Oddino Morgari (November 16, 1865 – November 24, 1944) was an Italian

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

journalist and politician. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1897 to 1929, for eight legislatures.

Early life

Initially a Mazzinian radical, he became a member of the

Italian Socialist Party The Italian Socialist Party (, PSI) was a Socialism, socialist and later Social democracy, social-democratic List of political parties in Italy, political party in Italy, whose history stretched for longer than a century, making it one of the l ...

(PSI) in 1891, and was elected leader of its local section in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

the following year. He began writing for 'La parola del Povero'', the supplement of '' Grido del Popolo'', the beginning of a career which brought him to the leadership of ''

Avanti! ''Avanti!'' is a 1972 American/Italian international co-production comedy film produced and directed by Billy Wilder, and starring Jack Lemmon and Juliet Mills. The screenplay by Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond is based on Samuel A. Taylor's play, ...

'' in 1908, proving himself to be an advocate of incipient

Social democracy Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote s ...

reformist Reformism is a political doctrine advocating the reform of an existing system or institution instead of its abolition and replacement. Within the socialist movement, reformism is the view that gradual changes through existing institutions can ...

and pacifist).

Prominence

In 1911, Morgari inaugurated his activity as a "'' diplomat of Socialism''" with a trip to the

Far East The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The ter ...

, which would become his main preoccupation in the years of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

; he took part in preparing the

Zimmerwald Conference The Zimmerwald Conference was held in Zimmerwald, Switzerland, from September 5 to 8, 1915. It was the first of three international socialist conferences convened by anti-militarist socialist parties from countries that were originally neutral ...

, celebrated the

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mome ...

and Bolshevist Russia, and signed the April 1, 1919 letter that declared the PSI adherence to the Comintern. Nevertheless, he remained inside the PSI when its

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

factions left to form the

Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy. The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) ...

. He left the party in 1922 to join

Filippo Turati Filippo Turati (; 26 November 1857 – 29 March 1932) was an Italian sociologist, criminologist, poet and socialist politician. Early life Born in Canzo, province of Como, he graduated in law at the University of Bologna in 1877, and participa ...

and

Claudio Treves Claudio Treves (24 March 1869 – 11 June 1933) was an Italian politician and journalist. Life Youth Claudio Treves was born in Turin into a well off assimilated Jewish family. As a student he participated in the Radical milieu of Turin and, ...

in creating the Unitary Socialist Party (PSU). With

Fascism Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...

and the

March on Rome The March on Rome ( it, Marcia su Roma) was an organized mass demonstration and a coup d'état in October 1922 which resulted in Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party (PNF) ascending to power in the Kingdom of Italy. In late October 1922, ...

came a debate among socialists over the conflict and pacifism: in 1934, Morgari showed himself to be a partisan of an understanding with the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

, and called for

defeatism Defeatism is the acceptance of defeat without struggle, often with negative connotations. It can be linked to pessimism in psychology, and may sometimes be used synonymously with fatalism or determinism. History The term ''defeatism'' is common ...

to be applied as a

revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...

ary tactic in case Italy was to be led into war by Benito Mussolini. As the PSU re-entered the PSI in 1930, he became a member of the PSI Executive Committee in 1939 (together with Angelo Tasca and Giuseppe Saragat), as well as editor-in-chief of ''Avanti!''.

References

''Biography''
at Marxists.org (in Italian) {{DEFAULTSORT:Morgari, Oddino 1865 births 1944 deaths Italian journalists Italian male journalists Italian Socialist Party politicians Unitary Socialist Party (Italy, 1922) politicians 20th-century Italian politicians Italian Aventinian secessionists