Italian Communist Youth Federation

The Italian Communist Youth Federation (Italian - Federazione Giovanile Comunista Italiana, or FGCI) was the youth wing of the Partito Comunista Italiano (PCI), and the direct heir of the Federazione Giovanile Comunista d'Italia of the PCd'I.

History

Constituted in 1949, its peak was in the 1960s, when its membership reached 200,000 and it thus sought to gain a profile independent of its parent organisation. The Federation's newsletters and publications thus assumed a more avant-garde role, most importantly "La città futura" (taking its name from a special issue published in February 1917 by the Federazione giovanile piemontese del Partito Socialista drawn up by Antonio Gramsci himself) and "Nuova generazione" (drawn up, not without some protests, in 1956).

On 8 October 1990 the Fgci's secretary Gianni Cuperlo, proposed to Ariccia, following the line of Achille Occhetto, that the FGCI be dissolved in order to create the Sinistra Giovanile, a federal organisation with the aim of creating four associations in schools, in territories, in universities, in workplaces, all federated together. The proposal was passed, with 91 votes in favour, 10 abstentions and 13 against.

On 19 December 1990, the 25th and last congress of the FGCI opened at Pesaro, and on 22 December the FGCI dissolved itself with 356 of the 491 votes (72.5%) being in favour, out of a membership of 55,000. Most of the FGCI moved to the new Partito Democratico della Sinistra, which in 1992 gave birth to the Sinistra Giovanile del PDS (renamed simply Sinistra Giovanile in 1998). A minority, which first adhered to the Movimento per la Rifondazione Comunista and then to the Partito della Rifondazione Comunista, in 1995 gave birth to the Giovani Comunisti (GC).

When the Partito dei Comunisti Italiani (PdCI) was born in 1998 as the result of a split in the PRC, the new party created the Federazione Giovanile Comunisti Italiani (FGCI) on the model of the dissolved federation

Periodicals printed by the FGCI were Gioventù d'avanguardia (1949-1953), Il costruttore (1950-1956), Nuova generazione (monthly then sometimes weekly, 1956-1977), La città futura (weekly, 1977-1979).

National secretaries of the FGCI

National congresses

Its first 7 congresses occurred in the form of the Federazione Giovanile Socialista Italiana (Fgsi)