Rossana Rossanda (23 April 1924 – 20 September 2020) was an Italian

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

politician, journalist, and

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

Biography

Rossanda was born in

Pula Pula, also known as Pola, is the largest city in Istria County, west Croatia, and the List of cities and towns in Croatia, seventh-largest city in the country, situated at the southern tip of the Istria, Istrian peninsula in western Croatia, wi ...

, then part of

Kingdom of Italy The Kingdom of Italy (, ) was a unitary state that existed from 17 March 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 10 June 1946, when the monarchy wa ...

. She studied in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

and was a student of philosopher

Antonio Banfi Antonio Banfi (Vimercate, 30 September 1886 – Milano, 22 July 1957) was an Italian philosopher and Senate of the Republic (Italy), senator. He is also noted for founding the Italian philosophical school called critical rationalism. Although i ...

. At a very young age, she took part in the

Italian resistance The Italian Resistance ( ), or simply ''La'' , consisted of all the Italy, Italian Resistance during World War II, resistance groups who fought the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationists of the Italian Social Republic ...

. Following the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, she joined the

Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party (, PCI) was a communist and democratic socialist political party in Italy. It was established in Livorno as the Communist Party of Italy (, PCd'I) on 21 January 1921, when it seceded from the Italian Socialist Part ...

(PCI). After a short period, the party secretary

Palmiro Togliatti Palmiro Michele Nicola Togliatti (; 26 March 1893 – 21 August 1964) was an Italian politician and statesman, leader of Italy's Italian Communist Party, Communist party for nearly forty years, from 1927 until his death. Born into a middle-clas ...

named her responsible for culture in the party. She was elected for the first time to the

Italian Chamber of Deputies The Chamber of Deputies () is the lower house of the bicameral Italian Parliament, the upper house being the Senate of the Republic (Italy), Senate of the Republic. The two houses together form a perfect bicameral system, meaning they perform ...

in 1963. In 1968, Rossanda published a small essay entitled ''L'anno degli studenti'' ("The Year of the Students"), in which she declared her support for the youth movement. Rossanda was part of a minority inside the PCI that was against the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, and together with Luigi Pintor, Valentino Parlato, and

Lucio Magri Lucio Magri (19 August 1932 – 28 November 2011) was an Italian journalist and politician. Biography Magri was born in Ferrara in Emilia-Romagna, one of the most left-wing regions of Italy, but grew up in the strongly Catholic Bergamo, Lombardy ...

founded the party and newspaper ''

il manifesto (; English: "the manifesto") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Rome, Italy. While calling itself " communist" and broadly left-wing, it is not connected to any political party A political party is an organization that coordin ...

''. This caused her expulsion from the PCI after its XII National Congress held in

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

. In the

1972 Italian general election The 1972 Italian general election was held in Italy on 7 May 1972.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010), ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p. 1048 The Christian Democracy (DC) remained stable with around 38% of the votes, as did the Comm ...

, ''il manifesto'' obtained 0.8% of the votes. In 1974, it merged with the Proletarian Unity Party, forming the Proletarian Unity Party for Communism (PdUP). She later abandoned party politics but kept her role as director of ''il manifesto''. Between 1981 and 1983, she was also a member of the editorial board of the feminist magazine '' L'Orsaminore''. MuralRossanaPula2023

Rossanda died on 20 September 2020 at the age of 96.

Selected works

*''L'anno degli studenti'' (1968) *''Über die Dialektik von Kontinuität und Bruch'' (1975) *''Le altre. Conversazioni sulle parole della politica'' (1979) *"A Splendid Life"
''Telos''
44 (Summer 1980) *''Un viaggio inutile'' (1981) *''Appuntamenti di fine secolo'' (1995) *''La vita breve'' (Pratiche, 1996) *''Note a margine'' (1996) *''La ragazza del secolo scorso'' (2005, finalist for the Premio Strega 2006)

References

External links

''Class and Party''''Mao's Marxism''''Revolutionary Intellectuals and the Soviet Union''''Sartre's Political Practice''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rossanda, Rossana 1924 births 2020 deaths 20th-century Italian politicians Italian Communist Party politicians 20th-century Italian journalists Italian newspaper founders Italian women writers Italian writers Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Italy) People from Pula Italian socialist feminists Italian women company founders Italian resistance movement members Il manifesto editors Italian newspaper editors Italian women newspaper editors