Critical times for Italy’s PRC left
THE ITALIAN PRC (Party of Communist Refoundation)
held a special organisational conference from 29 March to 1 April in
Carrara.
The conference was officially called to discuss some
of the problems that the party is facing almost a year after it entered
Romano Prodi’s centre-left coalition government, including how to
‘reconnect’ the ‘party of government’ with the ‘movement’ and the
struggle. A survey of party members which was distributed at the
conference revealed that less than 17% are under 30 and most branches
have no links with the ‘social movements’, such as those against
globalisation and war, which the party claims to represent. Only 1.5%
say they have links with local trade unions.
In a powerful speech, Marco Veruggio – who is on the
national political committee of the PRC and a member of Controcorrente,
a left alternative in the party – explained that the crisis in the party
is a political one. "It seems that the PRC is going from a party of
struggle, to a party of struggle and government, to a party of just
government", he said. "When we start talking about ‘liberalisations’
which hit the rich and help the poor it’s like talking about
redundancies which hit the bosses and help the workers". "When we don’t
talk about whether Alitalia should be privatized, but how". "When
instead of discussing the criminality of war we quibble over rules of
engagement and whether our troops [in Afghanistan] are ten km to the
south or to the north".
"If I say that we must say ‘no’ to the war, to
pension attacks, to privatisations, even if it means that the government
falls, I’m told that this will help Berlusconi", he continued. "Well, I
ask you comrades, what is the limit beyond which we will not go? Is
there a limit… or has the ability to govern become the party’s only
compass?"
The entry of the PRC into the Prodi coalition and
then the government, its acceptance of neo-liberal attacks on the
working class, support for war in Afghanistan and the expulsion of the
left-wing PRC senator Franco Turigliatto have alienated many workers and
youth for whom the party was a point of reference as a fighting,
anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist organisation.
But the PRC leaders have no intention of voting
against the government’s attacks on the working class or demanding the
withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, let alone leaving the Prodi
government. In the run-up to the conference they undemocratically
announced to the national press their plans for a new political
formation, the ‘cantiere’ (construction site). The conference was left
discussing the organisational forms of a party which, if the leadership
gets its way, will cease to exist in a year’s time!
Bertinotti, Giordano and the other PRC leaders are
responding to a possible change in the electoral law which could favour
larger political blocs and adversely affect smaller parties. At the same
time, the two main parties in Prodi’s government coalition – the
Margherita (Daisy) Party, former Christian Democrats, and the DS
(Democrats of the Left), former ‘communists’ – are in the process of
forming a new capitalist ‘Democratic Party’. This will almost certainly
result in a ‘left’ split from the DS (possibly taking up to 25% of the
party). Giordano and Bertinotti are looking to unite with the split from
the DS and other forces on the ‘left’ such as the PdCI (Party of Italian
Communists) and the Greens to create what would effectively be a liberal
reformist party. This, they hope, would form an electoral bloc with the
Democratic Party on the ‘centre-left’.
In the context of Italy, where the PRC was formed
over 15 years ago as a party which stood for the revolutionary overthrow
of capitalism and attracted the most radical workers and youth, this
would clearly mark a step backwards and a qualitative change in the
process of the rightward shift in the party. This would, in turn, raise
the question of political representation of the working class and the
need to begin the creation of a new, mass party of workers and the
movement.
However, there is still an important battle to be
waged inside the PRC before that point is reached, a battle that will
also be watched by many activists outside the party, including
internationally.
Unfortunately, Sinistra Critica, the organisation of
the United Secretariat of the Fourth International, which obtained
around 7% of the vote at the last PRC congress, has chosen to opt out of
this struggle. At a press conference in Carrara, its MP, Salvatore
Cannavo, announced that it would not be participating in the conference.
Sinistra Critica’s only contribution was to read out a statement from
its senator, Turigliatto.
Sinistra Critica is not leaving the PRC, explained
Cannavo, but, in solidarity with Turigliatto’s expulsion, its members
will be ‘suspending themselves’ from all positions in the party. At its
subsequent national meeting they stated that they will build Sinitstra
Critica as an "instrument in the service of a new left alternative",
while building "forums of social struggle".
CWI members in Italy distributed an open letter to
Sinistra Critica members at this meeting. We explained that their
confused ‘third way’ position of not leaving the PRC but not
participating in it either will inevitably weaken the forces of the left
inside the party and strengthen the likelihood of a victory for
Bertinotti and Giordano. It is the equivalent of abandoning the
battlefield and raising the white flag when there is still a fight to be
conducted.
There is no doubt that the main forces for the
building of a genuine mass party of workers and the movement in Italy
will come from outside the PRC. They will come from the struggles in the
workplaces, from the trade unions, the fight against attacks on
pensions, against privatisation and precarious working, and the
relentless undermining of working conditions. They will come from the
social and community struggles, such as the ones being waged in Vicenza
against the building of a US base and in Val di Susa against a high
speed rail link. Many of these struggles will involve new forces, which
have never participated in movements before.
Marxists should of course be involved in all of
these struggles of the working class and youth, putting forward a
programme to take the struggles forward linked, in a transitional way,
with the need for a revolutionary party and the transformation of
society.
However, at the same time, forces still remain
inside the PRC which could be mobilised to oppose those in the
leadership who want to abandon the party’s fighting anti-capitalist,
communist tradition. This can be seen clearly by the fact that, in the
run-up to the Carrara conference, resolutions were passed in seven major
cities opposing the expulsion of Turigliatto. The votes against
expulsion included many majority supporters.
It is true that the space within the PRC is limited.
Nevertheless, a skilful united left policy from now until the congress
next year could rally and strengthen significant forces in opposition to
the leadership’s project. A fighting left policy would include:
proposals for all negotiations with other forces outside of the PRC to
be open, democratic and transparent; a minimum programme for a new
united left formation including a refusal to enter into neo-liberal
coalitions; demands that any new formation must be organised on a
democratic basis, with the right of political tendencies to organise
freely and to put forward their ideas; an approach to forces outside of
the PRC – in the DS, PdCI, unions, etc – to adopt and fight for a
similar policy in their respective organisations.
Of course, even after a determined struggle it might
not be possible to defeat the leadership’s plans to transform the PRC
into a liberal capitalist party. However, in the course of that battle
it would be possible to build the forces which could form an important
component of a new left alternative in the future.
By not giving a concrete lead, Sinistra Critica is
allowing those in the PRC who are mistakenly in favour of leading forces
into the new formation, come what may, to have an undue influence. The
small left group Falce Martello states categorically in the March
edition of its newspaper that "it is not a question of building
micro-communist parties incapable of influencing reality, but of
founding a communist tendency which prepares itself from now on to give
battle inside the new political formation which could be born to the
left of the Democratic Party". In other words, it is arguing that
Marxists should go into the new formation before its character has even
been decided! This is a dogmatic and inflexible position which takes no
account of the concrete situation.
If Bertinotti and Giordano succeed in their aim,
then the building of a new political alternative will be clearly posed
for many activists. Such a new alternative would have to resume the task
that the PRC should have carried out, namely winning a majority in the
working class for real communist policies. But, before that stage is
reached, the left must pursue all possibilities inside the PRC in a
united struggle, a position endorsed by Controcorrente in its special
conference bulletin.
Christine Thomas
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