Immediately after September 8 (under the pseudonym of Riccardo Pittaluga) Taviani founded the Committee for National Liberation in Liguria (CLNL) as representative of the Christian Democracy. His clandestine activities often brought him among the partisans in the mountains (it was in these years that he became close friends with the commanders Aldo Gastaldi, “Bisagno” and Aurelio Ferrando, “Scrivia”). Taviani maintained contacts with Allied military missions that had parachuted behind enemy lines. He was also editor of "La Voce d’Italia" a banned periodical published by the Resistance in Liguria. Within the CLNL Taviani often argued the need for a single military command that could effectively coordinate the efforts of volunteers from so many different political backgrounds. On the night of April 23, 1945 the CLNL assumed the leadership of the insurrection in Genoa. On the evening of April 25 the German commander surrendered to representatives of the CLNL. The next morning it was Taviani who announced that the city had been liberated in a radio address broadcast by the BBC: “Genoa is free. People of Genoa, rejoice! For the first time in the history of this war a military unit has surrendered to the spontaneous forces of a people: the people of Genoa!” For his activity in the Resistance Taviani would later receive the Gold Medal for Merit in War in Italy, Gold medals for Merit in the United States and the Soviet Union, the title of Grand Official of the Légion d’Honneur in France. Taviani wrote about the Resistance in the "Breve storia dell’insurrezione di Genova", in the collection of short stories Pittaluga Racconta as well as in dozens of articles. His early years in the Resistance marked Taviani’s entire political career.