Factory Cells and the Red Aid Movement: Factory and Neighborhood Forms of Organization and Resistance to Fascism in Turin,1922–1926

The Italian labor movement was seriously damaged by fascism's rise to power. Attempts by the Italian Communist Party (PCI) to resurrect its organizational structures and lead resistance to fascism were based on traditional working-class spheres of organization: the factory and the neighborhood. The PCI resisted over-reliance on either point of production or neighborhood organization. Rather, it showed adroit tactical flexibility, in shifting its primary emphasis depending on changing circumstances, in this period. A case study of Turin affords insights into how the factory vs. neighborhood issue was played out in theory and practice in a key Italian city. An examination of the factory cells and Red Aid organization in Turin shows that the working-class response to communist organization and fascism was informed by non-sectarian traditions of neighborhood collectivism and resistance.