The Association of the Partisans of Italy (Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d’Italia ) is a veteran and antifascist organisation founded on 6th June 1944 in Rome by members of the National Liberation Committee for Northern Italy (Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale Alta Italia); the NLC-IN united all antifascist political organisations to coordinate operations in the fight against Mussolini’s Italian Social Republic and against German occupying troops in Central and Northern Italy. ANPI aimed at providing a voice to partisans in the society and representation with the institutions of the new democratic Italy, once liberated from fascism.
ANPI received formal charitable recognition (Ente Morale) by decree of the Lieutenant General of the Realm, King Umberto II of Savoy, on 5th April 1945 (decreto luogotenziale n. 224); the decree acknowledged ANPI as the charity officially representing partisans in Italy. Act number 285 approved by the Italian Parliament on 21st March 1958 formally equated partisans to members of the Armed Forces, granting them all benefits and rights due to retired members of such forces. ANPI has had official representation within the Ministry of Defence in its capacity of a veteran organisation since then. Besides, ANPI delegations take part in ceremonies and parades during the national holiday commemorating the liberation of Italy and the end of the Second World War.
Membership with ANPI was exclusive to former partisans up until 2006, when ANPI National Conference decided to allow younger generations to join the organisations in an effort to ensure the legacy of the Resistance would not die with the last surviving partisan. Anyone who shares our values may join ANPI, regardless of nationality, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, class, party politics preference in the spirit of the Resistance.
Our branch was formally established in London in 2010 by the initiative of a group of first and second generation Italian immigrants who felt the need to reconnect to this part of their legacy and history. Since then, membership has grown steadily and our reach has gone beyond the boundaries of Greater London, with active groups operating in Northern Ireland and in the Central Belt of Scotland.
Scope includes the divulgation of the history of antifascism and of the Resistance and the promotion of events and training activities to contrast bigotry in any forms. We have paid particular attention to the hundreds of Britons who joined the partisans to the fight against Mussolini’s and Hitler’s regimes and to the antifascist who operated in the opposition to fascism in the 1920s and in the 1930s.
Born from spontaneous coordination of Italians living in the UK and Ireland, these groups are now contributing to expanding the activities of the chapter, bringing the Liberation Day to the territories, collecting the legacy of those who preceded us, and intertwining the history of our migrations with the many stories of shared Resistance.