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Communist Party (Italy)

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Communist Party
Partito Comunista
SecretaryAlberto Lombardo
PresidentCanzio Visentin
Founded3 July 2009; 15 years ago (2009-07-03)
Split fromParty of Italian Communists
HeadquartersVia Guasti di Santa Cecilia 1/b, Parma[1]
NewspaperLa Riscossa
Youth wingFederation of the Communist Youth[2]
Overseas wingCommunist Party - Abroad Federation
IdeologyCommunism
Marxism–Leninism
Anti-revisionism
Hard Euroscepticism
Sovereigntism
Political positionFar-left
National affiliationSovereign and Popular Italy (2022)
Sovereign Popular Democracy (2023)
International affiliationIMCWP
World Anti-Imperialist Platform[3]
Colours  Red
Chamber of Deputies
0 / 400
Senate
0 / 200
European Parliament
0 / 73
Regional
Councils
0 / 897
Website
ilpartitocomunista.it
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The Communist Party (Partito Comunista, PC) is an anti-revisionist Marxist–Leninist communist party in Italy, founded in 2009. It defines itself as "the revolutionary political vanguard organization of the working class in Italy".[4] It was a founding member of the Initiative of Communist and Workers' Parties (INITIATIVE) and remained as such from 2013 until the association's dissolution.[5]

History

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The party was founded on 3 July 2009 by Marco Rizzo as Communists – Popular Left (Comunisti – Sinistra Popolare). On 21 January 2012 the party changed its name to Communists Popular Left – Communist Party (Comunisti Sinistra Popolare – Partito Comunista). On 17 January 2014 the party finally took the current name.

The PC presented its lists of candidates in some municipalities for the 2016 Italian local elections.[6] At the 2016 Italian constitutional referendum, the PC took the side of "No",[7] considering the constitutional reform as an attempt functionally driven by the interests of investors since it was clearly aimed at easing the anti-popular measures operated by governments.[8]

On 21 January 2017, it was held in Rome the II National Congress in which Rizzo was confirmed as general secretary.[9] On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome on 25 March 2017, the PC organized in Rome a demonstration during the summit of European heads of the states, reaffirming its opposition to the European Union (EU).[10] On 11 November 2017 the party organized a demonstration in Rome on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the October Revolution.[11]

On 26 May 2019 it participated in the European elections, where it won 0.88% of the vote.[12] Exactly one month after the Conte II Cabinet took office, the party organized a protest in Rome involving hundreds of people.[13] On 12 March 2020 the Front of Communist Youth, which had been affiliated with the Communist Party since its founding, split and ceased affiliation.[14]

In November 2021 senator Emanuele Dessì, elected with the Five Star Movement, joined the party, giving it representation in the Italian Parliament.[15]

In the run-up of the 2022 general election the party was a founding member of Sovereign and Popular Italy (ISP).

In January 2023 Rizzo was replaced by Alberto Lombardo as the party's general secretary.[16][17][18][19] In July 2024 Rizzo resigned from honorary president too.[20]

Ideology

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Communist rally in Reggio Emilia

The PC is grounded on Marxism–Leninism. It assumes a political line openly revolutionary, supporting the need for the overthrow of the capitalist system and the transformation of Italy into a socialist country,[4] rejecting both reformist and revisionist theories. The PC stands for the unity of communists in Italy under a solid Marxist–Leninist vision and its watchwords.[21]

The PC refuses the merely electoral political practices that have characterized many communist parties and it considers the participation at the elections just as a mean to spread its ideas and strengthen its entrenchment on local contexts and not at all as the final goal of its political activity.[22]

With regards to the history of the communist movement in Italy, the PC recognizes as leading figures Antonio Gramsci[23] and Pietro Secchia[24] while it takes a highly critical stand on Palmiro Togliatti[25] and Enrico Berlinguer.[26] Unlike other Italian communist organizations, the PC welcomes the historical figure of Joseph Stalin, though rejecting the definition of "stalinism". It considers such a definition politically meaningless since during Stalin's leadership there is no trace of elements of discontinuity or attempts of overcoming the Marxist–Leninist theory. Indeed, the PC reckons the instrumental use of the term Stalinism as a functional anti-communist definition developed following the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.[27]

In celebrating the memory of the liberation war, the PC holds that the ideas inspiring the Italian resistance movement have been widely betrayed by the bourgeois Italian Republic established just after the war although many partisans fought for social renewal and a socialist Italy. The PC underlines that the role of those communist fighters in the partisan armed struggle has been progressively diminished and concealed in contemporary historiography.[28]

The PC affirms that the EU is basically unreformable and therefore sustains the needs for an immediate and unilateral exit from the EU and NATO,[29] distancing likewise with "sovereignistic" positions.[30] The PC claims the historical opposition of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) to the EU, the only Italian party openly against the Treaty of Rome of 1957, sustaining that opposition to the EU will be perceived again as a communist watchword and it is misappropriated by the far-right (the Italian Social Movement voted in favor to the Treaty of Rome).[31] Party leader Marco Rizzo has criticized communist leader Enrico Berlinguer due to, among many things, his support to the European Economic Community.[32]

International relations

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The Communist Party is member of the Initiative of Communist and Workers' Parties, organization of European Marxist–Leninist parties, of which it is a founding member.[5] It used to be the only Italian political force having solid and reciprocal relationships with the Communist Party of Greece (KKE)[33] and the Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (PCPE), though after PCPE's split and the formation of the Communist Party of the Workers of Spain (PCTE), there has been no sign of contact between them.[34] Since 2022, the party has also cut ties from the KKE after a series of ideological differences were presented in an exchange of letters from both parties regarding the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and each party's definition of imperialism.

The PC maintains and develops relations with ruling parties in socialist countries, including the Communist Party of Cuba[35] and the Workers' Party of Korea.[36] It also has relations of solidarity with Bolivarian Venezuela,[37] condemning the imperialists' campaign and the subversive efforts against the country, although remaining critical on socialism of the 21st century since the PC affirms the needs for the final destruction of the bourgeois state-machine and its apparatus in order to actually establish socialism.

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Communist Party results in 2019 European Election by province

Support for the Communist Party is stronger in central Italy in particular in Tuscany and Umbria (part of the "Red Belt"). The party ran in all the constituencies of Italy for the first time in the 2019 European Parliament election. It made its best results in Tuscany (1.68%), in particular in the province of Livorno (2.82%) and in the province of Siena (1.89%), while it was weaker in South Tyrol (0.21%), Trentino (0.49%), and Sicily (0.46%).[38]

Electoral results

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Italian Parliament

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Chamber of Deputies
Election year Votes % Seats +/– Leader
2013 6,977 0.71[a]
0 / 12
 – Marco Rizzo
2018 106,816 0.33
0 / 630
 – Marco Rizzo
Senate of the Republic
Election year Votes % Seats +/– Leader
2013 7,578 0.85[a]
0 / 6
 – Marco Rizzo
2018 101,648 0.33
0 / 315
 – Marco Rizzo
  1. ^ a b In abroad constituencies only.

European Parliament

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Election Leader Votes % Seats +/– EP Group
2019 Marco Rizzo 235,467 (9th) 0.88
0 / 76
 New –
2024 Into DSP
0 / 76
 Steady 0

Regional Councils

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Region Election year Votes % Seats
Marche 2020 8,182 (14th) 1.31%[a]
0 / 31
Tuscany 2020 16,962 (11th) 1.05%
0 / 35
Emilia-Romagna 2020 10,287 (12th) 0.48[b]
0 / 50
Umbria 2019 4,108 (12th) 0.98
0 / 21
  1. ^ As the electoral pact Comunista! with the Italian Communist Party
  2. ^ Excluded from Piacenza, Ferrara and Ravenna constituencies. It got 0.62% of the votes where it ran

Symbols

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  • 2009–2012
    2009–2012
  • 2012–2013
    2012–2013
  • 2013–present
    2013–present

Electoral symbols

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Leadership

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References

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  1. ^ "Declaration of transparency" (PDF).
  2. ^ "Is founded the Youth wing of the Communist Party" from Il Messaggero, 9 april 2021.
  3. ^ "Paris Declaration: The rising tide of global war and the tasks of anti-imperialists". World Anti-Imperialist Platform. 14 October 2022. Retrieved 29 November 2023.
  4. ^ a b ""Statute of the Communist Party approved at the II Congress (2017)"" (PDF).
  5. ^ a b "In Brussels for the Communist International. The initiative of the communist parties and workers of Europe is born". 2 December 2013.
  6. ^ "Marco Rizzo: here is the Mayor candidate of the Communist Party". 21 January 2016.
  7. ^ "Interview with Marco Rizzo on constitutional referendum". 2 December 2016.
  8. ^ "A Communist "NO" to Constitutional Reform".
  9. ^ "Communist Party at Congress. Rizzo confirmed secretary".
  10. ^ "The Communist Party and the Workers in the streets: The EU can not be reformed". Archived from the original on 2017-09-06. Retrieved 2017-10-13.
  11. ^ "Rivoluzione d'Ottobre: 5 mila Comunisti italiani sfilano per le vie di Roma". 11 November 2017. Archived from the original on 23 February 2019. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  12. ^ "Ministerio Dell'Interno". Archived from the original on 26 May 2019. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
  13. ^ Sweeney, Steve (2019-10-06). "Italian communists protest against EU moves to rewrite history". Morning Star. Retrieved 2020-02-07.
  14. ^ "Avanti, Avanti, Giovinezza Rossa". Fronte della Gioventù Comunista (in Italian). Retrieved 2020-04-19.
  15. ^ "Il ritorno dei comunisti in Parlamento (grazie al M5S)". la Repubblica (in Italian). 25 November 2021. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
  16. ^ "Rizzo perde la segreteria del Partito comunista. Scontro con Bonaccini: "Totalitarista"". 24 January 2023.
  17. ^ ""Rizzo non sarà più segretario": Il giallo nel Partito comunista". 23 January 2023.
  18. ^ "Marco Rizzo non è più il segretario del Partito Comunista, che lui stesso aveva fondato nel 2009". 24 January 2023.
  19. ^ "Marco Rizzo non è più segretario del Partito Comunista: «Io epurato dai compagni? Macché»". 24 January 2023.
  20. ^ https://ilpartitocomunista.it/dispositivo-approvato-dal-comitato-centrale-il-6-luglio-2024-in
  21. ^ "Communist Unity. The points of discussion". Archived from the original on 2017-10-02. Retrieved 2017-10-13.
  22. ^ "Building the Communist Party Using 'Elections'". Archived from the original on 2017-10-14. Retrieved 2017-10-13.
  23. ^ "January 22, 1891 - January 22, 2013. In honor of comrade Antonio Gramsci: we will not cede to the illusions". Archived from the original on October 14, 2017. Retrieved October 13, 2017.
  24. ^ "Peter Secchia, another point of view in the PCI". Archived from the original on 2017-10-14. Retrieved 2017-10-13.
  25. ^ "Political document and regulations" (PDF).
  26. ^ ""Berlinguer, a good person but not communist." Article by Marco Rizzo on Unità". Archived from the original on 2020-05-16. Retrieved 2017-10-13.
  27. ^ "Overcoming Anti-Stalinism, Kurt Gossweiler, Presentation in Turin with Marco Rizzo". Archived from the original on 2017-10-13. Retrieved 2017-10-13.
  28. ^ "The Role of Communists in Resistance". 26 April 2015.
  29. ^ "No to the maneuver of war. Out of Italy by NATO, out of NATO from Italy!". Archived from the original on 2017-10-13. Retrieved 2017-10-13.
  30. ^ "Bourgeois Theories Against the Proletariat: From Sovereignty to "Redbrownism"". Archived from the original on 2017-10-13. Retrieved 2017-10-13.
  31. ^ "March 25, The Reasons for the Communist "NO" to the European Union".
  32. ^ Rizzo, Marco (11 November 2015). "Berlinguer, una brava persona ma non comunista". l'Unità (in Italian).
  33. ^ "Dimitris Koutsoumpas - KKE Speech in Rome November 7, 2015". Archived from the original on July 30, 2017. Retrieved October 13, 2017.
  34. ^ "Interview of comrade Marco Rizzo at PCPE Congress, Madrid 10/12 June 2016". Archived from the original on 30 July 2017. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
  35. ^ "PC in Cuba for funerals of Fidel Castro". Archived from the original on 2017-10-14. Retrieved 2017-10-13.
  36. ^ "Communist Party Meeting with the Korean Work Party". Archived from the original on 2017-10-13. Retrieved 2017-10-13.
  37. ^ "Solidarity with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela". Archived from the original on 2017-10-13. Retrieved 2017-10-13.
  38. ^ "2019 European Election".
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