21.11.2002

Which way for PRC?

Rifondazione Comunista worked very hard to give the impression that it was not leading the European Social Forum. Unsurprisingly, the comrades did not succeed. In the lead-up to the ESF the comrades argued in defence of the decision of the World Social Forum not to allow any political parties to participate in the regional forums. Only on the surface is this a contradiction. Rifondazione's turn to what they call the 'anti-global movement' has led the comrades to a semi-liquidationist concept of party organisation. Alfio Nicotra, for example, a leading member of Rifondazione, stated in one of the preparatory meetings that "any political party that is integral to the movement has no interest in promoting itself - only the movement" (Weekly Worker November 5). After heated discussions between the PRC and most of the other European political parties, a compromise was reached and parties were at least allowed to organise workshops. However, the comrades from Rifondazione stuck to the original WSF orders and did not organise any. Like all other parties, they could not send any official PRC speaker to any of the hundreds of conferences and seminars. But just like the Workers Party in Brazil, the main organiser behind the World Social Forum, Rifondazione had of course no problem in getting its message across. Members of the organisation were everywhere. Its paper Liberazione claimed the PRC had some 5,000 delegates. They were not only instrumental in helping to organise the event: they also took an active part in the many meetings. It was encouraging to see how open and interested many of those Rifondazione members were. They came up to our stall, bought our literature, invited us to their meetings and were generally very interested in finding out about us and the Socialist Alliance. We established organised relations with dozens of people, some of whom are organised in the semi-official fractions of the PRC. The huge anti-war demonstration on November 10 received extensive coverage on TV and the media in general. Even without any knowledge of Italian, one could not miss the frequent references to Rifondazione, comunista, Bertinotti and the sea of red flags with the hammer and sickle. Journalists were lining up to interview leading members of the party. Rifondazione's only official presence was at a huge stall on the first floor of the Padiglione Centrale hall, where organisations had paid â¬200 for the privilege. While our own CPGB stall, situated right next to RC's, enjoyed a steady flow of people, RC's was constantly thronged with dozens of browsers. It was a shame that the party went along with the WSF line. With 100,000 card-carrying members, Rifondazione is not only one of the biggest left organisations in Europe; politically it is the most influential. It has been at the forefront of the millions-strong demonstrations against Berlusconi and the impending war against Iraq. It has a base among the Italian working class and has re-established roots - still shallow, of course, compared to the days when the 'official communist' party had over a million members and commanded 30%-plus of the popular vote. No wonder then that the controversial meeting on 'The movement and political parties' was swamped by at least 6,000 people. This was the only meeting during the ESF where political parties were invited to speak from the platform. When Fausto Bertinotti, general secretary of Rifondazione, took the microphone, the hall exploded. Hundreds joined in the communist song Bandera rossa and RC flags were waved from side to side. It took about five minutes for things to calm down. In his speech, comrade Bertinotti displayed an ambivalent position towards party organisation: "I have been a member of Rifondazione since the beginning and I am not ashamed of anything," he said, presumably including the period when PRC supported the social democratic Olive Tree coalition. He quickly went on to talk about Rifondazione's turn to 'the movement': "High politics can only come from the streets. We have to be with the movement, in the movement, without attempting to dominate it." If that is really Rifondazione's outlook, there surely remains the question of what exactly the purpose is of his or any other party. Has PRC taken its turn to the anti-capitalist movement too far? We are told that there are sharp debates inside Rifondazione as to how the organisation should position itself in this period of re-emerging class consciousness. At the moment, the comrades who advocate semi-liquidation into the movement seem to form the majority. But nothing is set in stone. A number of current developments could change Rifondazione's outlook over the course of the next few months. For example, the relatively well organised left section of the Italian Democratic Left (DS) is apparently discussing a breakaway. There are suggestions that it could come over as a block to Rifondazione. Such a big influx - from an admittedly social democratised ex-'official communist' party - might strengthen those who argue for the party to operate more openly as a hegemonic working class force. Secondly, a sharp increase in the tempo of the political and general workers' struggles could lead the PRC to put less emphasis on the amorphous 'no global' movement. * Glimpse of what is possible * Symbols * Call of the European social movements * Towards a European party * Bitter taste of SWP arrogance sours day