ABSTRACT: Here we reprint the article by Marco Pannella published in 1959 in "Paese Sera", to which Palmiro Togliatti (erstwhile secretary of the Italian Communist Party) will later reply, on the subject of a possible alternative government on which Socialists, Radicals and Republicans are working together. It is the serious business of the democratic left, says Pannella, to propose the co-responsibility of the Italian Communist Party in the working out of a program without asking them for this reason to break their international alliances or solemnly abjure their dogmas. It would, however, be necessary for the Communists to show a more spontaneous and clear interest in a democratic alternative government, thus stopping to propose stupefying political initiatives which they would not be able to actuate even on their own, or to follow, as does the honourable Mr. Amendola,

a policy of compromise with monarchists and reactionaries against Actionists, Socialists and Republicans.

(Notizie Radicali, no.5 of March 11, 1988)

It is the situation in Europe that dramatically raises the question of whether or not an alliance is possible between the democratic left and the Communists for the defence and the development of democracy. Anyone who, like me, feels like making an affirmative reply, has the duty of not ignoring the difficulties and risks of this policy but of declaring them in order to surmount them.

For decades by now, there have been few battles harder and more continuous than the ones fought by democrats and Communists; they were not and they are not tactical differences.

Ask the Anarchists and the Spanish Republicans about it, and you will understand, among other things, the otherwise incomprehensible adventure of the anti-fascist Pacciardi and the Anarchists of Carrara who sent him to Parliament. Ask the Socialists of half of Europe about it, among them the honourable Mr. Saragat, and you will rightly hear recollections of Benes, of Masaric, of Nagy, of the physical elimination of the Socialist leaders of Eastern Europe. Ask the transalpine Socialists and they will remind you of the attitude of the French Communists in '39. Ask the Poles, the Socialists of Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Finland and even the Yugoslavian Communists. These memories are still vivid in the minds of anti-fascists and are to be respected irrespective of the degree of renunciation that has overtaken some of the groups and individuals of the democratic left. The Communists must understand this, and understand it deeply, when, as they are doing today, they ask the democratic groups for a true alliance

and not merely for broad solidarity.

There is no lack of clarity in the Italian situation. The Socialists, Radicals and Republicans, who were prisoners or distinct enemies of the PCI (Italian Communist Party) until quite recently, now announce the closing of ranks - with the blessing of the hon. Mr. Vecchietti - and the outline of a program for an alternative government to that of the Christian Democrats (DC). They do not intend to exclude, they cannot exclude, the Catholics of the democratic reform; but they assume the responsibility for action against the present DC leadership. The job of the democratic left is to propose, without hypocrisy and without fear, the co-responsibility of the PCI in this task, in full awareness of the irreducibility of its autonomy as well as its right to propose itself as a candidate for power. If a new majority is needed in the country and in Parliament in order to construct a modern and democratic state in Italy - at least to the degree that is foreseen in the Constitution - why should investigate, among other t

hings, the possibility of united action by the democratic left and a part of the Catholics and Communists?

Ten years have not gone by in vain. The international situation is different if not always serious. But most of all the Italian situation is different. At that time a great part of lay culture seemed to be divided between the leaning towards the academic and the rush towards positions supporting the PCI. Socialism seemed destined to play a subordinate role. Even labour unions were mobilised for the cold war. The Partito d'Azione (Action Party) had disappeared. The generation of young intellectuals was still involved in presenting a united front. Only the PCI seemed to be a real alternative to the regime, carried along on the wave of the violent installation of "popular democracies". Even if nothing seems changed today in Italian communism

therefore, it would be infantile not to take into consideration the different historical context in which it is being called on to function.

But how does one manage to formulate a proposal, how does one get around the objections, the fears, the memories and the confusion that has accumulated even in those who, like us, the judgements ripen which we want to express? Let us state at once that we reject the call for "guarantees" and "clarifications" from the PCI which are artificial and anti-historical, just as we disagree with those among the democratic left who want a rupture between the CGIL (Communist labour union) and the "united front" administrators. On the other hand, we know what a total waste of time it would be to ask the Communist Party to break beforehand its international alliances or to accept the Common Market or to solemnly abjure its dogmas. But we can immediately state that if the speech of the hon. Mr. Amendola had taken into consideration the Pajetta report at the last congress of the PCI and had made his position the basis of any eventual encounter between us and the Communists, we would have been seriously discouraged in adva

nce. The hon. Mr. Amendola, in fact, proposed to his party an alliance, basing his proposal on the position the Communists took between '43 and '46 with regard to the Church and the Monarchy. That is to say: a compromise with the monarchists and reactionaries against the Actionists, Socialists and Republicans; a compromise with the clergy on the Concordat (Vatican Pact) against all the leftists and the Liberals. Quite frankly, it seems incredible to us that a PCI official should propose to form an alliance, not only with the hon. Mr. Milazzo, but with Italian democrats, supported by such a scrap-heap of a structure. The value of any alliance (rather than just tactics) between the democratic left and the PCI must contain quite a different conscience and quite different operations.

In order to strengthen us, however much or little, in the convictions that we are expressing here, it would be sufficient at the moment for the Communists to indicate a more spontaneous and clear interest in an alternative democratic government, thereby ceasing to propose stupefying policies that they would never even be able to put through on their own. They know what sacrifices a people must make in order to insure a better future: where they are in power they have sometimes demanded inhuman ones. And the Italian situation fortunately does not demand anything like those. Not even the best of governments cannot do other than gradually realize reforms, do other than sacrifice even vast interests, cannot do without "long-term programs". It is necessary to say so now, at the start; to delude no one; not to confuse

the will to create a democratic state, which is a political problem, with disdain for injustice and suffering, which is moral protest. From the start whoever votes for a democratic alternative must know what it can promise and guarantee to itself and to the entire country. The democratic left, and the Radicals in particular, are making this effort. The recent Pajetta report and the final resolution of the Communist Party Congress do not show the same awareness.

Furthermore the PCI seems us to be resting on a dangerous fatalism (if they are not calculating) in its way of looking on the European situation in the context of which it cannot be denied that Italy's economic structures, cultural climate and social realities move. It is to say the least a negative attitude towards the European democratic movements, workers and proletarians, to believe that the big monopolies and reactionary interests by now control ineluctably the European economy and thus the politics of the various nations. Here again appears the major error that the Communists must make strong efforts to overcome: from the British Labourites to the French Unionists,

including the Catholic and Socialist elements, to German Social Democrats, the democratic potential exists. These are the groups with whom the PCI must hold dialogue, not the emaciated Belgian, Dutch, Scandinavian or English Communist groups who do not have real democratic positions or popular support in their respective countries.

Here then are two immediately useful elements for a useful beginning and to be seriously considered that I think can be proposed for a start. It is in any case urgent to begin to discuss a common policy between democrats and Communists. No convergence, no solution is ever to be summarily dismissed in history and in politics: the logic of things in themselves is not creative; it must be animated, supported and directed by the logic of men.

(By Marco Pannella in Paese Sera, March 22, 1959)