Date: Sun, 09 Feb 2003 19:23:38 +1100
From: Steve Wright <pmargin-AT-froggy.com.au>
Subject: AUT: Re: Rifondazione




Scott Hamilton wrote:

> You quote very selectively from the article Steve. I
> don't have a great problem with language like that,
> though I tend to avoid it, so long as there is
> substance to go with it. And I think there is a good
> deal of substance in the article: I found the alleged
> parallels with anti-Nam war protests interesting, for
> instance. In the same way, there is a lot of
> interesting information in the other articles - about
> the political scene in South Korea, for instance.

I quoted the slogans that opened (or is that OPENED?) the text, along
with the first paragraph; the URL is there for those who want to see
whether the rest of the article is any different.

>
>
> Leaving this aside, I wonder what you think of the
> Refounded Communist Party in Italy, which you quoted
> the Sparts ripping into. On the surface, it seems to
> be quite an 'old-style' party, though I notice that it
> avoids some of the worst features of the old Stalinist
> CPs, at least on the surface (there appears not to be
> a ban on factions, for instance). Is there a sense in
> which any major successes for the RCP or a similar
> entity would act as a riposte to Italian autonomist
> claims that class recomposition entails the
> obsolescence of the old-style party which was
> supposedly based on a bygone Fordist society?

I have no love for Rifondazione as an organisation, even if I respect
those few of its members that I know personally. To adopt language with
which Scott is familiar, it seems to be a 'classic centrist' formation,
which a whole range of leftists treat as a flag of convenience. I
wouldn't call it stalinist, not by a long shot, even if some stalinists
are still there after Cosutta's departure.

While it has its own 'ceto politico' bent on furthering its interests
through various deals (eg with the centre left government circa 1997),
Rifondazione sometimes comes across as a dog wagged by many tails. In
its workplace activities, for example, it has at different times been
pulled in various directions by activists split between the main left
union CGIL, as well as the whole gamut of rank and file groups and
alternative unions. I do know from an anarchist friend in the CUB (the
largest alternative union confederation) that through much of the
nineties, Rifondazione members in the CUB tended to prioritise their
union hat  over their party one.

I guess we'll have to await 'any major successes' before your last
question can be answered. I don't doubt that many people currently in
Rifondazione have been contributing towards the development of class
recomposition in Italy (and beyond) - whether this can be attributed to
the advantages of Rifondazione as a party - 'old-style' or not - is more
dubious.

In any case, I'm sure there are others on this list who know rather more
about Rifondazione than do I, and can tell us about, for example, its
relations with the Disobbedienti etc ...

Steve



     --- from list aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---