Today, 21 January, marks the 100th anniversary since the foundation of the Communist Party of Italy in 1921, following a split in the Italian Socialist Party (PSI). The Party was founded in Livorno in 21 January 1921, headed by Antonio Gramsci, Palmiro Togliatti and Amadeo Bordiga.
In a turbulent course of 70 years until the final dissolution in 1991, the Communist Party of Italy, renamed as Italian Communist Party in 1940s, left an indelible mark in the country's history. A member of the Communist International until 1943, it became the largest Communist Party in the western world with almost 2.3 million members in 1947.
In a turbulent course of 70 years until the final dissolution in 1991, the Communist Party of Italy, renamed as Italian Communist Party in 1940s, left an indelible mark in the country's history. A member of the Communist International until 1943, it became the largest Communist Party in the western world with almost 2.3 million members in 1947.
The opportunist current of Eurocommunism and the cultivation of illusions about the “democratic road to socialism” in the 1970s, particularly under the leadership of Enrico Berlinguer, led to its ideological and political decline and, subsequently, to its annihilation.
Attending an event about the Party's founding anniversary, earlier today in Livorno, the General Secretary of the Communist Party, Italy (Partito Comunista), Marco Rizzo said:
Despite the strict measures due to the pandemic, many people arrived at Livorno's San Marco Theater in order to celebrate the centenary of the Communist Party.“The PCI changed the fate of our country, fighting underground against fascism, then in the war, being great in the Resistance. Unfortunately, for 40 years that story has been betrayed and abandoned by the Left which “winks” at the banks. Today, the Left no longer represents those values and for this reason we are communists and not (members) of the Left which maintains itself in the government with the votes of Mastella and Polverini and has nothing to do with our history. If Gramsci could see how politics have been reduced in Italy, he would turn in his grave”.
