The object of this research is the analysis of the thought and work of Camillo Berneri in the final part of his life, which coincides with his commitment in the writing of the “Guerra di Classe” newspaper, somehow the “organ” of the anarchists Italians in Spain, published in Barcelona between October 9, 1936 and November 30, 1937, and directed by him until his death on May 5. I have tried (it seems to be the novelty of my work) to combine the evolution of Berneri and the structure of the “group” of Italian libertarians who fought in the Spanish Civil War.
Of the “three Berneri” identified by PC Masini, one of his best scholars (the one of the first postwar in Italy, the one of I exile, the one of the “war of Spain”), I have occupied mainly of the third party, rather of one part (in my opinion the most important) of the third party. It is the “dissident” Berneri (rather than a coherent and organic opponent) to the governmental line of the CNT-FAI who, having undergone enthusiastic support for the accomplishments of the “July 19 revolution,” begins to have doubts about the wisdom of the leaders of the libertarian movement.
The analysis of the thinking of the last Berneri presupposes a certain knowledge of the history of thought and of the academic organization, especially in Italy and in the Iberian peninsula, for which I have used “historical” texts such as the Woodcock (or even Engels) but especially most recent works (almost half of the “general” bibliography indicated at pages 131-35).
In addition, obviously, a knowledge of the historiographical debate about the Second Republic and the civil war is essential, from the now “classic” works of the fifties to the sixties to the last contributions (the other half of the same bibliography), perhaps not yet published (doctrinal theses).
On the same argument, I have also traveled to less “traditional” sources, such as several biographies, more or less “novelizadas”, movies of the time (and perhaps later), a long interview with a protagonist as the then Secretary of the JCI, W Solano.
I have also used two very important sources: the whole collection of the newspaper (30 numbers) and the letters of Berneri (reproduced in “Pensieri e Battaglie” and in the “Epistolario Inedito”), important these last ones to illuminate aspects of their thinking that they do not publicly came to light due to “diplomatic” self-censorship.
