Comrade Livio Has Passed Away

On the morning of 4^th March 2005, at his home in Naples, Livio passed away. He was 84 years of age.

Over the past few months his illness had seriously weakened him, but to us he still seemed to be the same exuberant, brimming full of life Livio as ever. His energy and rare intelligence, his joyous sense of humour will be missed by all.

Son of a faithful comrade of 1921 vintage (and of a German mother who he would lose very early on), it was impossible not to feel great fondness towards a man who showed just as much enthusiasm at recent meetings as the young man who joined the party just after the 2^nd World war: “Why don’t we just do it, eh, what does it take..?”.

When he was with young people, who he used to keep amused during the meals and the breaks at the party meetings, it was almost as though he was animated by some internal force. Drawing on his lucid memory, it was obvious he wanted to pass on to future generations as many of his experiences and teachings, derived from a long life of hard study, as possible.

As he got older, after long years of militant activity, he become justifiably concerned that nothing should dispel the memory, both oral and written, of the communist way of life which had sustained him over long decades, and for part of which, due to generally adverse conditions, he had remained the unique depositary. He treasured every carefully ordered document, and had even transcribed single sentences and well-chosen expressions of old comrades (on one occasion he read us his copy of a wonderful, personal, letter from Ludovico Tarsia to another old comrade, we think from Torre Annunziata, offering condolences on the death of his wife) and he used to wonder whether it would be possible to get them published somehow, or in any case make sure comrades could access them.

Throughout the high and low points of the second half of the 20^th Century, he worked tirelessly for the party, doing what needed to be done, fortified by his encyclopaedic reading and huge thirst for knowledge (indeed his study was like a well-equipped and efficient laboratory). Livio was a person who threw himself enthusiastically into every task, who explored every subject, and would examine difficult and controversial topics only to then explain them to us with an air of serene confidence.

The degree to which his depth and enthusiasm overflowed into his conversation, in which he would entrance his listeners with two, three, or four lessons drawn from his personal and party life, and all recounted in such a way as to weave together and highlight the main points, all in the same current of discourse, was matched only by the degree to which he was measured, precise, rigorous and meticulous in his party work. And he did a tremendous amount of work for the party, all in his clear handwriting ‘in pencil point’, just so everything was absolutely clear. Beyond him and after him.

Yes, truly an indispensable comrade.

Our fondest condolences to his wife, his daughter, and our Neapolitan comrades.