Maoism in the Developed World

By 1970, there were at least three recognizable Maoist parties in Italy. According to a local leader (in Venice) of one of these, the Partito Comunista d’ltalia (Marxisti-Leninisti) had at its inception been officially recognized by the Chinese, but when it split shortly after its establishment (with both factions claiming the original name) this recognition had been withdrawn. The third Maoist group was the Unione dei Comunisti (Marxisti-Leninisti), which had been established principally by former members of the youth group of the PCI, and had a following mainly among the students.[286]

By the mid-1970s there were still three recognizable Maoist parties in Italy, apparently the same three we had encountered four years before. These were the Partito Comunista dltalia Marxisti-Leninisti, the Organizazione dei Comunisti Marxisti-Leninisti) which in April 1973 changed its name to Partito Comunista Italiano (Marxisti-Leninisti), and the Unione dei Comunisti (Marxisti-Leninisti).[287]

The most important of these parties was the Partito Comunista dltalia Marxisti-Leninisti. It was led by Fosco Dinucci, its secretary general. It held its second congress in secret in Parma in January 1973. That congress decided to convert its periodical Nuova Unita from a monthly to a weekly.[288] By 1977, Nuova Unita had become a daily newspaper, and Voce delta Cello, a weekly.[289]

As early as 1974, Judith Chubb noted that the Partito Comunista dltalia M-L was indicating “a shift of emphasis from China to Albania (perhaps due to recent Chinese foreign policy).”[290] However, two years later it was reported that the party “regularly exchanges visits and messages with China … Albania … and Maoist groups around the world (e.g. the joint declaration with the Communist Party of Brazil.”[291]

Nevertheless, as the split developed between the Albanian Party of Labor and the successors to Mao Tse-tung in China, the Partito Comunista dltalia Marxisti-Leninisti shifted its allegiance to the Albanian party. Angelo Codovilla reported in 1979 that in 1976-1977 “the party shifted its allegiance from Peking to Tirana. A delegation from the Albanian Party of Labor took part in the CPI (M-L) congress—the first time it has sent a delegation to a West European gathering.”[292] A year later, the party was reported to be “stongly pro-Albania.”[293]

Although the Partito Comunista d’ltalia Marxisti-Leninisti preached the need for the violent road to power, there is no indication that it ever sought to launch any kind of guerrilla war. However, Renato Curcio, the founder of the Red Brigades, which carried out many terrorist activities in the 1970s, including the kidnapping and murdering of ex-Prime Minister Aldo Moro, was for a time a member of the party in the late 1960s.[294]

The second Maoist party, the Partito Comunista Italiano (Marxisti-Leninisti) was led by Also Brandirali. Its journal was Servire it Popolo. Unlike the other Maoist groups, it apparently participated in elections, at least on one occasion. It did so in the 1972 parliamentary election, and was reported as receiving about 85,000 votes.[295]

With the splintering of International Maoism after the death of Mao, Branderinelli’s PCI (M-L) was characterized by the East German Communists (who kept close track of such matters) as one of the three “Left Radical Maoist” groups in Italy. The other two were the Movimento Lavoratori per il Socialismo (Workers Movement for Socialism) and the Partito Comunista Linea Rosse (Communist Party Red Line).[296]

The third major Maoist group, the Organizazione dei Comunisti Marxisti-Leninisti, was led by Osvaldo Pesce. In May 1977 it merged with two other small groups to form the Unified Communist Party of Italy, of which Pesce was Secretary General.[297] That party stayed loyal to the Chinese leadership after the death of Mao Tse-tung. It endorsed the Three Worlds Theory and sent delegations to China in 1977 and 1978.[298]

A small group of Italian Maoists came to be affiliated with the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM), the international organization of those who continued to support the Maoism of the Great Cultural Revolution and the Gang of Four. In an early (1980) document of this group, its Italian affiliate was said to be the Organizazione Comunista Proletaria Marxista-Leninista.[299] In signing the formal “Declaration” announcing the establishment of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, the Organizazione was joined by the Communist Collective of Agit/Prop and the Communist Committee of Trento.[300] In the RIM magazine A World to to Win in December 1966, the Italian affiliate was listed as the Red Worker Communist Organization.[301] We have no further information concerning these groups.

Other Pro Chinese Elements