A New Milestone
THE congress of Italy's Left Democrats (DS) which took place in
UCH an evolution has been typical scumbe a selitem and the succumbed to Stalinism and in the case of Italy it began in 1956 (whereas in the Spanish state, for example, it dates from the end of the 1970s). In the course of
Turin in January, merits analysis inasmuch as it marks a new milethe 1980s it had already involved a completed social democratization of the party stone in the evolution of a political formation whose historic origins before leading, after the fall of the Berlin
Wall, to the abandonment of the old name and the transformation into the Party of the Democratic Left (PDS).
Then the project or hope was to put an end to the exclusion from government which had been the lot of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) since 1947, in particular through coming to an agreement with the Socialist Party which had enjoyed considerable success at the parliamentary elections of 1987. But this project was torpedoed by two events that the protagonists of change had completely failed to foresee. The first came in 1992, when the PS dissolved itself, in the context of the crisis of the Italian political system and in particular after a cascade of scandals centered on this party. The second came at the time of the proclamation of the PDS, when a significant left split took place with the setting up of the Party of Communist Refoundation (PRC).
### Interlocutor sought
Thus a weakened party began the search for a worthwhile interlocutor on the center-left or center which simply did not exist. At the same time, it was forced to recognize fairly quickly that the problem of its new identity was far from being resolved. It is true that Achille Occhetto, who had taken the initiative for change, had not hesitated to proclaim that the tradisocio-political cleavages were henceforth obsolete and that it was necessary to introduce a bipolar system based on the opposition between progressives and conservatives. A more or less explicit differentiation remained nonetheless between those who continued to defend the idea of a social democratic party (like Massimo D'Alema) and those who envisaged a transformation into a party like the US Democrats (such as Walter Veltroni). At the 1994 parliamentary elections the progressive bloc was beaten. Two years later a new coalition, called the Olive Tree, won a relative majority and Romano Prodi was able to form a center-left government with the support of the PRC. In October 1998 go back to the early 1920s,
LIVIO MAITAIN* the PRC decided to break with the Prodi government, which became a minority in the Chamber of Deputies. The DS secretary, D'Alema, then became Prime Minister, his government moving more towards the right (the votes of the PRC parliamentarians were replaced by the votes of centrist if not center-right deputies).
### Growing disarray
Persistent economic difficulties, with the maintenance of a very high rate of unemployment, the major problem of the war in Kosovo, the constant divergences inside the coalition government itself, the setback in the European elections, the defeat suffered in Bologna, the flagship city of the reformism of the PCI and its successor, could only provoke a growing disarray among militants and electors. All the more in that all the maneuvers seeking to give a new face to the party through a convergence with other formations of the left and center-left and with intellectuals enjoying a certain renown had not enjoyed significant results. The crisis of identity was revived
Walter Veltroni, who had become secretary of the party since the election of D'Alema to the post of Prime Minister, was charged with drawing up a text for the preparatory debate for the congress. It was a distressingly platitudinous text, which everybody moreover could interpret in his or her own fashion. To give some examples, here is the definition of the "European model": "the European model is based correctly on the idea that economic growth and employment are compatible, indeed influenced in a positive fashion, by high levels of social cohesion, guaranteed by equally high levels of protection needs and rights". As for flexibility, which is a leitmotif of the government, Veltroni tells us that "the objective is that of a regulated flexibility, of a new system of guarantees and powers, matching the needs of the worker as individual rather than those of a homogeneous working class". And here is how he resolves the much-debated problem of the relationship between the concept of the left and that of the Olive tree coalition: "a broad Olive tree containing a broad left involves a sort of dual loyalty. The Olive tree is the dimension of government, of representation, of reformism, the left that of Europe, the world, human and social rights, values. This dual loyalty is a dual dimension of the same identity." Magisterial! The old masters of scholastic philosophy could not have done better.
Having undoubtedly noted that his text, although adopted by around 80% of those voting at the meetings of rank-and-file members - which, it should be stressed, recorded a presence of less than 20% of members - Veltroni tried hard to make up for it with a more wide ranging report. Nothing new or sensational. But he made the effort to recall the evils and disequilibria which afflict a great number of contries, from Bangladesh to Africa, by stating that he sees things "from the point of view of those who are subjected, trampled upon, exploited, offended, violated, of those who consider as an intolerable scandal the inequalities of today's divided world".
### Capitalism unmentioned
But neither Veltroni nor the other leading lights at the congress have breathed a word on the origins of the evils which they denounced, or on the mechanisms which determine it. The daily l'Unita, which despite its 'privatization' remains close to the party, published an eloquent headline: "But the left no longer talks about capitalism". Nonetheless this is not the only omission in the thinking of the DS leadership. Veltroni, D'Alema and all the others have confirmed explicitly their unconditional adherence to the 'market economy' and to neoliberal ideas. International Viewpoint #320 April 2000
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In the area of privatization, Veltroni has specified that the objective of the government was "the construction of new markets, the growth of competition, the emergence of new entrepreneurs into the Italian economy". He reminded entrepreneurs that the government had allowed them to save 50,000 billion lira on their debts and that the profits of the biggest companies were up by 30,000 billion lira. For his part, D'Alema noted that 300,000 new jobs had been created in the course of the last year. As he recognized, 80% of these new jobs are flexible, but in his eyes that proves that flexibility is profitable. No doubt this enlightened opinion would be shared by the Agnelli brothers, owners of Fiat, who Veltroni and D'Alema had received just before the opening of the congress.
### Support for NATO
The votes at the conclusion of congress, like the prolonged applause that greeted the speeches of D'Alema and Veltroni, confirmed that the great majority of members share the conceptions and political choices that have characterized first the PDS, then the DS. They also confirmed another fundamental choice - that of support for NATO's war in Kosovo. Nor did anybody express any opposition to the decisions on military projects adopted by the EU at its Helsinki meeting. It is true that the congress registered the presence of a critical wing which presented a countertext for the preparatory debate. This current, which is favorable to the Olive tree project and apart from some isolated cases excludes any hypothesis of splitting from it, does not accept the idea of the third way, advocates a revival of the values of European socialism, condemns the intervention in Kosovo and supports the 'challenge of the third sector' in opposition as much to public as to private property.
Since its inception one of the DS's leitmotifs has been the construction of a modern party. During the congress new statutes were adopted. In fact it is still clearer that the goal is to transform the DS further into a fundamentally electoral party enjoying the 'collateral' help of the Italian General Confederation of Labor (CGIL) to assure some kind of social underpinning. The functioning of the party is increasingly dictated by the necessities of the institutional mechanisms into which it is integrated. A change in the statutes by which the secretary is henceforth elected by local bodies, 26 International Viewpoint #320 April 2000 whose decision is simply ratified by the national congress, was presented as a novel step towards greater democratization.' In fact, it introduces a plebiscitary-type process which will facilitate a kind of Bonapartism. Finally, the congress voted for the decriminalization of drugs. But Livia Turco, a party leaders and the minister most directly concerned with this area, said that there is no question of the government adopting such a measure!
At the end of the congress Fausto Bertinotti, the secretary of the PRC, wrote in a commentary that at the Turin congress a new political formation had been formed: "we witness the birth in Italy of a party of the liberal left, which has effected a fundamental separation in relation to the histori, cuted the nice takes us back to the beginning of the century; the starting point is liberal, Whig England, before Marxism and the birth of the organised workers' movement" 2
Breaking ties
Rossanna Rossanda was of the same view: "the DS have given themselves an identity; in breaking ties with both communist and social democratic traditions, the Turin congress has traced the profile of a moderated democratic force of government" 3 As we have already noted, no one could doubt that Occhetto wanted to break with the very concept of a workers movement 10 years ago. But the contradiction of his creature, the PDS, was apparent from the beginning. If it wished to have any chance of maintaining its social moorings, even if only for electoral purposes, it could not reject entirely the conception, methods and reflexes appropriate to a social democratic party. We need hardly add that we are not talking about a social democratic party of the golden age nor of the first decades after the Second World War. If we interpret correctly what Bertinotti and Rossana Rossanda are saying this contradiction will now be surmounted. It might be argued that precisely for this reason the divergences between Veltroni D'Alema seem blurred. We do not at all deny that the DS has made further significant steps forward in its transformation into a vaguely progressive formation. But this does not mean that the contradiction that emerged at the time of the party's change of name no longer exists.
### Relative continuity
Two factual elements are worth stressing. First, the main speakers at the congress, including Veltroni and D'Alema, insisted on the fact that the DS is an integral part of the Socialist International. Like it or not, in Europe the Socialist International signifies continuity, however relative, with the traditions and habits of social democracy. We are fully aware that social democracy today is not what it was at the beginning of the 20th century - nor is it what it was in the case of the SDP at Bad Godesberg or the PS at the time of the Epinay congress. But there remains a continuity of social implantation, of cultural and political approach and organizational questions. In the second place, there is the collateral relation with the trade union organizations.
In addition to Veltroni and D'Alema a third thief was hailed with very warm applause - the secretary of the CGIL, Sergio Cofferati, who took up some fiery social themes. It would be audacious to claim, at least at the current stage, that the CGIL's relationship with the DS is of the same nature as that of the AFL-CIO with the US Democratic Party. Whatever the case, it is obvious that the recent evolution of the DS poses crucial problems for the PRC itself. Let us say that it imposes a qualitative change
The refoundation began in a timid enough form, subsequently becoming bogged down. The weight of the past, of the negative traditions is still too great, and risks becoming a crushing burden. The drift of the DS renders still more necessary a fundamental reflection both on a political strategy allowing the workers' movement to rediscover its way and on the instruments - parties, trade unions, various mass organizations and so on - which that movement needs to meet the attacks of the dominant classes, at a time of growing internationalization of the economy and political and cultural globalization. *
*Livio Maitan, a leader of the Fourth International, is a member of the leadership of the Italian PRC.
1. The national secretary, currently Walter Veltroni, will henceforth be elected by congresses of local membership bodies and ratified by the national congress. The president of the Council of Ministers, if a member of the DS, is also president of the party. The president is thus currently Massimo D'Alema.
2. Liberazione, January 18th, 2000 3. Il Manifesto, January 16th, 2000.