25.07.2001

Victory and defeat

Guiseppe de Cristofaro is secretary of the Young Communists, the youth section of Rifondazione Comunista. He spoke to Tina Becker about the protests in Genoa and the future of the European working class

What did you think of the protests?

It was a defeat and it was a victory. It was a defeat, because one comrade was killed. Carlo is not the victim of the anti-capitalist movement, as the media and the right have claimed. Carlo?s name has to be added to the long list of victims that global capitalism claims every day. It was a defeat, because we were not able to control the black bloc. But it was also a victory, because we had 300,000 people on the streets fighting for justice and a better world.

Do you think the black bloc could be integrated into the protests?

Never. They have no politics, they are not interested in democratic organisation and they are full of police infiltrators. They are a danger to our movement. One thousand of them destroyed our demonstration of 300,000 people. They justified Berlusconi sending 50,000 policemen against us. The anarchists are happy to fight against our movement, just like the police.

How do you see the future of the anti-capitalist protests?

It all could go terribly wrong. It very much depends how revolutionaries can influence the movement. The pluralism of the movement is a good thing, but is strongly influenced by Labourite and economistic groups. We have to make clear that we are not only fighting against the G8 or against the World Bank, but we are fighting for communist politics. We have to take the ideas of the movement and develop them further.

Capitalism organises on a worldwide level. Shouldn?t the working class do the same?

Globalisation does not only have bad side effects. It actually helps to bring the people together. Look how many different nationalities were here over the weekend: Spanish, Italian, Greek, German, British and so on. This is a good thing. Rifondazione is very much in favour of building international unity on the left to fight the neo-liberalism of big capitalism.

How is Rifondazione fighting for this international unity?

Not very actively at the moment, although we hope that the anti-capitalist movement can further this cause. But we are very involved in trying to regroup and unite the Italian left into one organisation. There is a big conference in a few weeks time where a number of Italian organisations come together to discuss the foundation of a new party - a bit like your Socialist Alliance. We?re not sure if it will be revolutionary or reformist and everything is still a little up in the air. But one thing is clear: we can only win if we are united.