Lotta Comunista
Lotta Comunista | |
|---|---|
| Founded | December 1965 |
| Headquarters | Genoa |
| Newspaper | Lotta Comunista (Italian), L'Internationaliste (French), Бюллетень "Интернационалист" (Russian), Bulletin (German), Internationalist Bulletin (English), El Internacionalismo (Spanish) |
| Ideology | Left Communism, Marxism, Leninism |
| Political position | Extra-parliamentary left, Extraparliamentary Communist party |
| International affiliation | "Lotta Comunista" |
| Website | |
| http://edizionilottacomunista.com/ | |
Lotta Comunista is a political party born in Italy that does not recognize parliamentary dynamics for the party's strategy in the current historical period, and thus describes itself as unparliamentary. It is a revolutionary and internationalist party founded by Arrigo Cervetto and Lorenzo Parodi in 1965 and inspired by the theory and practice of Marx, Engels and Lenin.
History
The origins of this organization go back to the 1950s, by some former partisans of GAAP (Anarchist Groups of Proletarian Action) who supported the FCL (Libertarian Communist Federation) and who were subsequently expelled from FAI (Italian Anarchist Federation) because of they became Leninists, subsequently they joined the group called Azione Comunista that was expelled from the PCI as a result of the position taken in favor of the 1956 Hungarian insurgents, harshly repressed by Soviet tanks. Stalinism was defined as the reactionary policy of the counterrevolution after the death of Lenin. The group also protested against the positions of the Italian Communist Party, considered dependent on the CPSU and dominated by the foreign policy of the USSR, and it was also considered in collusion with the Italian capitalism, this situation would have strengthened the geopolitical structure that was emerging and so that would have prevented emergence and development of Marxist and internationalist forces.
Political Practice
In 1965, after a phase of theoretical clarification within the group, it assumed the name of Lotta Comunista that continued the line of abstention strategy, contrary to the participation of the party in the elections and to what is defined as "bourgeois parliamentary democracy."
Unlike other extra-parliamentary groups, Lotta Comunista has never implemented or supported forms of armed struggle, even during the 1960s and 1970s, although the party thinks that a revolution cannot take place if an ideology is not well-established locally, nationally and internationally (otherwise the revolution will degenerate into state capitalism like Stalinism or a social democracy), so they are devoted only to peaceful propaganda of Marxist ideas, waiting for an event of global reach, like a world war to start a revolution.
The goal of the party is to take root at the organizational level in neighborhoods, factories and universities of some European countries to ensure that a significant proportion of the European working class, in the near future, can be found in the Leninist party a reference and a guide to face the gigantic upheavals that capitalism, according to the Lotta Comunista's thesis, is leading worldwide. Capitalism, according to Lotta Comunista's thesis taken directly from Marx, is in fact unable to maintain a world order. According to these claims, the capitalist system of production throws cyclically world society in a situation of chaos, it creates armed conflict to redefine the market, but, in turn, the general crisis of capitalism gives communists the opportunity to exploit the wars generated by capitalism to promote the proletarian revolution. On this aspect, the thesis of Lotta Comunista refer to the teachings of Lenin exposed in his April Theses.
The State Capitalism in East Europe, in Asia, and in other places
One of the fundamental points of the Lotta Comunista's policy is the so-called "correct and consistent application of Marxism".
Lotta Comunista has always rejected the idea that the Soviet Union, in its satellite countries and Asia had achieved a form of communism or socialism, they think instead that the Soviet Union, after Lenin's death, had taken shape a true aristocracy of bureaucrats constituting a form of capitalism directed and controlled by the ruling political class: state capitalism.
Stalin also betrayed the revolution not only by highlighting his personal power, but also theorizing the possibility of development of a communist system in a single country in a world dominated by capitalist powers (the theory of socialism in one country), contrary to what was said by Lenin and marxists in general. Historiography indicates in Lenin the source of this internationalist concept. It's true that the definition coined by Stalin to the Congress of the CPSU in 1923, happened at a time that Lenin was greatly weakened by disease and unable to communicate, then the version of a paternity Stalinist historiography remains the most reliable. The featuring characteristic of state capitalism created by Stalin, over the savagery in the repression and espionage (particularly against the Bolsheviks critics of Stalinist policy), was the autarchic closure that Stalin justified by theorizing an imaginary division of the world market in two blocks. Guido Barbera, (one of the current leaders of Lotta Comunista) said that Stalinism overcame an inherent weakness and chronic capital investing in war heavy industry and not in developing economic and social infrastructure.
Commemoration of the October Revolution and the 1st May
On 7 November of each year, Lotta Comunista celebrates the anniversary of the October Revolution. On 1 May, defined by Lotta Comunista not as "Labor Day" but as a day of international struggle of workers, Lotta Comunista celebrates the "First May Internationalist" (Primo Maggio Internazionalista) with demonstrations (in Genoa, Milan, Turin and Brescia) and initiatives in the cities where it is present as an organized political party.
Localization
The headquarters of Lotta Comunista are historically located in Genoa but the party operates in more industrial and university realities (the circles of Milan, Turin and Rome are still very active) and it also opened several offices abroad, particularly in France, Russia, Spain (recently) and Greece and Brazil. Purpose of Lotta Comunista is indeed to entrench a Leninist party in some key areas of the European metropolis, as the Italian industrial triangle and the Ile de France in Paris. Lotta Comunista publishes and disseminates the namesake monthly, founded in 1965, completely self-financed. Editions Lotta Comunista, in different necklaces collect, propose and reproduce material produced since 1950 in Italian, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Russian and Greek languages.
The organization is among the most strongest extra-parliamentary formations in Italy, with about 40,000 copies sold each month, house by house, by its activists. Currently main circles are those of Genoa, Milan, Pavia, Turin, Paris, Nice, Rome, Parma, Savona, Brescia, Bergamo, Padua, Verona, Bologna, Florence, Pisa, Naples, Udine, St. Petersburg, Athens, Rio de Janeiro, Bari, Brindisi, Lecce and recently Valencia, they perform in nearby towns also.
Editions Marxist Science
Lotta Comunista has another publisher, Science Marxist, with whom he published his books in several European languages: French, Greek, English, Russian, Portuguese, German and Spanish.
Editions Pantarei
Lotta Comunista publishes Italian texts addressed to the deepening and the history of the labor movement, but also republication of texts of prestige as the "History of the Italian Communist Party" by Giorgio Galli.
Institute of Studies on Capitalism
In Genoa Lotta Comunista he has created the '"Institute for the Study of Capitalism", with a large library and documentary activity that is reflected in several publications of the "Edizioni Panta Rei".
Sergio Motosi Institute
In honor of the militant Sergio Motosi, who died in 2002, Lotta Comunista founded in 2005, in Genoa, the "Sergio Motosi Institute for the Study of International Workers' Movement" with its goal as the deepening of the studies concerning the history of the labor movement in the world.
NGO Center for International Studies "Noviy Prometey"
Lotta Comunista has created an NGO in Russia: the Centre for International Studies "Noviy Prometey", which deals with the publication and dissemination of the "Bulletin Internationalist" and the books of the group translated into Russian. It also deals with courses on Marxism as it is already in Italy and France.
See also
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