Piero Gobetti

Intellectual and politician, born in Turin, Piedmont, NW Italy. He contributed to Antonio Gramsci's review Ordine Nuovo (New Order), and in 1922 founded Rivoluzione Liberale (Liberal Revolution), the mouthpiece of his philosophy that combined liberalism and socialism, and Il Baretti in 1924. After the advent of Fascism, which he opposed from the start, he advocated a united front of all democratic forces. He was forced to leave for France in 1926 to escape Fascist harassment, but died soon after as a consequence of the beatings received in Italy.

Piero Gobetti (June 19, 1901 – February 15, 1926) was an Italian journalist, intellectual and radical liberal.

Gobetti was born in Turin.

A student of law at the local university, he set up his own review Energie Nove ('New Energies') in 1919. There he promoted the cause of radical cultural and political renewal, aligning himself with the many critics of liberal parliamentary politics. Drawing upon the idealist philosophy of Benedetto Croce, Gobetti identified cultural change with a spiritual transformation that would unite public and private life.

In 1920 Gobetti was influenced by Antonio Gramsci, fellow ex-student and communist editor of the L'Ordine Nuovo ('New Order'). Inspired by the workers' movement and Gramsci's argument that they constituted a new revolutionary subject, Gobetti gave up editing Energie Nove in order to rethink his commitments.

In 1922, he began publishing a new review, La Rivoluzione Liberale ("Liberal Revolution"). Deeply moved by the Russian revolution, which he understood as a liberal event, Gobetti conceived the working class as the leading subject of a liberal revolution. Liberals, Gobetti argued, should understand the term 'liberal' as adaptable to different classes and institutional arrangements other than the bourgeoisie and parliamentary democracy.

Gobetti was also highly attentive to the dangers of Mussolini's Fascist party, which entered government in October, 1922. Whilst conservative liberals hoped to make temporary use of Mussolini's popularity in order to restore parliament, Gobetti recognised the tyrannical orientation of fascism.

In late 1924 Gobetti also began to edit a journal of European literary culture entitled Il Baretti.

For his rigid opposition to Fascism, Gobetti's review was closed down and he himself was assaulted by fascist thugs.

Following his death, and despite his relatively few writings, Gobetti became a symbol of liberal anti-fascism, inspiring intellectuals such as Carlo Levi and Norberto Bobbio.