Yes, Petkoff

The Italian Communists weren't saying publicly what the latest Moscow orders called for, but clearly it was not sweetness & light. In the Italian Parliament last week the Reds were both edgy and truculent. Palmiro Togliatti started things off in the Chamber of Deputies by complaining that his name and those of 39 other Italians had been included in a list of leading Communists issued by the U.S. House of Representatives.* The House, he shouted angrily, had been elected by only 4% of the U.S. population--"the rest being Negroes."

Next day, the temper increased. Communist Deputy Fausto Gullo, a peevish pout on his face, charged his enemies with the old tactics of Lysistrata.* Cried he: "These last elections have been shameful. The government used unthinkable methods to win its majority. Do you want an example? Priests openly counseled wives to go on a 'bedroom strike' if the Communists won the elections . . ."

"If You Are a Gentleman." "You Communists!" retorted Christian Democratic Labor Leader Umberto Tomba. "You find your recruits only among criminals and loose women!" For the moment the Chamber sat in stunned silence. The silence was broken by the hurried clatter of feet; a Communist flying squad dashed toward the Christian Democratic benches.

It was commanded by blue-jawed Walter Audisio, Communist executioner of Benito Mussolini (TIME, April 7, 1947). Audisio rushed up to Tomba, cried: "If you are a gentleman, come outside in the garden." Tomba declined, but the fracas became a free-for-all; even a Communist woman deputy, Laura Diaz (known to her admirers as the "Joan Crawford of Parliament"), joined in, whacking at bearded Christian Democrats. Contestants ripped out stenographers' desks, used them as clubs. Three deputies had to be treated for injuries. It was the worst riot in the loo-year history of Parliament.

"Storm of the Bastille . .." Next day, Palmiro Togliatti had the last word. It was a menacing word, one that indicated that the Reds might not be content to stop at parliamentary fisticuffs. Said he: "The aim of the new constitution was and is creation of a new order in the Italian state ... It is a problem which must inevitably be solved on the basis of force, of relation of material force . . . It is impossible to disarm an insurrection when it springs from political or class necessity. Sans-culottes* found arms to storm the Bastille and conquer proud Versailles . . . They did what they had to do ... The nations will break away from Western Union as the workers take power, break capitalism's predominance, and the people advance along paths of democracy and socialism using all necessary means . . ."

A voice from the Christian Democratic benches interrupted: "You are speaking of the Petkoff case!"

"Yes," said Togliatti firmly, as many in the hushed house recalled the Bulgarian executed by the Communists last year. "We are speaking of Petkoff. Pay attention and don't interrupt!"

* A crisp who's who of 506 Red leaders, prepared by Subcommittee No. 5 of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and published as a supplement to the committee's report on world Communism (Feb. 29). * Who, according to Aristophanes, persuaded the women of Athens to stage a strike against their husbands. * The ill-clad French revolutionaries who wore plebeian long trousers instead of upper-class culottes (knee breeches).

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