L'antifascismo di Carlo Rosselli e il socialismo britannico

Carlo Rosselli’s Liberal Socialism was strongly shaped by English political culture. This article examines the extent to which anti-fascism influenced Rosselli’s theoretical development and, consequently, his engagement with cross-Channel ideas. In the early 1920s, Rosselli looked with youthful enthusiasm to the British Labour Party, viewing it as a model of pragmatic, anti-dogmatic reformism. With the rise of Mussolini’s regime, however, his anti-fascism grew more uncompromising, extending not only to fascism itself but also to the opposition’s failure to resist effectively. Italian socialist reformism appeared part of the problem, weakening his earlier affinity with English socialism. In Liberal Socialism—a synthesis of his pre-exile thought—traces remain of guildist influences, particularly G. D. H. Cole’s theses. Yet in the 1930s, as anti-fascist struggle intensified, Rosselli’s outlook radicalized: anti-fascism merged with anti-capitalism, while liberal democracy seemed irredeemably compromised. England appeared distant, though many British intellectuals were, in fact, moving in parallel directions.