Communist Party of Italy
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The Communist Party of Italy (Partito Comunista d’Italia) was an Italian political party which existed from 1921 to 1926. Although its political experience is part of the story of the Italian Communist Party, it was a different entity.
It was declared illegal by the newborn fascist regime, but its existence terminated de facto with the clandestine Congress of Lyon (1926), while the formal organization, even if in exile, continued with the other denomination, under the leadership of the pro-Moscow group.
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[edit] The foundation
The Communist Party of Italy was born in Livorno on the 21st of January, 1921, after the split (which occurred the same day) within the Italian Socialist Party. The forerunner of this foundation was the Communist Fraction (which originated in 1912). The Fraction was already formally part of the Communist International and participated in the drawing up of its admission rules.
The already pre-announced split became true with the refusal of the socialist Congress of Livorno to expel the reformist group as required by the Communist International. The “L'Ordine Nuovo” in Turin (led by Antonio Gramsci) and the “culturalist” current (led by Angelo Tasca) joined the Communist Fraction in the new party.
[edit] The party’s name
The Communist International, at that time, was structured as a single world party, as Lenin strongly wanted. Therefore, its official name was Communist Party of Italy, Section of the Communist International.
This official name remained until 1943, when the Communist International was dismissed, but since 1924-1925 the new name PCI appeared on the documents as acronym of Partito Comunista Italiano (Italian Communist Party). As the Communist International became more and more a federation of national Communist parties, especially after Lenin’s death, the new name, with the national adjective, replaced the original one. The problem of the name was not secondary for the two main components of the party: at one side the Leninist thought of the single world party, internationalist and strongly centralized; on the other side the party with national peculiarities and autonomy.
[edit] The program
The PCd’I, being a territorial section of the Communist International, adopted the same program, the same conception of the party and the same tactic adopted by the II Congress in Moscow (1920). The official program, drawn up in 10 points, began with the intrinsically catastrophic nature of the capitalist system and terminated with the extinction of the State. It follows in a synthetic way the model outlined by Lenin for the Russian party.
For a while, this identity resisted, but the fast progress of the reaction in Europe produced a change of the tactic in a democratic direction within the Russian party and consequently within the Communist International; this happened in particular for the possibility, before opposed, of an alliance with the social democratic and bourgeois parties.
This provoked a tension in the party between the majority (left) and the minority currents (in 1924: 16% the right and 11% the center) supported by the Communist International. The proposals of the Left were no longer accepted and the conflict became irremediable.
[edit] A new concept of party
Since its birth, the PCd’I made a big effort to organize itself on some bases which were not a mere reproduction of the traditional parties’ bases. Then it took again some arguments that distinguished the battle within the PSI: it is necessary to form an “ambient” fiercely hostile to the bourgeois society and that is an anticipation of the future society. This purpose is not Utopian, because already in this society, especially in the production, some structures born on future results.
In two articles of 1921 this concept was developed so deeply that they assert that the organ-party is not a simple part of the proletarian class, but already a structure beyond the classes, already fitted to the classless society and drew by its future duties. Revolution is not a problem of organizational shape, but of strength; revolution can’t be “done” (infantile and unrealistic goals) but led (praxis’ overthrow). From the organizational point of view, the party should abandon elective democracy, internal hierarchies, etc, and work “organically”, that is like a biologic organism, where the single parts or cells and different organs work together for the whole.
In the first years of the PCd’I there was no official leader, but the accepted leader, first of the Fraction and then of the party, was Amadeo Bordiga (left current). Leaders of the minority currents were Angelo Tasca (right) and Antonio Gramsci (center).
[edit] The strength
In 1922, during its second congress, the new party registered 43,000 members, in part due to the entrance of almost the whole Socialist Youth Federation (Federazione Giovanile Socialista). The party adopted a slim structure, headed by a Central Committee of 15 members (five of whom were in the Executive committee as well):
- Ambrogio Belloni
- Nicola Bombacci
- Amadeo Bordiga, EC
- Bruno Fortichiari, EC
- Egidio Gennari
- Antonio Gramsci
- Ruggiero Grieco, EC
- Anselmo Marabini
- Francesco Misiano
- Giovanni Parodi
- Luigi Polano
- Luigi Repossi, EC
- Cesare Sessa
- Ludovico Tarsia
- Umberto Terracini, EC
Tasca’s current was not represented, while Gramsci was the only representative of the "center" (the other representative of "Ordine Nuovo" was, at the time, aligned with the left). The national structure included provincial federations, local sections, union groups and a clandestine organization (Ufficio Primo) for the fight against the armed fascist groups. According to the report of the Central Committee to the second congress, during the polls in the Unions (Camera del Lavoro) the communist motions received 600.000 votes.
Central newspapers of PCd'I:
- Rassegna comunista
- Il comunista
- L'Ordine Nuovo
- Il sindacato rosso
- Lo Stato operaio
- La Compagna
- L'Avanguardia
- Prometeo (since 1924)
- L'Unità (since 1924)
Regional newspapers of PCd'I:
- L' Idea comunista (Alessandria)
- La Riscossa (Fossano)
- Il Bolscevico (Novara)
- La Voce comunista (Milano)
- L'Eco dei comunisti (Cremona)
- L'Adda (Morbegno)
- La Comune (Como)
- La Lotta comunista (Vicenza)
- Il lavoratore (Trieste)
- Delo (for slovenian of Trieste)
- Bandiera rossa (Savona)
- Il Momento (Bologna)
- La lotta di classe (Forlì)
- Bandiera rossa (Fano)
- L'Azione comunista (Firenze)
- Il Soviet (Napoli)
- Il Lavoratore comunista (Salerno)
- L'Organizzazione (Roccella Jonica)
- Il proletario (Marsala)
[edit] The Coming of “Bolshevization”
In 1923 some members of the party were arrested and put on trial for “conspiracy against the State”. Thus began the intense activity of the Communist International to deprive the left of authority and give the party to the minority (centre), aligned to the position of Moscow.
In the 1924-25 the CI began the campaign called “Bolshevization” which forced every party to conform itself to the discipline and the orders of Moscow. In May 1924, during the clandestine conference in Como held to verify the top of the party, on 45 secretaries of sections, 35 more the Youth Federation’s one vote for Bordiga’s Left, 4 for Gramsci’s Centre and 5 for Tasca’s Right.
In 1926, before the Llyon Congress, the Centre won almost all the votes, due to the absence of most of the members of the Left delegates, unable to attend because of the fascist controls and the lack of support of the CI (clandestine movements). A recourse to the CI against the evident maneuver didn’t have any effect. The PCd’I, as conceived by that which will be called Sinistra Comunista (Communist Left), terminated. The organization supported by the Communist International continued with a new structure and a new leading group (in 1922 the newspaper “L’Ordine Nuovo” was closed. In 1924 the new central newspaper “L’Unità” was started, directed by Gramsci).
The Communist Left continued its work in exile, publishing it's newspaper: “Bilan – Bulletin théorique mensuel de la Fraction italienne de la Gauche Communiste”
In 1926 Bordiga and Gramsci were arrested and sent to confinement on the island of Ustica. In 1927 Palmiro Togliatti was elected secretary in the place of Gramsci, who was imprisoned.
In 1930 Bordiga was expelled from the CI, accused of “Trotskyism”.
In 1943 Stalin dissolved the Communist International and the exiled members of PCd’I in Moscow on the 15th of May changed the name to Partito Comunista Italiano (PCI, Italian Communist Party). With this name it came back to Italy and, after the fall of Fascism, became a parliamentary party.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- La nascita del Partito Comunista d'Italia (Livorno 1921), ed. L'Internazionale, Milano 1981.
- La lotta del Partito Comunista d'Italia (Strategia e tattica della rivoluzione, 1921-1922), ed. L'Internazionale, Milano 1984.
- Il partito decapitato (La sostituzione del gruppo dirigente del P.C.d'It., 1923-24), L'Internazionale, Milano 1988.
- La liquidazione della sinistra del P.C.d'It. (1925), L'Internazionale, Milano 1991.
- Partito Comunista d'Italia, Secondo Congresso Nazionale - Relazione del CC, Reprint Feltrinelli, 1922, .
- Paolo Spriano, Storia del Partito Comunista Italiano, vol. I Da Bordiga a Gramsci, Einaudi, 1967.
- Franco Livorsi, Amadeo Bordiga, Editori Riuniti, 1976.
- Luigi Cortesi, Le origini del PCI, Laterza 1972.
