Valentino Pittoni

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Valentino Pittoni

Valentino Pittoni c. 1907
Member of the Austrian Imperial Council
In office
19071918
Constituency Trieste (Old City and San Giacomo)
Personal details
Born May 23, 1872
Brazzano, Cormons
Died April 11, 1933 (aged 60)
Vienna
Political party Social Democratic Workers Party of Austria
Children
Bianca Pittoni (19041993)
Nerina Pittoni
Valentino Pittoni (German: Valentin Pittoni; May 23, 1872 April 11, 1933) was a socialist politician
from Trieste, who was mainly active in Austria-Hungary. As a follower of Austromarxism and militant
of the Social Democratic Workers Party of Austria (SDAP), he came to oppose both Italian
irredentism and Slovenian nationalism. In the early 20th century he emerged as the key leader of the
socialist movement in the Austrian Littoral region.
[1]
Pittoni represented Trieste in the Imperial
Council, where he became known as a proponent of electoral democracy, and was additionally a
member of Trieste's Municipal Council. He set up a cooperative movement, as one of several
ventures ensuring inter-ethnic solidarity in the Littoral.
Increasingly isolated after World War I, Pittoni was uncompromising in demanding Trieste's
autonomy within Austria, and eventually its independence from the Kingdom of Italy. He was a noted
adversary of Italian fascism, who lived his later life in exile in Vienna. His final contributions were as
a newspaper editor and doctrinaire of interwar Austrian socialism.
Contents
[hide]
1 Early life
2 Parliamentarian
3 World War
4 Exile
5 Notes
6 References
Early life[edit]
Pittoni was born on May 23, 1872, in Brazzano, part of the Cormons municipality. His father was a
textile trader. During his childhood the family moved to Trieste.
[2]
He studied at the Trade Academy
(Accademia di Commercio e Nautica) in Trieste,
[1]
and worked on his father's business.
[2]
During his
youth, Pittoni sympathized with irredentism.
[1]
He was called for military service in the Austro-
Hungarian Army, and was discharged with the rank of Second Lieutenant.
[2]

Later, Pittoni joined the Trieste Workers Society, which, despite the name, was a moderate
nationalist group with only some socialist members.
[3]
In 1896 he befriended the Austrian socialist
leader Victor Adler, who invited him to join SDAP that same year.
[4]
For the next twenty years,
Pittoni was strongly influenced by Adler's Austromarxist ideological line.
[1][5]
He lobbied for the
transformation of the Austro-Hungarian empire into a Danubian Confederation of non-territorial
nationalities.
[1][6]
A staunch internationalist, he opposed any Italian irredentist moves.
[7][8][9]
For
Pittoni, irredentism was promoted by Italian capitalists to weaken unity of the working
class.
[10]
Nonetheless, he and his movement had only marginal contacts with
the Slovene neighbours, as Pittoni resented Slovenian nationalism and opposed the Slavic claims
over Trieste (or "urban Slavism").
[11]

Pittoni joined the Social Democratic League, a Triestine branch of the SDAP, and, by 1902, was
involved in mediating between the socialists and organised labour. That year, he helped the senior
socialist leader Carlo Ucekar in directing the sterreichischer Lloyd stokers strike, but lost control of
it to anarchist agitators.
[12]
The strike ended in bloodshed. The authorities were lenient toward the
socialists, and willing to blame the strike on anarchists, but made a point of warning Pittoni to comply
in the future.
[13]

Later that year, Ucekar died; Pittoni vied for and won the post as leader of the Social Democratic
League.
[4][14][15]
With Pittoni at the helm, the Triestine socialists closer to the Austromarxist
centre,
[4][14][16]
holding the 1905 anti-war and anti-irredentist demonstration which coincided with the
official launch of SMS Erzherzog Ferdinand Max.
[9]

Parliamentarian[edit]
The 1907 Austrian general election was the first to be held with universal male suffrage. Pittoni was
elected to the Imperial Council with an absolute majority, representing the first constituency of
Trieste (covering the old city and the suburb of San Giacomo).
[17][18]
Although this was a major
victory for his version of socialism, Pittoni noted that his League lacked cadres, and reached out to
members of Italian Socialist Party (PSI), in the Kingdom of Italy, proposing that they should relocate
their militancy to Trieste.
[19]
He allowed a measure of nationalism to seep into his discourse, noting:
"It is up to us to also deal with the national issue."
[20]
In August, he represented his party at
the Stuttgart Congress of the Second International.
[19]

Like other SDAP deputies, Pittoni demanded the introduction of universal suffrage
in Transleithania, which was administered by the Gyula Andrssy government in Budapest. As he
noted in a parliamentary address of October 10, 1908: "it can no longer be indifferent to the nations
of Austria if the disenfranchised peoples and classes of Hungary still fail to receive the rights we owe
them."
[21]
Together with Adler, Etbin Kristan, Engelbert Pernerstorfer and Josef Steiner, he presided
over an SDAP Conference which demanded "freedom in Hungary".
[22]

From 1907 onwards Cesare Battisti, a left-wing intellectual inside the party from Trentino, emerged
as prominent leader of Trieste's League. Battisti and Pittoni clashed on political issues, especially
following the 1908 Bosnian crisis.
[10][15]
The latter incident had created a dissonance between the
goals of socialist internationalism and those of Austrian nationalism,
[23]
but Pittoni played it down,
arguing that many Bosniaks were already subjects of the Austrian monarchy, in Croatia-
Slavonia.
[24]
He also noted that, contrary to the indignation in Italy, Italians had nothing to
fear.
[25]
Against Pittoni, Battisti maintained an anti-militarist and separatist position.
[10][15]
Pittoni also
found himself criticised by Claudio Treves, Leonida Bissolati
[25]
and Gaetano Salvemini,
[26]
irredentist
politicians of the PSI.
Pittoni was elected municipal councillor of Trieste in 1909,
[27]
and promoted labour
management initiatives. Chief editor of the party organ, Il Lavoratore, and a key figure in the Social
Studies Circle, Pittoni also founded the Workers Cooperative of Trieste, Istria and Friulia.
[1][28]
His
participation in such causes increased the cultural and educational prestige of socialism, solving
many of the movement's teething problems, and helping to spread the cooperative ideals among the
Slovene population.
[29]
He conditioned affiliation to these cooperatives on the desegregation and
inter-ethnic solidarity of candidate unions.
[30]
He also campaigned for the establishment of Workers
Club and an Italian universityin Trieste.
[1]

Pittoni retained his parliamentary seat in the 1911 Austrian general election. This time he was
supported by mainstream Slavic parties, opposed to Felice Venezian's Italian national-liberals,
[18]
but
could not count on the regular Slovene voters, who withdrew their support.
[11]
As leader of the Italian
parliamentary club,
[1][4]
Pittoni supported an inquiry into the affairs of Transleithania, where,
according to fellow deputy George Grigorovici, the Hungarian Post was censoring the
correspondence of left-wing opponents, including Austrian subjects.
[31]

Like the rest of his party, Pittoni issued protests against Rudolf Montecuccoli's plan to modernize
and increase the Austro-Hungarian Navy.
[32]
Together with Adler and with members of the PSI, he
co-founded an anti-war congress that would report on any rearmament on either side of the Italian
Austrian conflict.
[4]
During October 1912, he participated in the mass rallies opposing Austria-
Hungary's involvement in the First Balkan War, and petitioned the government on that subject.
[33]

World War[edit]


The Italian Front in August 1916
In 1914, just before the start of World War I, Pittoni began cooperating with the Yugoslav Social-
Democratic Party (JSDS), which had recently relocated in Trieste, and set up a shared bureau to
oversee common operations. However, he insisted that the common slogan was that of "national
toleration [and] workers solidarity", and that the status of Trieste as an Austrian port could not expect
to change.
[34]

In May 1915, Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary. The violence of the subsequent "Mountain War"
demoralized Pittoni,
[35]
who pleaded with his government for the fair treatment of Italian captives and
refugees.
[1]
He and the Slovene Henrik Tumaconceived of an abortive plan to establish a bi-national
Trieste as part of the Austrian monarchy.
[36]
It was to includeMonfalcone, San Dorligo della
Valle, Muggia and other rural localities, which were supposed to form an anti-irredentist cordon of
Slovenes and Friulians.
[37]
In mid 1916, they joined hands with other JSDS moderates,
reestablishing the newspaper Zarja, which, against the SDAP party line, advocated the end of
war.
[38]
The PittoniTuma project was opposed by the Yugoslavistwing of the JSDS, whose
leader Josip Ferfolja accused the internationalists of facilitating the his people's "death as a
nation".
[39]

Probably as a result of this nonconformism, Pittoni was again conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian
Army and sent to the front, before returning to Trieste as cooperative leader, working to ensure the
city's supply in food and basic goods.
[40]
He regained his seat in the Imperial Council in summer
1917, when it reopened its sessions,
[41]
and declared himself willing to represent the Austrian
workers at an international peace conference that was planned in Stockholm.
[42]
At odds with Adler,
who supported continuing the war, he moved closer to Karl Renner's faction, which stood by the old
confederation programme, but he also issued messages of sympathy toward the
revolutionary, Bolshevik and "maximalist", groups.
[43]
He notably demanded freedom for Adler's
son Friedrich, jailed for his assassination of Minister-President von Strgkh.
[44]

Faced with the challenges of Yugoslavism and Austro-Hungarian dissolution, Pittoni called for the
creation of an independent Istrian state
[45]
or a "Republic of Venezia Giulia".
[46]
It was to demand
protection from the League of Nations,
[47]
but Pittoni also spoke of other diplomatic alternatives,
including an American or a Bolshevik occupation.
[48]
In late 1918, as the Slovene National Council
prepared to assume control of the region, he publicized the manifesto of Emperor Charles, which
proposed an Austrian confederation and a special role for Trieste.
[49]
However, he faced increased
opposition within the Trieste socialist movement from the Giuseppe TuntarIvan Regent faction
(which favoured an Italo-Slavic Soviet Republic)
[46]
and from irredentist or "socialist-nationalists"
such as Edmondo Puecher, who had organised the strike of January 1918.
[8]
He responded by
purging Il Lavoratorestaff of suspected irredentists, including writer Bruno Piazza.
[8]

In October 1918, during the Battle of Vittorio Veneto, the Imperial Council's Italian club dissolved: a
"national fascio" was formed, unilaterally proclaiming the annexation of Istria and South Tyrol by the
Kingdom of Italy. Pittoni condemned the move, as did the Friulian deputies Luigi
Faidutti and Giuseppe Bugatto.
[50]
However, he agreed to become a member of the Italian deputies'
Permanent Commission, which was led by the fascio's spokesman, Enrico Conci.
[51]
Although
stranded in Vienna, he communicated with his Triestine faction: his second-in-command, Alfredo
Callini, was a member of the Committee of Public Safety, formed after Governor Alfred von Fries-
Skene abandoned Trieste.
[52]
Pittoni had by then lost all footing inside the JSDS, with Ferfolja
accusing him of being a covert irredentist.
[53]

Exile[edit]
In 1919, Pittoni protested as the Arditi and the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento took over in
Trieste.
[54]
The city was soon placed under the governorship of Carlo Petitti di Roreto, who tried to
talk Pittoni into accepting the national unification and the Trieste Social Democratic League's
integration with the PSI.
[55]
By mid 1919 many of Pittoni's followers, Callini included, had deserted to
the irredentist camp.
[56][50]
Pittoni himself radicalised his opposition to Italian integration, and from
1920 argued that Trieste should form a state within the new Republic of Austria.
[57]

In 1922 Pittoni resigned from his posts in the party, complaining that the socialist movement had
fallen prey to "the most arrogant and greedy kind of capitalism".
[58]
By then, he had lost control of Il
Lavoratore to a Bolshevik faction which was eventually absorbed into the Italian Communist
Party.
[59]
Pittoni moved to Milan, where he managed a Consorzio Italiano consumers
cooperative.
[1][60]
He campaigned for the unification of Italian cooperatives into "a few hundred
powerful organisms", which, as he explained in a February 1922 article for La Cooperazione
Siciliana, were to form the basis of "a new society".
[61]
His daughter Bianca (born in Trieste on March
20, 1904) also became politically active, joiningAnna Kuliscioff's socialist circle in Milan.
[62]

Pittoni remained in Italy after the fascist coup, but was eventually driven out by the regime's violent
actions in 1925.
[63]
He moved back to Vienna, and lived the rest of his life in relative
poverty.
[1]
Granted protection by the municipal government of Karl Seitz,
[64]
he became editor of
the Arbeiter-Zeitung.
[1][65]
Like other Italian emigrants, among themAngelica Balabanoff, he managed
to influence SDAP doctrines, contributing to its strong show of anti-fascism.
[66]
In the conflict
between Italian resistance groups, Pittoni raised funds for Filippo Turati's United Socialists.
[67]
Bianca
Pittoni, who also left Italy in 1927, became Turati's secretary and confidante, and then worked
with Giuseppe Saragat in Vienna.
[62]
Such activities irritated Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist
leader, who repeatedly urged the Austrian Christian Social Party to liquidate the Viennese socialist
"canker".
[66]

Pittoni died in Vienna on April 11, 1933.
[1][4]
The funeral oration was given by SDAP
colleague Wilhelm Ellenbogen, who called Pittoni's fight against irredentism "one of the most
glorious actions in the history of Austria's workers movement", and praised his "intimate affinity with
the Austro-German thought and sentiment".
[68]
As argued by researcher Gilbert Bosetti, Pittoni's
death "put an end to all hopes of a reform-minded Triestine socialism that supported peace among
peoples."
[58]

Bianca went on to fight for the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. During World War II,
pursued by OVRA and the Gestapo, she joined the French Resistance inPoitou-Charentes.
[62]
From
1944, she was employed by the Embassy of the Republic of Italy in Paris, where she died in
1993.
[62]
Pittoni's other relatives were still residing in Italian Trieste, and then in the Free Territory.
They include his other daughter, Nerina,
[69]
and his niece Anita Pittoni, founder of Lo Zibaldone
publishing house.
[70]
Nerina's son, Luciano Manfredi, was Anita Pittoni's heir.
[69]

Notes[edit]
1. ^ Jump up to:
a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

i

j

k

l

m
E. Maserati, "Pittoni, Valentino (18721933), Politiker", entry in
the sterreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 18151950, Vol. 8
2. ^ Jump up to:
a

b

c
Giuseppe Piemontese (1974). Il Movimento operaio a Trieste: dalle origini all'
avvento del fascismo.... Editori Riuniti. p. 146.
3. Jump up^ Bosetti, p. 195
4. ^ Jump up to:
a

b

c

d

e

f
Klinger, p. 85
5. Jump up^ Cuomo, pp. 3132, 72; Klinger, pp. 8588
6. Jump up^ Klinger, pp. 8586; Sluga, p. 24
7. Jump up^ Apih, pp. 9295; Bosetti, pp. 197198; Cuomo, pp. 3132; Klinger, pp. 85, 88, 105,
108109
8. ^ Jump up to:
a

b

c
Risa B. Sodi (2007). Narrative and Imperative: The First Fifty Years of Italian
Holocaust Writing (19441994). Peter Lang AG. pp. 9293. ISBN 978-0-8204-8872-1.
9. ^ Jump up to:
a

b
"Congresul internaional socialist". Tribuna Poporului (Arad). May 25, 1905. p. 4.
10. ^ Jump up to:
a

b

c
Labour History Review. Society for the Study of Labour History. 1992. p. 22.
11. ^ Jump up to:
a

b
Cuomo, p. 32
12. Jump up^ Klinger, pp. 8283
13. Jump up^ Sondhaus, pp. 154155
14. ^ Jump up to:
a

b
Graeme Morton; Robert John Morris; B. M. A. de Vries (2006). Civil Society,
Associations, and Urban Places: Class, Nation, and Culture in Nineteenth-century Europe.
Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 93. ISBN 978-0-7546-5247-2.
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b

c
Laurence Cole (July 1, 2014). Military Culture and Popular Patriotism in Late
Imperial Austria. Oxford University Press. pp. 208, 234. ISBN 978-0-19-967204-2.
16. Jump up^ Eduard Winkler (2000). Wahlrechtsreformen und Wahlen in Triest 19051909: eine
Analyse der politischen Partizipation in einer multinationalen Stadtregion der
Habsburgermonarchie. Oldenbourg Verlag. p. 84. ISBN 978-3-486-56486-0.
17. Jump up^ Sluga, p. 24
18. ^ Jump up to:
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b
Vasilij Melik (January 1, 1997). Wahlen im alten sterreich: am Beispiel der
Kronlnder mit slowenischsprachiger Bevlkerung. Bhlau Verlag Wien. pp. 305, 406.ISBN 978-
3-205-98063-6.
19. ^ Jump up to:
a

b
Klinger, p. 87
20. Jump up^ Bosetti, p. 199
21. Jump up^ "Austriacii cer votul universal pentru Ungaria". Tribuna Poporului (Arad). October 13,
1908. p. 4.
22. Jump up^ "Coroana i votul universal". Tribuna Poporului (Arad). September 30, 1908. p. 1-3.
23. Jump up^ Apih, pp. 9293; Cuomo, pp. 3132
24. Jump up^ Bosetti, p. 240
25. ^ Jump up to:
a

b
"Aperto dissenso fra socialisti d'Austria e socialisti d'Italia". Il Paese (248)
(Udine). October 19, 1908. p. 1.
26. Jump up^ Cuomo, pp. 3132
27. Jump up^ Bosetti, p. 205
28. Jump up^ Klinger, pp. 87, 88
29. Jump up^ Apih, pp. 9293; Klinger, pp. 8788, 110
30. Jump up^ Apih, p. 92
31. Jump up^ Graur, p. 444
32. Jump up^ Sondhaus, p. 196
33. Jump up^ Raimund Lw (1988). "Die deutsche Sozialdemokratie in sterreich und die
Balkankriege 1912/1913". In Frits van Holthoon; Marcel van der Linden.Internationalism in the
Labour Movement: 18301940, II. E. J. Brill. pp. 413414.ISBN 90-04-08635-8.
34. Jump up^ Apih, pp. 9495
35. Jump up^ Bosetti, p. 267
36. Jump up^ Bosetti, p. 267; Pirjevec, pp. 82, 86
37. Jump up^ Pirjevec, p. 82
38. Jump up^ Klinger, pp. 9597
39. Jump up^ Kacin-Wohinz, p. 116
40. Jump up^ Klinger, p. 97
41. Jump up^ Klinger, pp. 85, 87
42. Jump up^ Pirjevec, p. 83
43. Jump up^ Klinger, pp. 97, 100101
44. Jump up^ Klinger, p. 101
45. Jump up^ Alessi, pp. 29, 34; Kacin-Wohinz, pp. 115118; Bosetti, p. 267
46. ^ Jump up to:
a

b
Sluga, p. 41
47. Jump up^ Sluga, p. 41; Kacin-Wohinz, p. 118
48. Jump up^ Klinger, pp. 100101
49. Jump up^ Klinger, pp. 106107
50. ^ Jump up to:
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b
Branko Marui (2000). "Gli sloveni di Trieste e del Goriziano alla fine della
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July 19, 2014.
51. Jump up^ Sergio Benvenuti; Andreina Mascagni (1999). "L'archivio della famiglia
Conci".Archivio Trentino (Museo Storico in Trento) 49 (2): 120. Retrieved July 19, 2014.
52. Jump up^ Alessi, pp. 2834
53. Jump up^ Kacin-Wohinz, p. 119
54. Jump up^ Bosetti, p. 270
55. Jump up^ Alessi, pp. 2830; Cuomo, pp. 7172
56. Jump up^ Alessi, pp. 2930; Klinger, p. 85; Sluga, p. 41
57. Jump up^ Sluga, p. 38
58. ^ Jump up to:
a

b
Bosetti, p. 269
59. Jump up^ Klinger, pp. 111112
60. Jump up^ Klinger, pp. 85, 114; Bosetti, p. 269
61. Jump up^ Eugenio Guccione (1993). "Il giornalismo cooperativistico". In Orazio Cancila. Storia
della cooperazione siciliana. Istituto regionale per il credito alla cooperazione.
p. 509.OCLC 797874034.
62. ^ Jump up to:
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Giuseppe Muzzi, "Pittoni, Bianca, politica", biographical profile in SIUSA:
Archivi di personalit. Censimento dei fondi toscani tra '800 e '900. Retrieved July 20, 2014.
63. Jump up^ Cuomo, p. 127; Klinger, pp. 85, 108109, 114; Graur, p. 446
64. Jump up^ Cuomo, p. 127
65. Jump up^ Miriam Coen (January 1, 1995). Bruno Pincherle. Edizioni Studio Tesi.
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66. ^ Jump up to:
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Diego Cante (2009). "Gli incontri di calcio tra Italia e Austria tra le due guerre". In
Maria Canella; Sergio Giuntini. Sport e fascismo. FrancoAngeli. p. 161. ISBN 978-88-568-1510-
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67. Jump up^ Carmela Maltone (2013). "Scrivere contro. I giornali antifascisti italiani in Francia dal
1922 al 1943". Line@editoriale (University of Toulouse) 5. Retrieved July 19, 2014.
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69. ^ Jump up to:
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"Fondo Anita Pittoni", entry in the Catalogo integrato dei beni culturali,
Commune of Trieste. Retrieved July 20, 2014.
70. Jump up^ Katia Pizzi (2001). A City in Search of an Author. Sheffield Academic Press.
p. 164.ISBN 1-84127-284-1. Sluga, p. 226
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