The Catholic Way to a Communist Revolution. The First Issues of “Voce operaia” and “Dziś i Jutro”

Abstract

The article attempts a comparative analysis of the concept of “revolution” as it appears in the first issues of the periodicals “Voce operaia” (1943-1945), published by the Italian Catholic-Communist Movement, and “Dziś i Jutro” (1945-1946), a weekly affiliated with the circle around Bolesław Piasecki, which was programmatically Catholic and pro-communist. The first issues of both journals are treated here as manifestos inaugurating their unique discourses, mediating between Catholic and communist values and conceptual apparata. The analysis demonstrates that, in the case of the Italian periodical, the concept under study emerges as a political plan or a strategy for clandestine actions, while in “Dziś i Jutro”, it is expressed as a process considered by the editorial team as actively present and legitimate within Polish social reality. For the Italian Catholic-Communist Movement, participation in the revolutionary plan stems directly from their identification with the Italian communist party’s political program, whereas, for Piasecki and his collaborators, active participation in the revolutionary process is driven by an imperative to “shape its content” and to assert Catholic agency in the social sphere. Finally, within “Voce operaia”, the concept of “revolution” is clearly tied to the MarxistLeninist conceptual and ideological apparata, whereas the first issue of “Dziś i Jutro” emphasizes the editorial board’s autonomous political thought.