The last congress of
Democrazia Proletaria
ITALY its programme, even if it has found itself in the same camp as DP in the anti-Gulf war mobilizations, in opposition to the authoritarian tendencies in the Second Republic project and in the internal struggles in the Italian General Confederation of Labour (CGIL).S
According to this amendment, it was
THE eighth and final congress of the Italian far left organization Democrazia Proletaria (DP), held on June 6-9,
1991, ended by adopting a motion, proposed by the outgoing leadership, calling for the dissolution of the organization into the Movement for Communist Refoundation (MRC), born out of a split in the former Italian Communist Party (PCI) in
February. 196 delegates voted for the motion, four voted against and there were 37 abstentions.!
CLAUDIO GIULIANI
H
OWEVER, the pre-congress discussion revealed considerable reservations, and even some hostility, to the dissolution proposal.
At first, many militants were highly critical of the leadership's proposal; some were not convinced that DP no longer had a role to play, while a larger number were critical of the forms and rhythms of the fusion process, that is, the immediate dissolution at the end of the congress and into the MRC on an individual
These reactions were also to be found amongst the leadership, particularly from militants in the mass movements, whose intervention often takes place along very different lines to those of the former PCI militants who are now members of the
MRC. It is likely that some of these ex-DP militants are not going to join in the refoundation process.
During the debate the differences crystallized into different positions.4 The text from the leadership majority attempted an analysis of the international situation — characterized by the crisis of the bureaucratic societies and the short and medium term consequences of the Gulf war - and of the Italian situation, marked by government manoeuvres aimed at changing the constitution and installing a
This resolution also took up some of
DP's conceptions, outlining perspectives for the workers movement and the mass movements in the 1990s, and indicating the reasons for the fusion in the light of the refoundation process. A second position, defended in the congress by one of the 30 delegates from Milan federation, rejected the coming together and proposed the conof DP. The third position, in favour of a federation between DP and the
MRC, was put forward by representatives
Apart from these two small minority currents, the convergence plan widely supported, as were the modalities defined by the MRC. But there were other differences on important points: a minority on the leadership considered the majority text's treatment of the developments in the Soviet Union inadequate, and its since the text suggested that the self-reform of the bureaucracy was possible. Livio Maitan proposed an amendment on
But the most controversial point concerned the final heading of the leader-
"the reasons for the refoundation". Some considered that this diluted DP's identity, particularly when it stated that there already existed a large measure of convergence between the positions of the MRC and those of DP.
Debate on convergence
An amendment presented by Elettra Deiana, a member of the outgoing secretariat, proposed the replacement of much of this section of the text, insisting that there was insufficient evidence of the existence of such a convergence. In fact, the very nature of the MRC and the existence of different currents inside it has meant that the MRC has not yet defined 1. See International Viewpoint nos. 203, April 1, 2. During the preliminary discussions with DP, the MRC representatives outlined two possibilities: either a dissolution by DP at the end of its congress and individual membership of MRC or the maintenance of DP until the foundation of the new party, and a fusion In this case, DP would not have been in a position to directly influence the MRC's process of organizational and political self-definition. This is the main reason 3. Two members of the national leadership, Nadia Casadei, a feminist militant involved in the social teacher who had done a lot of work for the DP on environmental questions, announced that they would not become members of the MRC.
necessary to emphasize that DP had to bring all its traditions to bear on the current phase of the refoundation process.
The majority of the leadership rejected this amendment, with 18 against and 13 for. Of these 13, eight were from former members of the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR — Italian section of the Fourth International before its entry into DP in 1989), while the other five were from different social belonged to the Christian milieu in DP. The agreement of these two currents on this point can be explained by their shared conviction that it was necessary for DP to make a real input into the fusion and emphasize the pluralism of the new party in formation.
All these differences had found expression in the provincial congresses, where the amendments proposed by Maitan and Deiana found an audience. In some federations, indeed, including Rome and Turin, they won majority support. The debate was thus resumed at the national congress, at which there were 257 delegates, together with many guests and delegations, from the MRC and the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS - the former Communist Par-
Pessimistic perspectives
The author of the introductory report, Luigi Vinci, a member of the outgoing secretariat, gave a schematic resumé of the main themes in the leadership's text, and added a note of pessimism on the perspectives - saying for example that 1990s may turn out to be much more difficult than the 1980s, which were already very bad." He emphasized the existence of a "unity of political intentions and strategic perspectives" with the MRC. He not only rejected Elettra Deiana's amendment, but accused those who opposed the idea of entry into the MRC, even without the "necessary convergence", as amount4. This text was passed with 20 votes for and 13 abstentions. The December 1990 congress elected a 60-strong leadership, but many did not participate in 5. The debate before the CGIL congress which is to take place in October 1991 has been marked by the presence of a class struggle opposition current in which DP trade unionists participate. This current won 45% of the vote in the Fiat Mirafiori plant in Turin. 6. Including the 60 members of the outgoing national leadership, who, according to a rather dubious rule, had the right to speak and vote at the congress. 7. Luigi Vinci joined the PCI at the start of the 1960s and took part in the opposition struggles in the party and youth organization. For some years he was an activist in the Italian section of the Fourth International. He left it in 1968 and became par. of the leadership of 1 7/ the far left organization Avanguardia Operaia. • July 22, 1991 • #211 International Viewpoint
ITALY ing to a "far left faction". He added, however, that the future party must "discuss at length and discuss everything", "adopt the structures and instruments to allow this" and that "journals and independent associations should flourish" around the future
The outgoing leadership put forward a proposal, this time unanimously, which was adopted by the congress, calling for the setting up of a politico-cultural association, which would bring together not only DP members who had entered the MRC but also comrades who had opposed this decision, as well as independent militants and intellectuals.
A former CP militant, Vinci introduced a personal note into his report, declaring: "I cannot hide the fact that it was hard for me to separate at the time from my comrades in the PCI, and that I feel the present movement as a kind of rapprochement with a collective entity from which I had to separate, but to which I have always had the feeling of belonging."
Some of the delegates, who, in their majority, were never in the PCI and gained their political experience in the various far left groups in the 1970s, were unable to share these sentiments. They thus took the reporter's proposals as an attempt to rehaformer PCI and an underestimation of the new left.
### Vigorous debates
The debates at the congress were vigorous. Many reservations were put forward on the ways of carrying out the fusion, sometimes as a reaction to the narrowminded responses encountered from some
MRC representatives at a local level. This was also accompanied by strong emotions aroused by the prospect of the disappearance of an organization whose construction had required much effort, and which had played a real role in the struggles and mobilizations of the past 13 years.
Besides the interventions by those who rejected the fusion outright, there was also a confrontation between positions that had already appeared in the leadership: the majority, the Christian current and that presented by the press as Trotskyist.°
The first position was upheld notably by the secretary of the Milan federation - by far the most important - and a number of members of the outgoing secretariat such as Giancarlo Saccoman, Tonino Califano, and Marida Bolognesi, who took up the themes of the leadership text and to some extent of the introductory report. The second was expressed in interventions by Vittorio Agnoletto, a deputy on the Milan provincial council, Francesco leader of the Messina federation and a member of the leadership, and the European deputy Eugenio Melandri.
In their text, these militants explained: "As Christians, we feel the need to intro18 duelino the teren tich and the acticeo duce into the left the theory and practice of International Viewpoint #211 • July 22, 1991 for liberation, which cannot be ignored. The presence of believers on the left must henceforth be accepted as a permanent, collective and intrinsic fact.... All action for change must have at its centre by its effectiveness and its value in itself — non-violence as a real alternative method for the resolution of conflicts.... On this basis, and in this perspective, we declare ourselves interested by a process that will give rise to a new anti-capitalist body, capable of unifying different cultures, beyond any ideological renunciation."10
Rejection of rightist turn
The third position was expressed by a number of speakers, including Delana, Maitan, Roberto Firenze, Franco Turigliatti and Lidia Cirillo. As amendment explains, it is true that DP and the MRC have some positions in common. What is more, nobody should underestimate the fact that, in the present state of the Italian and international workers movement, around 150,000 militants have rejected the direction taken by the former PCI leadership under Achille Ochetto and have declared their resolve to build an anti-capitalist and communist party. This is a sufficient - and necessary - basis for a coming together.
But once this essential point is accepted, why proclaim convergences that do not exist, at least not yet? Why hide the fact that on the central question of revolutionary strategy in an industrialized capitalist country there is a difference between what MRC representatives have been writing and stating — putting forward a reformist and gradualist line - and the Marxist critique of the bourgeois state developed by
DP? This problem, and others no less important, must be discussed throughout the refoundation process, then in the new accepting different currents, components and sensibilities, if it is to bring together different experiences and generations.
The MRC was represented at the congress by Ersilia Salvato, a senate deputy, and by its main spokesperson, former union leader Sergio Garavini, who made two interventions in favour of an opening up, addressing himself to the reservations expressed on the coming together and its concrete expression. Salvato, however, made it clear that she did not like the idea of the new party defining itself as plural8. Problems in relations with the MRC arose during the recent elections in Sicily for example. In some parts of the island, it proved impossible to present 9. In fact, many of those who supported the Deiana amendment in the provincial congresses and the national congress - and even more of those who supported the Maitan amendment - were not from the former LCR 10. The Christian current in DP considers the Nicaraguan Sandinistas as exemplary. This involves rather a novel definition of non-violence, since this movement, spent 15 years engaged in many forms of armed struggle and finally overthrew the pro-imperialist dictatorship by an insurrection.
ist, which suggested that it would be a formation divided into crystallized currents and groupings.
Garavini also stated that the new party should not be a "sum of PCI factions and different left formations". This is why adherence has to be individual. He also praised DP which had "persevered in the defence of the political and organizational autonomy of the left". He restated the anticapitalist and communist choice, the need to recompose the workers' movement and the demand that Italy leave NATO. In the battle against the authoritarian tendencies developing in Italy, according to Garavini, it is necessary to promulgate a type of democracy able to have an impact on the overall social situation and seek the widest unity. From this point of view, it is impossible to go round the problem of the PDS Finally, Garavini was open about the MRC's problems: "There are plenty of chaotic things going on amongst us, and there are old prejudices to overcome" _ while emphasizing the important number of members already won and the "impetus from below" which reminded him of 1945.
The closing speech was made by deputy
Giovanni Russo Spena, the former secre tary of DP.! He recalled this organization's contribution to workers', people's and anti-imperialist struggles and its political and theoretical work, but did not enter into the main controversies. He concluded with these words: "We regret nothing
Facts tell us that right is on our side even more than before.... Our history is not over, because, without liquidating any thing, we are going to make our intellectual and political contribution to meeting a larger and more complex challenge. Certainly, we need the MRC, but they too, have need of us."
Before the vote on the convergence text, the congress voted on several amendments; that of Maitan on the USSR was defeated 95 against, 89 for and 28 abstentions; Deiana's also fell, with 154 votes against, 69 for and 30 abstentions; and the
Christian amendment was also rejected with 65 for, 128 against and 36 abstentions. Finally, a 21-person committee was elected to oversee coordination with the MRC!?, as well as a watchdog committee charged with dealing with the administrative and financial problems related to the dissolution of DP. * 11. During the 1989 congress, DP decided to do away with the post of secretary. The leadership elected at the congress elected an eight-member secretariat. 12. The 21 elected members on this body are: Fabio Alberti (Rome), Antonio Barone (Milan), Marida Bolognesi (Livoro), Tonino Califano (Potenza), Gianni Confalonieri (Milan), Elettra Deiana (Milan), Saverio Ferrari (Milan), Paolo Ferrero (Turin), Orietta Lunghi (Florence), Livio Maitan (Rome), Vito Nocera (Naples), Franco Olivieri (Genoa), Gianni Paoletti (Bologna), Giulio Russo (Rome), Giovanni Russo Spena (Rome), Giancarlo Saccoman (Milan), Sandro Targetti (Florence), Rosa Tavella (Lamezia), Mauro Tosi (Verona), Franco Turigliatto (Turin) and Luigi Vinci (Milan).
Crisis in the KKE
GREECE for its operation. As the government struck hard, with rises in prices and charges, privatizations, the
"anti-terrorist"
law to
A BIG CRISIS has just broken out in the
Greek Communist Party (KKE) with the forced or voluntary resignation of nearly half the members of the Politburo and the
Central Committee. These resignations are the result of developments over the past year and have come at a time of great internal tension, with accusations and
Insults flying, and threats of splits in the short term. On one side are the "renewers"
and on the other the "conservatives"
forming two blocs which started out on almost equal terms.
ANDREAS SARTZEKIS
HE crisis in the KKE has been
T sparked by developments in the
Synaspismos (SYN), the electoral bloc formed a little more than two years ago. The leadership of the SYN has proposed that the ruling bodies of the alliance should be elected by its members, and no longer by its component organizations. Behind this procedural question lies an important issue: until now, the SYN has depended to a large extent on the organizational and financial input of the KKE.