10.03.2005

The opposition

Some of the positions described below are expressions of firmly organised factions within Rifondazione. In particular the supporters of motion 2 operate as a 'party within a party', with their separate meetings, publications etc - a practice bitterly denounced by Bertinotti at one point. In order to put forward a motion, 500 signatures from party members are needed. There were a few smaller trends who could not get enough supporters together. According to Socialist Worker, the SWP's small sister organisation, Comunismo dal Basso, supported motion 4 of the Erre faction, but none of their comrades seem to have been able to get elected as delegates (or manage to put up a stall).

Motion 2 - 26%: 'Ernesto' faction around Claudio Grassi It opposes Rifondazione's condemnation of some Iraqi groups as "terrorists" and demands undifferentiated support for 'the resistance'. It also calls for uncritical "support for Cuba" and has only the nicest of words for Brazil's president Lula ("despite some criticisable choices in economic policy"). Most importantly, it offers no clear alternative to Bertinotti's turn to the Olive Tree, arguing instead for conditional support to a Romano Prodi coalition. It is also the only organised trend within the party that speaks out clearly against Rifondazione's abject turn to pacifism. This faction has most to lose from the changes to the party's structures, as its comrades have been represented on most of the leading bodies (at the 2001 congress, they supported Bertinotti's faction). No surprise, then, that they are also the most outspoken when it comes to criticising the attempt to sideline the opposition. Valentina Steri, PRC councillor in Rome, told the Weekly Worker: "The debate before congress has been extremely undemocratic. Before the unexplained influx of at least 12,000 new members (most of whom we have never seen locally) both motions 1 and 2 had roughly 40-45% support. Bertinotti was not sure to win at all. Not once has the proposal for the government turn been brought up on the national committee, our most democratic body. "All of a sudden, things have changed dramatically. Now Bertinotti has a 'winner takes all' attitude. He wants the entire opposition out of the main leadership bodies. We asked Bertinotti to include some of our criticisms in his motion, so that we can be united again - but he would not have any of it. There is a real problem in the party now: a clear majority of the real activists support either motion 2 or the other opposition positions - but the leadership is going in a totally different direction. This will do real damage to the party and its democracy." Motion 3 - 6.5%: Ferrando faction around the newspaper Proposta Comunista (Communist Proposal) With only around 900 members voting for the comrades' motion, they have clearly lost support: in 2001, 11% of the membership voted for their document, which expressed the main opposition to Bertinotti's turn to the social movements. The faction encompasses a number of small groups - which might explain a certain lack of clarity. They were strong opponents of the party's support for Romano Prodi's government from 1996-1998, but have also been critical of the turn to the 'movements'. Much of their propaganda revolves around demands for 'general strike' and 'mass action'. But, disarmed by economism, they can only make formally correct yet stilted, abstract criticisms of Bertinotti's relationship with the centre-left, his ambiguous orientation to the social movements and his centrism. Ironically, Bertinotti has a surer grasp of the centrality of politics - even if his method is right opportunist. Motion 4 - 6.5%: 'Erre' faction of the Fourth International Previously called Bandiera Rossa, this faction contains Salvatore Cannavà², deputy editor of Rifondazione's newspaper Liberazione. Just like Luciano Muhlbauer, he has previously been a prominent representative of Rifond-azione in the European Social Forum - but has been somewhat sidelined since the party's turn to the Olive Tree. Salvatore Cannavà² told the Weekly Worker: "It is not possible to build a viable alternative to reformism by linking ourselves - in a supportive role - to that reformism. The danger is that Rifondazione will become a new social democratic organisation - a left version, but nevertheless something that is not communist any more. "The reformists cannot absorb the social movements. But at the same time, the movements need a political expression. If Rifondazione moves to the right, this will politically disenfranchise the radical section of society that is in revolt against capitalism. That is the real question before this conference." These comrades were keen supporters of Bertinotti at the 2001 congress, where they did not put forward a separate factional paper (and were rewarded with a position on the national secretariat). They are pretty much stuck in this tactic: while they accuse the Bertinotti faction of "betraying the movements" with the new turn, they criticise most of the other opposition forces for "never having thrown themselves into the social forums and the movements". Motion 5 -1.6%: Grantites around the newspaper Falce Martello (Hammer and Sickle) This small organisation around Claudio Bellotti is connected to the Socialist Appeal group of Ted Grant and Alan Woods in Britain. Claudio Bellotti told the Weekly Worker: "This alliance represents a deadly danger for our party and more generally for the workers' movement. It is an alliance that will be dominated and led by open representatives of the ruling class. Prodi was the president of the European Commission until three years ago. His policies are completely aligned with the demands and needs of big business and capital. They will be forced to comply with the rules dictated by American imperialism. "Bertinotti is trying to give a theoretical grounding to this turn to the right. The main point of this is that the working class, its movements and the communists should not aim at taking power. This is meant to be no longer viable. Instead, he is proposing something that is a mixture of the classical reformist approach - he has spoken approvingly at this congress of Keynesian policies, for example - and elements of pre-Marxian socialism. That is, changing society outside of politics via cooperatives, etc. This is, of course, totally utopian - no real challenge to the system at all."