Italian Marxist–Leninist Party

Italian Marxist-Leninist Party
Partito Marxista-Leninista Italiano
General Secretary Giovanni Scuderi
Founded 1977 (1977)
Split from Italian Communist Party
Newspaper Il Bolscevico
Ideology Communism
Marxism–Leninism
Maoism
Anti-revisionism
Neo-Stalinism[1][2][3][4]
Political position Far-left
Colours      Red
Website
pmli.it

The Italian Marxist–Leninist Party (Italian: Partito Marxista-Leninista Italiano, PMLI) is a communist party in Italy. Founded in Florence in 1977, the leading core of the PMLI began their political activity as they joined the Communist Party of Italy (Marxist–Leninist) (PCd'I(ml)) in 1967. The group broke away from the PCd'I(ml) in 1969 and formed the Italian Bolshevik Communist Organization Marxist–Leninist (Italian: Organizzazione Comunista Bolscevica Italiana marxista-leninista, OCBIml). In 1977, the OCBIml was transformed into the PMLI.

The PMLI is opposed to the bourgeois democracy and during political elections carries out an abstentionistic propaganda. It is a communist party loyal to the teachings of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong, named "the only five teachers of the international proletariat". This movement strives for a proletarian revolution and the establishment of a "united, red and socialist Italy". The PMLI believes that Maoism is the highest stage of the workers' movement. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin is held in high regard within the PMLI due to his construction of the first socialist country, the Soviet Union; and to his encouragement of the creation of the other socialist countries of Eastern Europe. Consequently, the PMLI refuses Trotskyism, believing it to be an extremist and anti-communist diversion from Marxism–Leninism. It views the 1936 Soviet Constitution as example of the existence of the socialism in the Soviet Union.

The party has an official newspaper, Il Bolscevico (The Bolshevik). The current General Secretary is Giovanni Scuderi. The headquarters of the PMLI are located in Florence. The PMLI is not represented in the Italian Parliament, the European Parliament, nor in any regional or provincial assemblies.

History

Birth and first battles of Il Bolscevico

The first founders of the PMLI that the party reminds as the "four pioneers" began their Marxist–Leninist militancy in 1967, when they joined the PCd'I(ml). They were Giovanni Scuderi, Mino Pasca, Nerina "Lucia" Paoletti and Patrizia Pierattini. Afterwards in 1969, one of the densest years of the Cultural Revolution in China, those four pioneers and other followers denounced the CPI(ML) as a revisionist party, judged the left cover of Italian Communist Party (PCI).

On 14 December 1969, the four pioneers and the Provincial Committee of Florence left the PCd'I(ml) and along with other Marxist–Leninist organizations established the OCBIml and the next day published the first number of the official newspaper, Il Bolscevico. In this number, dense of quotes of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong, the Organization wrote:

Chairman Mao has often said that "without destruction there is not construction. The destruction is the criticism, the revolution. The destruction comes first, it of course brings the construction". By the destruction of PCd'I(ml) of Florence, the Italian Bolshevik Communist Organization Marxist–Leninist arose, on completely Marxist–Leninist foundations. It seeks to build the revolutionary party that assumes Marxism–Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought as the theoretical foundation that leads its thought.[5]

The work of the OCBIml so was mainly the one to accumulate the forces to create a revolutionary party. In 1970, the Organization was officially recognized by the Communist Party of China and the Rome Embassy invited the leaders of the Organization to the official holidays of the People's Republic of China while the Organization sent some messages to the Communist Party of China regarding its 10th National Congress and condolences when Zhou Enlai and Zhu De died. The OCBIml had a wreath near the corpse of Mao Zedong on 18 September 1976, when the funerals finished.

To achieve this "historical goal", the OCBIml immediately launched itself in the student and workers revolts of then, carrying out an abstentionist propaganda and denouncing those who they believe "false communists" as the PCI. Those were difficult years for the Organization, mainly for the lack of funds. About the history of the party, Giovanni Scuderi said:

When we began the struggle for the Party we've not a pen, nor a chair, nor a brush, nor headquarters. Subsequently we rented a foul building of Florence of four rooms inhabited by mouses, cockroaches and spiders, that we restored during the summer holidays of 1968. We removed the bread by our mouths to give a newspaper and a minimum of equipment to the Party and when we could we gave a contribution to the brother parties in worse situation of ours.[6]

After having gathered dozen of militants of Tuscany, Lombardy, Sicily and Calabria, the Organization established the Italian Marxist–Leninist Party.

PMLI is born

From 9 April to 11 April 1977, it was held in Florence the founding Congress of the PMLI. During this Congress, it was adopted the Constitution and the Program, the symbol (black hammer and sickle and Mao's head) and the party anthems. Giovanni Scuderi was unanimously acclaimed General Secretary.

For the PMLI, this date ideally represents the beginning of a "new phase" for the Italian working class. The Italian Marxist–Leninists argue that the first phase (1882–1921) was dominated by reformism of the Italian Socialist Party; the second phase was dominated by revisionism of the PCI; and today it is pursued by its heirs, the Party of Communist Refoundation and the Party of Italian Communists.

Political and organizational Long March

Since its establishment, the PMLI began a complex political work. It wanted to gain more and more workers and students and to pursue its abstaining electoral campaign. Through this work, new party centres were created and the PMLI is today present in almost every region of Italy and it is particularly rooted in the South.

The PMLI had five Congresses in 1977, 1982, 1985, 1998 and 2008.

Many cells were created, among them the J. Stalin (Forlì), Red Vesuvio (Naples), Mao Zedong (Milan) and Mao (Enna) have headquarters. The central party headquarters are in Florence.

Ideology

The PMLI "has as theoretical basis Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought which presides its ideological, political, organizational and practical work".[7]

Foreign contacts

The PMLI had close contacts with the Chinese Communist Party until 1981, when it denounced the restoration of capitalism under Deng Xiaoping and broke the relationship. It tried to have relations with the Party of Labour of Albania, but the PMLI attacked it after Enver Hoxha rejected Maoism.

After 1975, the PMLI had a close relationship with the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK), even after the invasion of Cambodia by Vietnam. A PMLI leader visited a CPK-controlled zone of Cambodia in 1987. After Pol Pot's arrest in 1997, the PMLI denounced the Khmer Rouge's betrayal.

The PMLI supported the Iranian Revolution as an anti-imperialist revolution and a party leader visited Iran in 1992.

In 1993, the PMLI took part in an International Seminary on Mao Zedong Thought organized by the Marxist–Leninist Party of Germany.

At the fifth plenary session of the party's central committee on 11 October 2015, the PMLI took a stance of backing the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) against the "holy imperialist alliance" fighting it,[8] although it also condemned terrorist attacks by ISIL in Europe and elsewhere.[9]

Notes

  1. ↑ "Viva i cinque maestri del proletariato internazionale". pmli.it (in Italian). Retrieved 9 August 2014.
  2. ↑ "Stalin: su alcune questioni di storia del bolscevismo". pmli.it (in Italian). Retrieved 9 August 2014. [S]e si studiano le opere di Lenin e Stalin tutto diventa chiaro e si capisce quello che dobbiamo fare per essere dei veri comunisti [...]. Chi non fa questo studio, vuol dire che non vuol sapere niente di socialismo e di comunismo, che sta dall'altra parte della barricata, anche se si ritiene un comunista". Translation: "If we study the works of Lenin and Stalin, everything becomes clear and we understand what we have to do to be true communists [...]. Who does not do this study, it means that he does not want to know anything about socialism and communism, which is on the other side of the barricade, even if he considers himself a communist .
  3. ↑ "Dialogo con i lettori. «Non è sbagliata la linea del socialismo in un solo Paese sostenuta da Stalin?»". pmli.it (in Italian). Retrieved 9 August 2014. [P]er definirsi marxisti-leninisti occorre condividere e sostenere il marxismo-leninismo-pensiero di Mao e i suoi Maestri ideologici che sono Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin e Mao". Translation: "To define oneself as Marxist–Leninist, it is necessary to share and support the Marxism–Leninism-thought of Mao and his ideological Masters which are Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao .
  4. ↑ "Dialogo con i lettori. «Mao e Stalin erano veri comunisti o "dittatori spietati"?»". pmli.it (in Italian). Retrieved 9 August 2014. Tutti i veri comunisti e tutti coloro che vogliono cambiare il mondo devono imparare a ragionare e a vedere le cose come Stalin e Mao, nonché come Marx, Engels e Lenin". Translation: "All true communists and all those who want to change the world must learn to reason and see things like Stalin and Mao as well as Marx, Engels and Lenin .
  5. ↑ Number 1 of Il Bolscevico (15 December 1969).
  6. ↑ Giovanni Scuderi. Report to the 3rd Congress of the PMLI.
  7. ↑ PMLI Statute.
  8. ↑ L'Ufficio stampa del PMLI (11 October 2015). "Il PMLI appoggia l'IS contro la santa alleanza imperialista". pmli.it. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  9. ↑ PMLI (11 July 2016). "Break The Imperialist War–Terrorist Attacks Spiral". pmli.it. Retrieved 13 September 2016.

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