Critica Sociale

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Critica Sociale is a left‑wing Italian weekly newspaper connected to the Italian Socialist Party. It was founded on 15 January 1891 by Filippo Turati, after the republican journal Cuore e Critica, begun by Arcangelo Ghisleri. In 1893 it shifted toward socialism and supported the creation of the PSI at the Genoa Conference, adopting the masthead: “Weekly review of social, political and literary studies of scientific Socialism.” It became a leading Marxist review from 1891 to 1898, covering major Italian issues of the time and publishing work by prominent socialist thinkers.

From 1898 to 1899 it was seized by the government and its editor was briefly imprisoned. In 1901 the journal restarted as Turati and the PSI moved into parliament with Giolitti’s backing, and it came to represent the reformist tendency inside the PSI. Between 1902 and 1913 it debated anti‑clerical school reform, education, and budget priorities, while continuing to publish literature and sociology, including writers like Pietro Gori, Ada Negri and Italo Svevo.

During World War I, Critica Sociale remained neutral and kept reformist ideals. After the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, it acknowledged Lenin’s ideas but argued they were not directly applicable to Italy. In 1921 the PSI split, with the Marxist‑Leninist wing forming the Italian Communist Party; Critica Sociale backed the reformist Unitary Socialist Party.

Mussolini’s rise brought censorship and irregular publication. The last political article appeared after Giacomo Matteotti’s murder in June 1924, and the Fascist regime banned opposition press, with the final issue dated 16 September–15 October 1926. The newspaper was revived in 1946 and has had several editors since.

Today it is the official publication of the New Italian Socialist Party, a small social‑democratic party. In recent years it has engaged with British centre‑left ideas and published pieces by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.