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All over the Red north, riots flared. North-south railroads were dynamited in four places. In Genoa, workers joined forces with armed ex-partisans, took several carabinieri prisoners, captured armored cars, posted guns on rooftops, seized the power plant and plunged the city into darkness. In Turin, 30 industrial executives were held as hostages. In Abbadia San Salvatore, in Tuscany, two regiments of government artillery were required to repel workers attacking the nation's main telephone center. At week's end 20 police and rioters were dead and more than 200 were injured.
In Parliament Red deputies, screaming invective, blamed the government for complicity in the attack on Togliatti. But Premier de Gasperi and his tough little Interior Minister, Mario Scelba, stood their ground. Said Scelba (who, like Assassin Pallante, is a Sicilian): "It becomes the state's duty to use the whole of its force, which is considerable and can be crushing, to guarantee the liberty of all citizens."
Back to Work. To the government's firmness was added the fact that most Italians simply did not believe that De Gasperi's government was implicated in Pallante's stupid crime. In a message from Moscow, where the protection of bigwigs is a highly developed science, Premier Stalin rebuked his Italian satraps for not taking better care of Togliatti. Crestfallen, they responded with an article in L'Unitá promising to purge themselves of "the timid, the opportunists, the dishonest and the provocateurs." They also disclosed that party membership had dropped by 50,000 (to 2,200,000) in the past year.
The Red leaders called a general strike which fizzled. When he knew that he was beaten in the effort to make a revolution out of the attack on Togliatti, Communist Labor Boss Giuseppe di Vittorio rose in the Assembly to announce that the Labor Federation had called off the general strike. Interrupted a Christian Democrat: "Because it failed." Crimson with rage, Di Vittorio screamed: "Why do you laugh? What is there to laugh at?" Bedlam broke loose in the Assembly. While a line of ushers kept them from getting at each other, Christian Democrats and Communists hurled pencils and pens at each other and screamed curses. When quiet was restored, De Gasperi, as usual, had the last word. He expressed his fervent hope for Togliatti's recovery and then said: "I can give assurance that the government's conduct in the near future will be based not only on comprehension and political wisdom but also on energy which a self-respecting government cannot do without. I didn't follow the example of the present Czechoslovakian Prime Minister and chairman of the Labor Federation who pronounced himself against any form of strike as soon as he came into power; I am not thinking of doing so even in the future. But besides the liberty of trade unions, there is an urgent need for work and political order."