Italian Freemasons

"The bosses do not consider workers to be human beings; they consider them to be machines, automatons. But workers are not just any old tools; they cannot be hired or sold. Workers are human beings; they have their own personalities, their own self-respect, their own ideas, their own political opinions, their own religious beliefs, and they want these rights to be respected by everyone, and first and foremost by their owners."

"I am not, have never claimed to be, nor do I claim to be a representative of culture. However, I am representative of something. I believe I am representative of those deep layers of the humblest and poorest masses who aspire to culture, who strive to study and seek to attain that level of knowledge that will enable them not only to ensure their own elevation as individuals, develop their personalities, but also to achieve the status that gives the masses a higher sense of their social function and their national and human dignity. Culture not only frees these masses from the prejudices that come from ignorance and the limits it places on people's horizons: culture is also a tool for moving forward and helping the whole national society move forward, progress and rise."

"The Red Army firing on workers in a socialist country is unacceptable."

"I know the bitterness, the disappointments, the time that union activity sometimes requires, with results that are not entirely satisfactory. I know all this well, because I too have been a union activist: you know very well that I do not come from above, I come from below."

"[From the telegram of condolence to his wife] I join in the deep sorrow felt by you and by all those who, having known Giuseppe Di Vittorio as I did since the period of our joint efforts to rebuild the trade union movement, were attracted by his humanity and his passionate fervour in defending the working classes."

"As a teenager, Giuseppe Di Vittorio was still semi-literate. When he realised that it was impossible to assert his rights in those conditions, he got himself a dictionary."

"The dominant figure in Italian trade unionism after the war was Giuseppe Di Vittorio. The son of a semi-literate farm labourer from Puglia, he became involved in anarcho-syndicalism at a very young age. A soldier in the First World War, wounded at Monte Zebio, he later met Gramsci and Togliatti's Turin group and became one of the leaders of the Communist Party, following its turbulent and tortuous history, from the head-to-head struggle of the 1930s, with all its anti-socialist sectarianism, to the Spanish Civil War, the Popular Front and the Resistance. Like the other leaders of the PCI, Di Vittorio moved during these years from maximalist positions to possibilist and reformist positions, but always maintaining a relationship with real society, with its needs and hopes, and always preserving that respect for man that Stalinism had completely erased."

"Luciano Lama had a great mentor in Di Vittorio: accompanying him on his numerous trips, he got to know the reality of southern Italy and understood the importance of direct contact with the masses."

"Those who steal should be put in jail. Unfortunately, this cannot be done because the majority generally protects them. This is the real scandal that newspapers should be reporting on, but they don't, because they are complicit."

"There is a desire for normalization, for a return to an old system of power, one on which the mafia has taken root and built its power. This is what alarms us. These are the facts we denounce. (October 5, 1989)"

"(About the Maastricht Treaty) It is clear that the idea of monetary unification and the free movement of capital without integration of development, budgetary, and social policies is deeply questionable, in crisis, and wrong. It is not only a limitation but also a neoliberal distortion of the process of European unity. (October 29, 1992)"

"Ah-ah! It's unthinkable that Dr. Berlusconi would enter politics. He has to take care of his debts. Stay put, he wouldn't get many votes anyway. This isn't Brazil! (1993)"

"I'll say it again: Amato is a liar and a poor man. He's someone who has to do anything to stay where he is, in his chair. But what can I do? Should I tell him to fuck off?"

"I find it difficult to consider Berlusconi a new man, given that he was one of the closest associates of those who governed Italy in the 1980s. (February 10, 1994)"

"Berlusconi reminds me of Kim Il-sung. (July 13, 1994)"

"Dear Cavaliere, you are like Ceausescu: he too controlled all television in Romania, ha ha! (August 2, 1994)"

"Berlusconi speaks with his typical authoritarian mindset. (September 10, 1994)"

"The PDS will never vote for an antitrust law that is not also voted for by the Polo. (June 12, 1995)"

"I don't care if Berlusconi wants the reform agreement for personal gain."

"I trust Berlusconi: I truly believe he is sincere when he says he wants reforms. (January 23, 1996)"

"(During a visit at Mediaset) I am not here to pay tribute to Berlusconi, but to a company that is a national treasure."

"The delegitimization of judges undermines the democratic order. (April 9, 1996)"

"(About Berlusconi) The fall of his leadership worries me, it could block the process of building a democracy of alternation in Italy. (May 31, 1996)"

"With Berlusconi we must rewrite the rules of the democratic state. (June 3, 1996)"

"Personally, I really like Berlusconi."

"I think it is unfair to attack Di Pietro and the Milan Pool, because these magistrates have done a great service to the country. (July 20, 1997)"

"(About Francesco Cossiga) He is now an old gentleman who enjoys himself. (January 11, 1998)"

"As for Mani Pulite, perhaps we should scale back the significance of this event a little. The investigations in Milan uncovered what everyone already knew. (February 27, 1998)"

"(Referring to Gnutti, Colaninno, and the irresistible rise of the “capitani coraggiosi” (brave captains)) This is a group of well-known entrepreneurs and managers who built Infostrada and Omnitel. Perhaps they are biting off more than they can chew, but that remains to be seen. As things stand, allow me to applaud their courage. (February 19, 1999)"

"Being a P2 member means having participated in an organization, a secret sect, that plotted against the state, and this has been confirmed by Parliament. I share this opinion, which was formed after the Anselmi Commission's investigation."

"I sincerely find it in poor taste to have held this meeting in Teano. The idea of transforming a page of our country's history into a staged event with Maroni in the place of Garibaldi or Victor Emmanuel is an offense to our country."

"Alessandro Natta represented a whole part of my life."

"This self-harm confirms what I have believed for years. The left is inherently evil. Only the existence of the right makes this evil bearable."

"[...] I travel around Italy and the dramatic theme that emerges is the profound suffering and great unease of the people. The country is pervaded by a sad passion. The only one who has painted a smile on his face is Il Cavaliere, but he, as we know, lives in another dimension that has nothing to do with reality."

"I am a reasonable man of the left who seeks to work for the good of the country."

"(Commenting on the crisis of the left-wing government in February 2007) It's a disaster, I'm missing Roma in the Champions League..."

"Berlusconi has an easy game, because we are coming out of a period of political vacuum."

"Nichi Vendola is the only one capable of reviving a modern version of left-wing politics; the others seem too disoriented to me."

"We all agree on moving beyond alliances that are simply everyone ganging up against someone else, which does not mean isolation. Now it is a question of forming alliances based on shared programs."

"It is to be feared that the Church will succumb to the temptation of power and that the political influence of Catholics will be directed toward obtaining legal protection for principles and values such as abortion and fertilization, which will then become laws imposed on everyone, undermining the secular nature of the state."

"The temptation of power is demonic and has always been, throughout the history of the Church, the source of misdeeds for which John Paul II had to ask forgiveness."

"The other day in parliament, we had to fight to defend the rights of severely disabled people to receive assistance worthy of the name. And we were told by that pocket-sized brute, Minister Brunetta, that there are abuses. But if there are abuses, they must be tackled without removing rights. With his virulent campaign against everything public, Brunetta risks attacking essential public services and throwing the baby out with the bathwater."

"One of the reasons why I can come across as difficult even to some left-wing voters is that I always engage in politics, even during election campaigns."

"Italian newspapers are not so much harmful as they are irrelevant. [...] The comparison with foreign newspapers is humiliating. They deal with serious issues, while here we only print nonsense. [...] I find this kind of journalism repugnant."

"Interviewer: “You said in 1995 that the Northern League was an offshoot of the left.” D'Alema: No, of the labor movement, and it was a very accurate analysis. Now that workers are voting for the League, everyone is saying it, but I said it 15 years ago."

"At Piaggio there were real workers, not the kind who called in sick when there was a football match."

"Nichi Vendola can mobilize an electorate that remained on the sidelines in the last elections, but I don't think he can be a viable leader to mobilize a center-left coalition: I wouldn't vote for him."

"We have a democratic form of leadership: leaders can change. Meanwhile, the Italian right wing has been under Berlusconi's imperishable command for sixteen years. However, I would like to point out that this is their anomaly, not ours. Because Berlusconi, who lost the elections twice, in 1996 and 2006, nevertheless remained at the head of the right wing, something that does not happen in any democratic country. And why has Berlusconi, despite losing two elections, remained at the head of the right for almost twenty years? Because he is its 'owner', not its leader. And so this is a completely different concept. Now, if you think that the center-left should also have an owner, you are mistaken. We are a free association."

"Vendola is part of the left wing that has been Prodi's biggest problem since his first government."

"(About Italy) A deeply divided and confused country: the cornerstones of shared national history are being called into question, and public discourse is becoming increasingly vulgar."