Communism in Italy
By E. W. ASHCROFI'
AT the end of last month two Deputies from the Italian Chamber resigned from the Communist Party. Their example has been followed not only by some intellectuals but by a number of active, working-class Communists from Emilia —the province which elected these two Deputies—and by some partisan leaders, first from Emilia and later from Tuscany. There have, naturally, been many dissensions during the past three years in the two-million-strong Communist Party led by Signor Togliatti, but none of outstanding importance. Small groups of Trotskyites and other " deviationists" manage to live noisy and much publicised existences in Rome, Milan or Naples. The importance of this new dissidence lies in the character of the two Deputies, and in the facts that it has taken place in Emilia, the stronghold of Communism in Italy, and that it is not one of the expected " deviations " ; it is neither Trotskyist nor Titoist.
Both the Deputies, Signors Cucchi and Magnani, were partisan leaders, and young, popular, serious Communists. Cucchi had won the highest military decoration as a partisan. Magnani had been the Secretary-General of the Communist Party in Emilia, and under his leadership the party in that province had reached a membership of 67,000. Moreover, in Emilia Communism is deeply ingrained. It does not appeal merely to the dispossessed, being strongest among the prosperous peasants around Bologna, the provincial capital. It is a " tough " province, and it had one of the strongest anti-Fascist movements in all Italy.
The dissident Deputies' first declaration, in which they referred to the need to defend Italian soil against agression from any quarter, led people to think that this marked the appearance of the long- expected Titoist " deviation "—the attempt to create a revolutionary Marxist party not under the orders of the Cominform. But a later statement makes it quite clear that this is not the case. Magnani, who fought during the war with the Garibaldi brigade under Marshal Tito's orders, said that he has little sympathy for Yugoslav Communism. The following passage in the Deputies' declaration explains why: " Yugoslavia and indeed nearly all Russia's European satelli:es are socially primitive countries, whose Slav populations have never known real democracy at any time. In such countries it is possible that some new form of dictatorship—whether Stalinist, Titoist or of some other kind—is inevitable now. But there is no comparison between such countries and the highly developed, socially advanced and deeply civilised peoples of Western Europe."
Although Cucchi and Magnani sound sincere in their conversion to a belief in the value of democracy, it would be too much to expect a new wave of sympathy for democracy to become a general phenomenon among Communist Party members. The fairly obvious view is that the dissidents have revolted against being used by Stalin in a way they consider certain to ruin Italy. It may be admitted that all Communists, lately, have been obliged to realise that the time will come when they will have to take violent action against the Government of their own country. It may be admitted, too, tnat au serious Communists have always accepted such a necessity. But most serious and responsible Communists in Western Europe had expected that, when the moment came for insurrection, they would have the support of large sections of the population outside the Communist Party. This in Western Europe is clearly not going to be the case today. The only result of violent action by the Communists against the- Italian Government would be to bring certain ruin on their native country for the benefit of Moscow.
There is other evidence to support the view that Italian Corn- munists have been affected by this consideration. During the past few months, for example, the Italian police have been able to make some surprisingly large discoveries of Communist arms. Ever sine() the serious agrarian riots of 1949 the efficient police force of Signor Scelba, the Minister of the Interior, has been searching for Communist arms-dumps. They had little success—only small tind.. But a month ago a very large arms cache, sufficient, it has beep said, to equip a division, was found in central Italy, and, a few days ago, another surprisingly large find was made in Genoa. Thp Genoa dump inct(ded an anti-aircraft gun, thirty-three heavy machine-guns, hundreds of automatic rifles, thousands of hand- grenades and several tons of ammunition. The correspondent of the Manchester Guardian mentioned the rumour that ail ex-partisan had informed the police about this arms-dump, on the ground that "Communist foreign policy for Italy had become treasonable." The number of discoveries of arms made by the Italian police during the past few months cannot be fortuitous.
If the dissident movement spreads widely among the workers and peasants of Northern Italy, the Communist Party will undoubtedly have suffered a most serious blow. But the effects op the Italian political situation of this dissidence may not be altogether good. Italian ex-Communists, who rally to a movement which is hostile to Soviet methods, are also asked to stand against thp Atlantic Pact and the part which Italy is to play in the defence of Europe. In fact, whether or not the movement coalesces, for common action, with the Socialist groups of Silone or of Romita, it will go to swell the strength of " neutralist " opinion. Dissident Communists will find themselves, on a vital issue, acting with the Neo-Fascists and with certain Right-wing circles in Italy—much stronger than their electoral support makes them appear—who are discreetly anti-American, violently anti-British, and believe that Italy can contract out of the Atlantic Treaty. The rumour that when Togliatti and Thorez return from Moscow to their native countries they will bring with them offers of a Russian guarantee to respect Italian and French neutrality in the event of war has been put about not only by Communists. It would indeed be a curious irony if the effect of a strong dissident Communist movement were to be to strengthen " neutralist " opinion in Italy and so play the Russian game after all.
Therq are people who suppose, too, that the future policy of the Communist Parties in Western Europe—a policy presumably being decided in Moscow with Thorez and Togliatti—will be to put aggressive Communist action into cold storage and to endeavour, discreetly, to build up the political strength of the various non- Communist groups in Western Europe opposed to rearmament and the Atlantic Pact. Perhaps it was a lively perception of Moscow's future policy that led a prominent figure in the "Catholic Action" group to warn Italian public opinion that the new dissident move- ment might prove to be something of a Communist Trojan Horse. However, it would be wrong to concentrate too much on the potentially dangerous effects of this movement, to the exclusion Of the obviously good results. It is certain that the Italian Communist Party is at last going through a severe test which may affect the hard core of the party. Further, this is occurring after the notable failure of the party in its much advertised campaign to preveht the unloading of American arms-ships. The party has admitted heavy losses in membership in Turin, Milan and other northern cities, and all Communist-dominated trade unions in Italy haie tended to lose membership and vitality. The gains made by the party in southern Italy during 1949 have been largely nullified now that the Government has at last begun to put into action sortie measures of land-distribution.
The test comes at a time, too, when De Gasperi's Coalition Government appears as firmly in the saddle as ever, and when Italian industrial unemployment has fallen from two million totally unemployed to some one million four hundred thousand. Demo- cratic government in Italy, though based on a large Catholic Party, which is far from homogeneous and which works (sometimes uneasily) with small non-Catholic progressive groups and indi- viduals, rides the storm with remarkable ability, with its centre of gravity just "left of centre." It is winning increasing support from the Italian people as a whole at this critical time.
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