Italy marked its 81st Liberation Day anniversary on April 25, highlighting the continuity of struggle against fascism during World War II and all iterations of imperialism today. “Cambiamo tutto – Let’s change everything” was a prominent slogan across the country, reflecting the widespread demand for radical change, not unlike the one promised by the people’s victory over fascism.
The date commemorates Italy’s Liberation from fascist rule in 1945, celebrating the partisan resistance that made the establishment of democratic institutions possible. “April 25 is a day of struggle, not only to keep alive the memory of the partisan resistance, but above all to continue moving forward in building an alternative,” the student collective CAU emphasized.
For years, left movements have worked to articulate the anniversary into more than mere commemoration, ensuring contemporary struggles are represented at rallies. As a result, this year, migrant and marginalized communities participated in many of the protests, while Liberation Day demonstrations were flooded with Palestinian and Cuban flags, affirming solidarity with ongoing liberation demands. On April 25, CAU noted, the streets were to be filled with people who had opposed the genocide in Gaza and the complicity of the Italian government in war crimes in Palestine through strikes and encampments over the past three years.
“Today, the flags of socialist Cuba and Palestine flew around us, reminding us that being an antifascist today means being anti-imperialist, standing with the peoples who are resisting the aggression of the increasingly violent and warmongering West,” the Roman chapter of left party Potere al Popolo wrote. “We continue, carrying on the legacy of the partisans, to oppose the fascist government, building an autonomous and independent alternative alongside the oppressed peoples, in the spirit of the Resistance and against war.”
Liberation Day demonstration in Rome. Source: Potere al Popolo Roma/Facebook
Cuban symbols reflected a massive solidarity drive in Italy, where students, trade unions, and activists have recently supported several missions to the socialist island as it faces renewed US assaults. In Rome, the mobilization paused at the Cuban embassy, where ambassador Jorge Luis Cepero emphasized that “the Cuban people are forged in the same spirit of the partisans.”
The alternatives sought by thousands of Liberation Day participants also extend to domestic policy, particularly opposing the Meloni government’s agenda of securitization and militarization at the expense of workers. “April 25 serves as a tangible reminder of a choice that was made – a choice that is once again relevant today in a period marked by war, economic crisis, and new forms of domination,” the grassroots trade union Unione Sindacale di Base (USB) wrote. “This current model fuels war abroad and curtails civil liberties at home. Resources are diverted to military spending, while public sector wages and living standards are gradually eroded.”
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These government actions, according to the Association of Partisans of Italy (ANPI), not only contest the country’s antifascist legacy – in line with revisionist tendencies mirrored in the whole region – but also undermine the democratic progress made possible by liberation.
“Today, all of this is being called into question by a blind and barbaric return to war, nationalism, and fascism; peace and social justice are being undermined; technocrats, the owners of boundless financial empires, claim that democracy is incompatible with freedom; every form of international law is being trampled underfoot in the name of the absolute primacy of force,” ANPI wrote.
“Once again, it falls to us to work toward a new world and, together, to combat at its roots the current tide of authoritarianism, nationalism, and warmongering,” the organization proposed. “If there is a new fascism, there is also a new Resistance. And after the Resistance, there is always a Liberation.”
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