This "Liberation Day" handbill appeared in the alleyways of Rome's Prenestino-Centocelle neighborhood in the early weeks of April 2019. Intended to promote a celebratory public march and subsequent left-wing gathering in Piazza delle Camelie on April 25th, the handbill features the rallying slogan: "(East) Rome Is Anti-Fascist" (2019b).
Disseminated by Azione Antifascista Roma Est (East Rome Anti-Fascist Action, AARE), a left-wing activist group based in Prenestino-Centocelle, the handbill celebrates the victory of the anti-fascist Italian Partisans against the remnants of Benito Mussolini's Repubblica Sociale Italiana (Italian Social Republic; 1943-45) and Nazi Germany's occupying Wehrmacht forces during the final months of World War II. The AARE's handbill was complimented by a similarly-designed poster, which is featured in this collection.
Beyond celebrating April 25th, the AARE's 2019 festivities were intended to highlight the organization's social activism in East Rome's largely lower-middle and working-class neighborhoods. In response to the media attention that the AARE's Liberation Day poster generated, the organization's spokesperson proclaimed: "On this April 25th, we intend to revive the historical anti-fascist procession in Centocelle." From the "resistance of the struggle for housing" to the "popular taverns that support the farmers' markets" and "local resistance networks in social and self-managed spaces," the AARE's procession through East Rome was intended to "resonate in the streets of our neighborhoods with the spirit of anti-fascist resistance" (2019a).
In addition to the AARE's posters and handbills, a handful of both anti-fascist and far-right organizations, including the Roman division of the Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d'Italia (National Association of Italian Partisans) (Fig. 1) and CasaPound Italia (House of [Ezra] Pound Italy), distributed pro- and anti-Liberation Day posters, two of which are featured in this collection.
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