Valentino Pittoni (; 23 May 1872 – 11 April 1933) was a socialist politician from Trieste, who was mainly active in Austria-Hungary. As a follower of Austromarxism and militant of the Social Democratic Workers Party of Austria (SDAPÖ), he came to oppose both Italian irredentism and Slovenian nationalism. In the early 20th century he emerged as the key leader of the socialist movement in the Austrian Littoral region.E. Maserati, "Pittoni, Valentino (1872–1933), Politiker", entry in the Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815–1950, Vol. 8 Pittoni represented Trieste in the Imperial Council, where he became known as a proponent of electoral democracy, and was additionally a member of Trieste's Municipal Council. He set up a cooperative movement, as one of several ventures ensuring inter-ethnic solidarity in the Littoral.
Increasingly isolated after World War I, Pittoni was uncompromising in demanding Trieste's autonomy within Austria, and eventually its independence from the Kingdom of Italy. He was a noted adversary of Italian fascism, who lived his later life in exile in Vienna. His final contributions were as a newspaper editor and doctrinaire of interwar Austrian socialism.
Early life Pittoni was born on 23 May 1872, in Brazzano, part of the Cormons municipality. His father was a textile trader. During his childhood the family moved to Trieste. He studied at the Trade Academy (Accademia di Commercio e Nautica) in Trieste, and worked on his father's business. During his youth, Pittoni sympathized with irredentism. He was called for military service in the Austro-Hungarian Army, and was discharged with the rank of Second Lieutenant.
Later, Pittoni joined the Trieste Workers Society, which, despite the name, was a moderate nationalist group with only some socialist members.Bosetti, p. 195 In 1896 he befriended the Austrian socialist leader Victor Adler, who invited him to join SDAPÖ that same year.Klinger, p. 85 For the next twenty years, Pittoni was strongly influenced by Adler's Austromarxist ideological line.Cuomo, pp. 31–32, 72; Klinger, pp. 85–88 He lobbied for the transformation of the Austro-Hungarian empire into a Danubian Confederation of non-territorial nationalities.Klinger, pp. 85–86; Sluga, p. 24 A staunch internationalist, he opposed any Italian irredentist moves.Apih, pp. 92–95; Bosetti, pp. 197–198; Cuomo, pp. 31–32; Klinger, pp. 85, 88, 105, 108–109 For Pittoni, irredentism was promoted by Italian capitalists to weaken unity of the working class. Nonetheless, he and his movement had only marginal contacts with the Slovene neighbours, as Pittoni resented Slovenian nationalism and opposed the Slavic claims over Trieste (or "urban Slavism").Cuomo, p. 32
Pittoni joined the Social Democratic League, a Triestine branch of the SDAPÖ, and, by 1902, was involved in mediating between the socialists and organised labour. That year, he helped the senior socialist leader Carlo Ucekar in directing the Österreichischer Lloyd stokers strike, but lost control of it to anarchist agitators.Klinger, pp. 82–83 The strike ended in bloodshed. The authorities were lenient toward the socialists, and willing to blame the strike on anarchists, but made a point of warning Pittoni to comply in the future.Sondhaus, pp. 154–155
Later that year, Ucekar died; Pittoni vied for and won the post as leader of the Social Democratic League. With Pittoni at the helm, the Triestine socialists moved closer to the Austromarxist centre, holding the 1905 anti-war and anti-irredentist demonstration which coincided with the official launch of SMS Erzherzog Ferdinand Max.
Parliamentarian The 1907 Austrian general election was the first to be held with universal male suffrage. Pittoni was elected to the Imperial Council with an absolute majority, representing the first constituency of Trieste (covering the old city and the suburb of San Giacomo).Sluga, p. 24 Although this was a major victory for his version of socialism, Pittoni noted that his League lacked cadres, and reached out to members of Italian Socialist Party (PSI), in the Kingdom of Italy, proposing that they should relocate their militancy to Trieste.Klinger, p. 87 He allowed a measure of nationalism to seep into his discourse, noting: "It is up to us to also deal with the national issue."Bosetti, p. 199 In August, he represented his party at the Stuttgart Congress of the Second International.
Like other SDAPÖ deputies, Pittoni demanded the introduction of universal suffrage in Transleithania, which was administered by the Gyula Andrássy government in Budapest. As he noted in a parliamentary address of October 10, 1908: "it can no longer be indifferent to the nations of Austria if the disenfranchised peoples and classes of Hungary still fail to receive the rights we owe them." Together with Adler, Etbin Kristan, Engelbert Pernerstorfer and Josef Steiner, he presided over an SDAPÖ Conference which demanded "freedom in Hungary".
From 1907 onwards Cesare Battisti, a left-wing intellectual inside the party from Trentino, emerged as prominent leader of Trieste's League. Battisti and Pittoni clashed on political issues, especially following the 1908 Bosnian crisis. The latter incident had created a dissonance between the goals of socialist internationalism and those of Austrian nationalism,Apih, pp. 92–93; Cuomo, pp. 31–32 but Pittoni played it down, arguing that many Bosniaks were already subjects of the Austrian monarchy, in Croatia-Slavonia.Bosetti, p. 240 Overall, Pittoni claimed, "the right of ethnic self-determination hinges on that state's democratization prospects" (implying that Bosniaks lacked such prospects outside the Austrian tutelage). He also noted that, contrary to the indignation in Italy, Italians had nothing to fear. Against Pittoni, Battisti maintained an anti-militarist and separatist position. Pittoni also found himself criticised by PSI irredentists Claudio Treves, Leonida Bissolati and Gaetano Salvemini.Cuomo, pp. 31–32
Pittoni was elected municipal councillor of Trieste in 1909,Bosetti, p. 205 and promoted labour management initiatives. Chief editor of the party organ, Il Lavoratore, and a key figure in the Social Studies Circle, Pittoni also founded the Workers Cooperative of Trieste, Istria and Friulia.Klinger, pp. 87, 88 His participation in such causes increased the cultural and educational prestige of socialism, solving many of the movement's teething problems, and helping to spread the cooperative ideals among the Slovene population.Apih, pp. 92–93; Klinger, pp. 87–88, 110 He conditioned affiliation to these cooperatives on the desegregation and inter-ethnic solidarity of candidate unions.Apih, p. 92 He also campaigned for the establishment of Workers Club and an Italian university in Trieste.
Pittoni retained his parliamentary seat in the 1911 Austrian general election. This time he was supported by mainstream Slavic parties, opposed to Felice Venezian's Italian national-liberals, but could not count on the regular Slovene voters, who withdrew their support. As leader of the Italian parliamentary club, Pittoni supported an inquiry into the affairs of Transleithania, where, according to fellow deputy George Grigorovici, the Hungarian Post was censoring the correspondence of left-wing opponents, including Austrian subjects.Graur, p. 444
Like the rest of his party, Pittoni issued protests against Rudolf Montecuccoli's plan to modernize and increase the Austro-Hungarian Navy.Sondhaus, p. 196 Together with Adler and with members of the PSI, he co-founded an anti-war congress that would report on any rearmament on either side of the Italian–Austrian conflict. During October 1912, he participated in the mass rallies opposing Austria-Hungary's involvement in the First Balkan War, and petitioned the government on that subject.
World War
In 1914, just before the start of World War I, Pittoni began cooperating with the Yugoslav Social-Democratic Party (JSDS), which had recently relocated in Trieste, and set up a shared bureau to oversee common operations. However, he insisted that the common slogan was that of "national toleration [and] workers solidarity", and that the status of Trieste as an Austrian port could not expect to change.Apih, pp. 94–95
In May 1915, Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary. The violence of the subsequent "Mountain War" demoralized Pittoni,Bosetti, p. 267 who pleaded with his government for the fair treatment of Italian captives and refugees. He and the Slovene Henrik Tuma conceived of an abortive plan to establish a bi-national Trieste as part of the Austrian monarchy.Bosetti, p. 267; Pirjevec, pp. 82, 86 It was to include Monfalcone, San Dorligo della Valle, Muggia and other rural localities, which were supposed to form an anti-irredentist cordon of Slovenes and Friulians.Pirjevec, p. 82 In mid 1916, they joined hands with other JSDS moderates, reestablishing the newspaper Zarja, which, against the SDAPÖ party line, advocated the end of war.Klinger, pp. 95–97 The Pittoni–Tuma project was opposed by the Yugoslavist wing of the JSDS, whose leader Josip Ferfolja accused the internationalists of facilitating his people's "death as a nation".Kacin-Wohinz, p. 116
Probably as a result of this nonconformism, Pittoni was again conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian Army and sent to the front, before returning to Trieste as cooperative leader, working to ensure the city's supply in food and basic goods.Klinger, p. 97 He regained his seat in the Imperial Council in summer 1917, when it reopened its sessions,Klinger, pp. 85, 87 and declared himself willing to represent the Austrian workers at an international peace conference that was planned by the International Socialist Commission (ISC) in Stockholm.Pirjevec, p. 83 At odds with Adler, who supported continuing the war, he moved closer to Karl Renner's faction, which stood by the old confederation programme, but he also issued messages of sympathy toward the revolutionary, Bolshevik and "maximalist", groups.Klinger, pp. 97, 100–101 He notably demanded freedom for Adler's son Friedrich, jailed for his assassination of Minister-President von Stürgkh.Klinger, p. 101
Faced with the challenges of Yugoslavism and Austro-Hungarian dissolution, Pittoni called for the creation of an independent Istrian stateAlessi, pp. 29, 34; Kacin-Wohinz, pp. 115–118; Bosetti, p. 267 or a "Republic of Venezia Giulia".Sluga, p. 41 It was to demand protection from the League of Nations,Sluga, p. 41; Kacin-Wohinz, p. 118 but Pittoni also spoke of other diplomatic alternatives, including an American or a Bolshevik occupation.Klinger, pp. 100–101 In late 1918, as the Slovene National Council prepared to assume control of the region, he publicized the manifesto of Emperor Charles, which proposed an Austrian confederation and a special role for Trieste.Klinger, pp. 106–107 However, he faced increased opposition within the Trieste socialist movement from the Giuseppe Tuntar–Ivan Regent faction (which favoured an Italo-Slavic Soviet Republic) and from irredentist or "socialist-nationalists" such as Edmondo Puecher, who had organised the strike of January 1918. He responded by purging Il Lavoratore staff of suspected irredentists, including writer Bruno Piazza.