Italian Communists Move Beyond Communism
Il Manifesto
Fausto Bertinotti, Secretary of the Italian Communist Refoundation Party (PRC), talks to Valentino Parlato, founding editor of the Communist daily Il Manifesto, about the challenges facing the next center-left government, the challenges to Marxist orthodoxy posed by the powerful rise of democratic mass movements, and the development of the Party of the European Left, a project which Bertinotti is leading in Italy. (Translated by Vittorio Longhi)
These days much has been said and written about Fausto Bertinotti, the political shifts he has taken, and his innovative and even daring approach to the problems faced by the Italian and European left. One afternoon recently, the editor-in-chief of Il Manifesto, Gabriele Polo, political editor Cosimo Rossi, and I went to talk with him. The result was a useful and thought-provoking conversation, full of interesting digressions.
Q: Let's try to divide our discussion in two parts. The first is about what we read in the newspapers: the idea of the individual replacing the concept of class, and bidding farewell to Communist symbols such as the "hammer and sickle," i.e. what we call "the shift," or a paradigm shift. Another question is what will happen after the vote: it looks like we will win these elections, but how will the Rifondazione deal with the centre-left government?
FB: Regarding the first aspect, the big shift, the corporate media tend to be misleading about this. It may be right to term it the completion of a political phase, which, as part of the movement of the European left, is a major shift. However, in terms of political culture as a whole, it does not constitute a major shift. On this plane, we are still awaiting the radical break with capitalism that is needed for such a shift to occur. Also, since this idea is a politically subjective one, there is a certain rashness in promulgating it. I view the “shift” as part of the process involved in founding the Italian wing of the Party of the European Left. In terms of political culture, the shift can be seen in terms of the development of certain points of discontinuity. The inspiration is always the same: extracting from the tough core of the anti-capitalist critique a basis on which to rebuild a political culture and theory of transformation, i.e. the overcoming of capitalism. Therefore, our first task is to make a complete break with Stalinism.Why is this break necessary? Because it is a definite encumbrance to the process of transformation.
