financial help, three districts are being reclaimed; eventually they will account for one-third of the nation's arable land, provide cheap plots for the landless...
Reclamation is not the answer as far as the moderate Socialists in De Gasperi's government are concerned. Led by highbrowed Giuseppe Saragat, this faction has pressured the Christian Democrats toward a new plan of land redistribution by progressive stages. Some 8,760 landholders would be affected. The state would buy up to 50% of the big holdings for resale, on easy terms, to small peasants. In the face of latifondiari resistance, the program will be hard to put over...
...sound & fury failed. Kept alert by strong black coffee, sleeping by turns inside the chamber, the anti-Communists outlasted their opponents. By a brisk vote of 342-170, De Gasperi sailed through with authority to join the Atlantic pact (he had still to win Senate approval). Togliatti bawled: "You will have to reckon with the Italian people!" Fellow Traveler Nenni echoed: "The fight has just begun!" Government supporters triumphantly sang the national anthem-"Brothers of Italy ... of Italy awakened." Marxists responded with Garibaldi's defiant old war chant-"Foreigners, get out of Italy...