L’ENDAS was born together with the Italian Republic, in the years immediately following the Second World War, in the difficult socio-economic reality of a country that emerged defeated from the war and plagued by a disastrous period that had prevented any free form of association.
“The Movement of Social Action, as it had been desired by the first Congress of Social Action Groups, held in Bologna in 1946, was established with the precise aim of differentiating itself from any movement that had a character and structure similar to a trade union organization, that is, to a contingent action organization that, while undoubtedly aiming for an improvement in the conditions of workers, was not sufficient to seriously set them on the path of redemption. However, the Movement of Social Action could not achieve this primary goal; rather, it was gradually abandoned over time, and the original aim was changed, thus distorting the programmatic character of the Movement, which had found a promising start and which was supposed to aim to act actively so that the worker would cease to be a tool of production but finally become a man, with rights, aspirations, and intellectual and moral needs on par with the privileged.“
[Giovanni Pasqualini, 1949]
The words taken from the Report of the founding father of ENDAS to the Direction of the Social Action Movement (M.A.S.) on November 23, 1949 still constitute the ideal preamble for any attempt to tell the story of the National Democratic Entity of Social Action.
The MAS – which the ENDAS succeeds without interruption – was born in the immediate post-war period in 1946 and obtained legal recognition as a National Association of workers pursuing welfare purposes in 1949. In that year, Pasqualini launched the idea of a secular aggregation, an expression of the desire to share the same dream of freedom of association with others, but distant from any movement with characteristics and structure similar to a trade union organization. What is needed in that precise historical context is to offer a moral and material stimulus that helps the population to start over.
To train, educate, and promote the moral and material elevation of workers through activities of a social, cultural, educational, assistance, sports, and recreational nature is the guiding spirit of the movement. The history of ENDAS begins here: from popular culture courses to combat illiteracy, from vocational training courses, from the dissemination of knowledge of the Italian Constitution among workers and young people through La Voce, the press organ of the entity. It is not surprising that in a short time the Entity has become an indispensable weapon of redemption for the workforce of our country, far from party ties and ideological pressures.
Alongside the workers' awareness, the Organization has always used its energies in promoting sports activities: over the years, ENDAS has brought to life a large number of associations and sports clubs from scratch that have managed to introduce many young people to sports, educating them in various disciplines with good results and enriching the sector with thousands of managers of rare competence and professionalism. Some ENDAS associations and sports clubs, of national renown, have even gifted the nation some of the most well-known Olympic athletes.
More than seventy years after its foundation, ENDAS continues to dialogue and interact with institutions, following the path of social action as a driving force for the development and progress of the country.