(ANPI; National Association of Italian Partisans) is an association founded by partisans and participants of the Italian Resistance against the Italian fascist regime and the subsequent Nazi occupation during World War II.
ANPI was founded in Rome in 1944, as the war continued in northern Italy. It was constituted as a charitable foundation on 5 April 1945. It persists due to the activity of its anti-fascist members.
History
The National Association of Italian Partisans was created by volunteers who took part in the war in the central regions of the Italian peninsula.
After the fall of the Italian Social Republic, the ANPI spread over the country as far as the southern tip of Italy. Most of the partisans who fought came from the center-north of Italy, but there were also members from Yugoslavia, Greece and France.
On 5 April 1945, the day that the ANPI was recognized as a charitable foundation, the association represented all the Italian partisans and was managed by a council where the different brigades that fought in the war were present (Brigate Garibaldi, Ferruccio Parri’s , , Mazzini Society, independent groups and Catholic partisans groups. But after the first national congress, which took place in Rome in 1947, problems arose due to different visions of internal and foreign politics within the group.
List of ANPI National Congresses
Rome, 6–9 December 1947
Venice, 19–21 March 1949
Rome, 27–29 June 1952
Milan, 6–8 April 1956
Turin, 19–21 June 1959
Rome, 14–16 February 1964
Bologna, 18–21 March 1971
Florence, 4–7 November 1976
Genoa, 26–29 March 1981
Milan, 10–13 December 1986
Bologna, 2–5 June 1991
Naples, 28–30 June 1996
Abano Terme (PD), 29–31 March 2001
Chianciano Terme (SI), 24–26 February 2006
Turin, 24–27 March 2011
Rimini, 12–15 May 2016
Riccione, 24–27 March 2022
Objectives
ANPI’s objectives are the maintenance of the historical role of the partisan war by means of research and the collection of personal stories. Its goals are a continued defense against historical revisionism and the ideal and ethical support of the high values of freedom and democracy expressed in the 1948 constitution, in which the ideals of the Italian resistance were collected.
Members
Unlike other veterans' associations, veterans can become ANPI members if they belong to one of the categories listed in Article 23 of its regulations. These include partisans, patriots, soldiers who fought against German soldiers after the Armistice between Italy and Allied armed forces, prisoners or deportees—during the civil war—for political activities or racial discrimination, imprisoned military persons who did not support the Italian Social Republic, and also all citizens who, without any distinction of age, declare themselves as antifascists, in accordance to ANPI regulations. With the introduction of a new regulation, approved during the 14th congress, in 2006, ANPI allowed a generational change in the direction of members of the association. In 2010 its membership count was about 110,000 affiliated members.
In addition to the 10% of members categorized as "historic partisans", 10% of the organization consists of young people between 18 and 30 years of age, and the majority of members (60–65%) are between 35 and 65 years old.
In the three years between 2006 and 2009, membership increased from 83,000 to 110,000, with a great number of young antifascists elected to high-ranking positions at the local and national level.
In June 2010, Dacia Maraini and Concita De Gregorio created a membership enrollment campaign that recruited many artists and intellectuals as testimonials. Among them were Marco Bellocchio, Andrea Camilleri, Massimo Carlotto, Liliana Cavani, Roberto Citran, Cristina e Francesca Comencini, Vincenzo Consolo, Simone Cristicchi, Serena Dandini, Emma Dante, , , Sabrina Ferilli, Dario Fo, Matteo Garrone, Fabrizio Gifuni, Giorgia, Irene Grandi, Ugo Gregoretti, Monica Guerritore, Margherita Hack, Fiorella Mannoia, Simona Marchini, Neri Marcorè, Mario Monicelli, Giuliano Montaldo, Claudia Mori, , Moni Ovadia, Marco Paolini, Michele Placido, Gigi Proietti, Franca Rame, Lidia Ravera, Toni Servillo, Paolo Sorrentino, Sergio Staino, Roberta Torre, Nadia Urbinati, Vauro, , and Gustavo Zagrebelsky.
Structure
The association is currently structured with local groups, district groups, council groups, and provincial and regional committees. The association's headquarters are at Via degli Scipioni 271, Rome.