Bergamo, when he was born, "Il Manifesto"
Eliseo Milani
A city of the strengths of the Manifesto Group was Bergamo. Here the communist left has relied on membership and consensus since 1965, a preparatory year of the XI Congress of the Communist Party, which would then be held in Rome in January 1966. Why Bergamo, a city traditionally white and the strong hold of the DC election? Before talking about the specific events of the communist left, just remember that in the early fifties a group of young intellectuals left the Democrats calling for an opening on the left Catholic world: Lucio Magri, Joseph and Charles Leidi declarant were the tread. All three went in different stages in PCI although someone in Rome - Giancarlo Pajetta for example - would have preferred to constitute an organization of the Catholic left in a position to worry the Democrats. Ross Magri would direct the poster Rossanda monthly declarant would have abstained on our radiation from the PCI, Leiden would never tired of dealing with the vicissitudes of daily manifest atypical putting his skills as a notary in the service of the newspaper. Myself, I have been for eleven years secretary of the Communist Federation of Bergamo, I was a member of the patrol deputies who in 1969 joined the manifesto and were struck by the PCI (with me, there were Massimo Caprara, Luigi Pintor, and Aldo Natoli Freed bronze). XI Congress of the Communist Party to exist in Bergamo - the first in the history of that party in which an association has voted by a majority as opposed to a document the national leadership - is the culmination of a long and tortured debate, but also its political processes that were deployed in Milan in the original node. Bergamo, in the early sixties, was a city where the communists remained nailed to 7-10%. In the lists for municipal candidates were almost all workers, with the exception of one doctor and one or two employees. The Democrats could enjoy the absolute majority of the vote, while up to us to represent the working class factory (Dalmine and Ilva in the first place). The 100 000 workers were present in Bergamo two key areas: textiles and clothing and mechanical metallurgy. The Communist Party after the war it was most concerned to entrench the party in the factory. The "New Party" in Togliatti was not closed and self-sufficient in alliances, but also in Bergamo sway rule that only the workers' struggles (trade union and political) could move to the left and create other social contradictions in which he was a Catholic reference giant Democrat. We should add, however, that very often the action of the party was in danger of falling into a sort of weak "manufacture" means the Communist Party became outright support of the fight sindacale.Ma own in the early sixties, which are those of the economic boom and an initial modernization of Italy, a crack starts front of the Catholic tradition. The PCI, which is not enough to maintain its strength at the factory, trying to adopt a more widespread in society. And 'that's when we try to have an alternative plan of the city, starting with the fight on the town plan, and we develop a project linking the future of the city and the surrounding valleys. E 'right on the new dimension of design that must take political action that opens a comparison twisted communist identity and Catholic identity in a city as unique as Bergamo. I remember, for example, the birth of the Committee on Freedom of Vietnam consists of the secretaries all parties and with the accession of eleven priests, including Father Turoldo.Ma highlight the episode that marks deep in the process of renewal of the PCI in Bergamo is the speech devoted to the question Catholic Togliatti held in the city March 20 1963 at the conclusion of a planning conference of the party. The speech, titled after the destinies of man on the pages of the weekly Renaissance, is an event for Bergamo. I, who was still secretary of the Federation, I was able to obtain from Togliatti's commitment to deliver a speech in thickness although we were in a tough election campaign. In 1963 we were in full innovator of the pontificate of John XXIII (Pope Roncalli, it must be remembered, had its roots in popular Catholicism Bergamo) and had already opened the Second Vatican Council that innovate the teaching of the Church. Togliatti put his own speech in that scenario that has ravaged the Catholic conservatism. Politically, moreover, must bear in mind it was concluded that the centrism of the governments and Scelba Tambroni and in 1963 - the year that will mark a positive advancement of the Communist Party in parliamentary elections - the picture was marked by the first center-left government led by Amintore Fanfani.Togliatti speak words intended to weigh both nationally and in the concrete situation of Bergamo: identify new opportunities for the meeting between Catholics and Communists (Not just the Council, but the outcome of the XX Congress of the CPSU, that of "de-Stalinization" initiated by Nikita Khrushchev) next to the need for a common commitment to peace in the era of nuclear weapons. To save a civilization made of common culture and values \u200b\u200b- say Togliatti - we need joint action by the Communists and Catholics. The leader of the Communist Party takes the key to the fact that the development neocapitalistic eventually degrade human potential, which still remains the central subject is the initiative of the Communists and the Catholics. After the death of Togliatti, the PCI opens a confrontation / clash between two views: that of Giorgio Amendola, which proposes a "party only "between the communists and socialists as they moved the experience of the center-left governments and there was the division of PSIUP; to Pietro Ingrao, which gives priority to the project and the value of innovative reforms in the context of emphasizing the transformation of Italian capitalism necessary renewal of the party. Already a Central Committee that he had discussed the proposed Amendola came the vote of dissent of some comrades (Luigi Pintor, Aniello Coppola, Ninette Zandegiacomo, Aldo Natoli, my, as I remember that Rossanda Ross was absent from the meeting for other commitments) . That division is reflected on the life of the Federation of Bergamo. When the thesis was submitted to the Eleventh Congress, touched me illustrate. From a certain point precisai that I speak personally because I had to explain my "no" in the Central Committee and above all my reservations about Tesi.Quando the Provincial Congress took place in Bergamo at the beginning of January 1966, it fell again I - Secretary of the Federation - to make the introductory speech which reiterated some distinctions of line and echoed many of the positions expressed in various forums by Pietro Ingrao. That conference was followed on behalf of the national executive board by Rinaldo, Assistant Secretary of the CGIL. It was he who groped a few steps to smooth the final motion of Congress who expressed strong reservations about the thesis paper. During the meeting of the Political Committee that worked on the drafting of the final resolution, we announced that he would speak in Congress against our positions on behalf of the National Office (in the climate of those years, the announcement amounted to a threat because he was very strong sense of discipline to Dark Shops). Card kept his word, after he revealed his vain attempts to change the mozione.Ho reread the January 1966 Employee of Bergamo, who was the magazine of the Federation of Bergamo PCI. The motion of the Provincial Congress that was passed with only two abstentions. In it was confirmed a strong criticism of the policy of the center, beside the need to relaunch the initiative working over a period of reforms in a position to design new social and economic scenarios. In a passage from that document reads: "A new majority is not achieved as a confluence of forces disappointed by the center around a minimum program. It can only be the result of a profound process of development and political action, economic and social. " Ponevamo Finally, the theme of "internal democracy" to the party: the participation of members to the choices, their full involvement even when - as in the case of the Central Committee that I mentioned earlier - there is dissension in the national leadership. These are issues which will return in the discussion of the communist left at the turn of 1968 student and 1969 workers, in XII National Congress of Bologna in February 1969 in which the left will be marginalized by the internal management of the party in the confrontation that gave birth to the first month, the manifest and then, when the radiation came from the PCI promoter of his group, homonymous group experience politico.Voglio finally be noted that once the outcome of the XI Congress in Bergamo was excluded from the Central Committee at that time meant going to disagree to a meeting fierce reaction from the apparatus. There was the protest of my Federation and the confrontation turned hot, when you had to decide the nominations to the House in the elections of 1968, the Federal Committee held my full name, while there were pressures from Rome and Milan were penalized for our political positions. I remember these episodes testify about me just because the majority orientation largely on which he moved the entire Federazione.Fu just natural that the Federation of Bergamo, who had that role in the debates of previous years, was at the forefront in November of 1969 against the choices of the Central Committee decided to expel the promoters of the monthly poster. In the sixties we had acquired in a border city to the Communists the need for a profound renewal of political, cultural and organizational PCI. A renewal that were more sensitive because it exposed traditional hegemony of the Christian Democrats which could see the first crisis. On November 3, 1969 agenda was approved by me at the joint meeting of the Federal Committee and the Audit Commission of Bergamo which discussed the "case" the poster: by 24 votes in favor, 13 against and 6 abstentions was rejected the choice of defining "activity frazionistica" the birth of the month. But here begins another story. (From the manifesto19 June 1999)
0 comments:
Post a Comment