The Italian Communist Party 1921--1964: A profile (2025)

Antonio Gramsci: the roots of Italian communism

Political Studies Forum , 2022

Antonio Gramsci’s theory of hegemony, based on the importance of consensus, is the antecedent of the recognition of the democracy by the Italian Communist Party (terrain that would be fully acquired by its successors, Togliatti and Berlinguer). Gramsci takes the word and the concept from the debates at the top of international communism and –adapting it to his theory of the “revolution in the West” – changes and innovates it profoundly in the Prison Notebooks, making it an idea that is today widespread and used throughout the world. Palmiro Togliatti, who returned to Italy in 1944, became a protagonist in the writing of the post-war democratic Constitution and theorized on the “national ways” to socialism and polycentrism; Enrico Berlinguer theorized on the universal value of democracy and the acceptance of many liberal principles for the construction of an idea of “communism in freedom”.

The Communist Italian Party 1927-1935

The "Elements for a Programmatic Declaration" at the origin of the Italian Communist Party reform strategy

Stalinization and the Italian Communist Party

Roots, components and framework. From Bordiga tu Gramsci: a Peculiar Bolshevization 1922-1926. An unwilling Stalinization 1926-1929. "Class against class" and the turn of 1930. From popular Fronts to War: a party under surveillance.

Italian Communists in the 1920s and 1930s between France and Italy, a paper submitted on 23 April, 2014 to the 10th European Social Science History Conference, organized in Vienna by the International Institute of Social History (Amsterdam - The Netherlands), 23 - 26 April, 2014

An emigration as large as the Italian one into France in the aftermath of WWI included a number of communists, who did not necessarily form the rank and file of the Communist Party of Italy, but more often belonged to the French party. They always were a tiny minority of the nine hundred thousands or more Italians dwelling during the thirties both in France and in Tunisia. These emigrants had strong political traditions and a variety of political leanings. But it was the " electoral " turn of the Italian left and the foundation of the Socialist Party in1892, which made often crucial their importance, because they put to good use their literacy and formed the core of the first socialist majorities in a number of Italian constituencies. But in the aftermath of WWI they became for years the socialdemocrat " bêtes noires " of communist propaganda, and even the seventh Congress of Komintern, by stressing once more the difference between " good " left socialists and " bad " socialdemocrats, made little to heal the injuries done by Italian communists since 1921. A more nuanced analysis should be made about Italian trade unions, which had not been abandoned by communist members. So the formally " spontaneous " dissolution of the General confederation of labour by its socialist leaders in 1927 left a new space for communist action among the immigrants. Nor can we forget the links between French and Italian leaders, which turned out to be of some importance in the evolution of many socialist revolutionaries towards fascism. Therefore it is not surprising to find an attachment to inner Italian politics even in remote Italian colonies abroad. A particular case is that of the Communist Party in Tunisia, where the large Jewish Italian group had a leading role up to 1939. Only in the Thirties did the PCd'I of the French metropolitan territory try at a new policy towards Italian immigrants as such. Only partially succesful during the Spanish civil war, it gathered asignificant consensus after 1938 in the Unione popolare italiana. But the international crisis of summer 1939 almost annihilated the Italian communist influence in France as well as in Tunisia.

The Long March of Italian Communists from Revolution to Neoliberalism: A Retrospective Assessment

2010

Abstract: The paper traces back the path that has transformed the Italian Communist Party from its original revolutionary stance into a democratic government party, leading to a radical change in its original political outlook. Its recent dissolution into a new political entity, a great deal antithetic to its original ideological roots, has completed the process. The changing nature of the party was reflected in the very different roles performed in the political and economic life of post-war Italy.

L'appuntamento mancato: La sinistra italiana e il Dissenso nei regimi comunisti (1968–1989)

Cold War History, 2012

The Failure of the Radical Left Project in Italy: The Case of the Refoundation Communist Party (PRC)

Journal of Politics and Law, 2013

In Italy during the last years It's been possible to observe the structuring and then the partial de-structuring of a close bond between the movement for a global justice (and other local movements) and the Refoundation Communist Party (Prc). Since 1999, Prc started to debate some principles of classic Leninism through a critic re-reading of the communist experiences of the XX century and the consequent consciousness of the communist no-self-sufficiency. After this, the leaders of the party could throw out the new strategy of an horizontal link to social movements. The relationship between Prc and social movements seem to go on without particular problems until the participation of Prc to the center-left govern in a moderate coalition. This paper intend to analyse the dynamics of this relationship by using, on one hand, the data from a survey carried out during the last four European Social Forum regarding the attitude of Italian movement activists on their relationship with traditional political institutions; on the other hand, we will analyse the interior debate of the Refoundation Communist Party by using documents published in occasion of the 7 th National Congress with particular regard to the articles published on the party's newspaper "Liberazione" for the tribune of the Congress. All the documents will be analysed with a specific computer program for content analysis.

Socialism and Democracy From Splits to Unification? On the Recent History of the Italian Radical Left

Communism and anti-communism in Italy, 1945-1989

2008

La personalità nazionale (come la personalità individuale) è una mera astrazione se considerata fuori dal nesso internazionale (o sociale). La personalità nazionale esprime un 'distinto' del complesso internazionale, pertanto è legata ai rapporti internazionali" [