Revolutionaries who refer to Marxism-Leninism, young Communists and fervent anti-capitalists. The string of acronyms that still connect to communism is long and tortuous, evoking the class struggle at every turn. Almost all of them feel they are the heirs of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), yet no one is able to elect even a member of parliament.
In short, parties with hammer and sickle abound in Italy, tenacious supporters of the revolution of the proletariat. The best-known symbol is undoubtedly that of the Communist Refoundation (PRC), which celebrated its congress over the weekend, re-electing Maurizio Acerbo in the role of secretary. But the times of Fausto Bertinotti, when the PRC was able to influence national politics. He knows something about it Romano Prodi, which fell in 1998 precisely because the Communist Refoundation turned its back on it. And it was not so different in 2008, when the then President of the Chamber Bertinotti who, quoting Ennio Flaiano, associated the Professor with Vincenzo Cardarelli: “The greatest dying poet“. Not a distrust, but a funereal prediction. Just thirteen years have passed, and it seems like an eternity for the hammer and sickle nostalgic. At that time there were even two communist parties in Parliament on the scene, in addition to the PRC there were also the Italian Communists of Oliviero Diliberto.
Power to the people between Parliament and elections
Even today there is not only Rifondazione to promote the anti-capitalist word, even if the consensus framework is very different. Power to the People (Pap), for example, counts on a senator, Matteo Mantero, acquired during the legislature after leaving the 5 Star Movement. Pap’s list presented itself to the latest policies in which it exceeded 1% thanks to the alliance signed with the PRC with which a split subsequently occurred. Given the context, that election result was celebrated as a triumph. The media face of the time, Viola Carofalo, has meanwhile been replaced by Marta Collot, constant presence a Tuesday on La7. From the last municipal in Bologna, as a candidate for mayor, Collot snatched a significant 2.5%. Among the former leaders of Pap, there is an old acquaintance of the radical left: Giorgio Cremaschi, former head of the hard wing of Fiom in recent years, at least until the farewell to the CGIL matured in 2015.
Speaking of media faces, one cannot fail to mention the Communist Party, led by Marco Rizzo, which has carved out a minimum of space for having taken, even 0.9% at the European Championships in 2019. Then there is another myriad of “hammer and sickle”, which from time to time appear on the cards electoral. The Italian Communist Party (which is different from the previous Communist Party) is still alive and well, so much so that it celebrates the centenary of its birth (the PCI was founded in 1921). The secretary in charge is Michele Alboresi. The list, headed by Cristina Cirillo, which obtained just over 3 thousand preferences, equal to 0.3%, the same percentage (but a hundred fewer preferences) as the other communist, Micaela Quintavalle, who however plays in Rizzo’s party.
The indefatigables of Trotskyism
The Communist Workers’ Party (PCL), founded by Marco Ferrando, Trotskyist of yesteryear, escaped from Rifondazione in 2006, guilty of having accepted the alliance with the center-left. The PCL, at the latest Politics, was presented with a reassembly of Trotskyist subjects, renamed “For a revolutionary Left”. The result? 0.1%. The list is by no means finished. The Italian Marxist Leninist Party, led by Giovanni Scuderi. The Communist Alternative Party (PDAC) is no less Francesco Ricci, which according to the official website “edits the theoretical magazine Trotskyism today“. It is a six-monthly publication “which collects studies and analyzes of the history of the labor movement”.
The Party of Resistance Support Committees, gathered under the Carc label, feeds the myth of resistance to capitalism, under the aegis of Peter Gospels, while Sinistra Classe Revolution has renewed itself, abandoning the name of FalceMartello, borrowed from a magazine published since 1986. The movement, until 2016, was actually within the Communist Refoundation, despite the pre-existing tensions. All done? Not at all the Communist Youth Front, headed by Lorenzo Lang, he took on a life of autonomy after being the offshoot of Rizzo’s party. And we cannot avoid mentioning one of the last Trotskyists to come to Parliament: the former senator Franco Turigliatto, thorn in the side of the majority who supported the second Prodi government. Today it is the reference of the anticapitalist Left. Standard bearer of the class struggle.
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