The Italian Left

Abstract

It is often said at the present time that the Italian Left is in a state of crisis. This is a fair enough assessment, provided it is not meant in a purely negative sense. The crisis is one of moving out of one stage into another; it is a phase which lays bare many of the left's weaknesses, but it also contains dynamic potential for recovery. To make the present situation clearer, it may be useful to recall some salient aspects of the Left's recent history. The Italian working class movement is undoubtedly the one in Western Europe which has best resisted integration into capitalist society. When the First World War broke out, the P.S.I. (Italian Socialist Party) was the only Socialist Party in the West which took up a position against it, and when the war was over, it refused to join the Social-Democratic International. It was only when the party was in enforced exile during the Fascist period-and was therefore a party of emigres - that it joined the International, in which it held a left-wing position; at that time it was one of the leading parties to establish joint action with the Communists against Fascism. At the end of the Second World War, Italy had a strong Communist Party, which was in alliance with the P.S.I. The P.S.I. took part in reconstituting the International, but then left it immediately in order not to have to break its alliance with the Communists and accept the pro-American Cold War positions then being imposed upon it by Bevin, Spaak, Mollet, etc.