The 6th Plenary Session of the 5th Central Committee of the Italian Marxist–Leninist Party was held in Florence on 14 January 2018. It was presided over by the General Secretary of the Party, Comrade Giovanni Scuderi.

 

The session opened with the singing of the Party anthem “The Red Sun”. The agenda of the session was: “The situation of the PMLI, our problems and the struggle against capitalism, for socialism.”

 

SCUDERI’S SPEECH

 

On the agenda item, Comrade Scuderi delivered a powerful, passionate and inspiring speech that, for its Marxist-Leninist lucidity and its fundamental content for what concerns the present and the future of the Party, was unanimously considered by those taking part in the session as a lesson in Marxism-Leninism-Mao Thought, as important as a report to a Party national congress, as conditions for the 6th Party National Congress are not yet present.

 

The speech focuses on the “very delicate moment” currently experienced by the Party, fundamentally due to the three old unresolved problems: the financial problem, the problem of enlarging the group of comrades working at the Center, and the problem of Party expansion at local levels. A serious contradiction exists between the acceptance of Party line and instructions and the failure to carry them out. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary, the reporter said, to “sit around a table and discuss the three elements of the slogan ‘study, concentrate on priorities, expand’ and decide what to do for every one of them, taking into account the concrete situation where we are working, the forces we can use, and the principle ‘more quality, less quantity’.” He went on: “The political line of the PMLI should not be a weapon to admire, but a fighting weapon for the 21st century.”

 

In order to expand the Party at local levels, the Party line should be spread among the masses by working in workplaces, schools and universities and mass movements, as “These are the places and the movements were the masses acquire their orientation, where the clash between ideas and proposals occur, where we can find strength and allies so that these movements can adopt a more advanced political stance.” Priority should be given to work in labor unions and among students, but also in the women’s movement, given the upsurge of “Non una di meno.”

 

The General Secretary, repeating that the PMLI has the head as a red giant, wished to specify that this is the fruit of the work of all Central Committee and Political Bureau members, not only his. This is why all leading members of the PMLI should fulfill their duties in a good way and strive for constant improvement.

 

Availing himself of the 50th Anniversary of the Great Revolt of Sixty-Eight, the General Secretary invited to “maintain and pass on to new PMLI members the spirit, the fighting resolve, the courage and the initiative of the first pioneers of the PMLI when publicly facing and exposing phony Communists.” This was greeted by the session with a big applause.

 

Criticism and self-criticism in timely summing up experiences are essential features of our work, Comrade Scuderi stressed. The foremost necessity in order to improve the Party’s work consists in improving “the militancy level and the quality of middle-level and grass-roots Party organizations.” He cited as a positive example the case of “Stalin” Cell of Catania, applauded by the session. Members of the Central Committee should be at the forefront of this, mainly in studying problems that they are dealing with.

 

The speech dealt with the issue of admitting to the Party applicants who do not agree with parts of the Party’s line, and the issue of local municipality merging, advancing proposals that were approved by the CC.

 

The decrease in Party members’ number in the last two years has not weakened the Party on the ideological, political, propaganda and editorial fields, shown by the initiatives undertaken on the occasions of the 4 December 2016 constitutional referendum, the work to expose the Gentiloni cabinet, and activities to mark the Centennial of the October Revolution. Our growing influence was shown also by documents on the regional election in Sicily, on the autonomy referendum in Lombardy and Veneto, and on the LGBTQI movement. A prolonged and warm applause was addressed to grass-roots comrades who gave their all to celebrate the Centennial of the October Revolution. An applause also accompanied the General Secretary’s encouragement to comrades from the Emilia-Romagna region who were going to commemorate Lenin in front of his statue in Cavriago on 21 January.

 

The speech reviewed the parties in the world declaring themselves Communist, wondering how many of them truly are. Ruling parties of self-styled socialist countries are not for sure. Anyway, we are open to any foreign party wishing to talk with the PMLI and generally ready to unity in action with Italian parties waving the red flag with hammer and sickle.

 

The speech made a profound analysis of the current condition of Italian capitalism and stressed that it also means social and territorial inequalities, as well as war and fascism, especially now that Renzi wishes to complete the establishment of the neo-fascist regime envisaged by Gelli, Craxi and Berlusconi despite his defeat at the 2016 referendum. “Italian capitalism,” Comrade Scuderi said, “…should be overthrown to get rid of imperialist wars, fascism, social and territorial inequalities.” This is why we put demands for social rights on the top of our programme in the following order: labor, housing, healthcare, pensions, education. We should work so that the PMLI becomes the standard-bearer of labor. We should work in Italy’s main labor union CGIL, as well as in “rank-and-file unions” where they have the majority, bearing in mind the strategy for a single union of workers and retired people. On this, Comrade Scuderi also stressed: “No algorithm, no mathematic formula can erase classes and class conflicts, and proletarian revolution as a result.”

 

Referring to the general election on 4 March, the speech elucidates on the contradictions of lists on the “left” of the Democratic Party, especially Free and Equal and Power to the People, as they remain within the constraints of the bourgeois Constitution. Non-vote is the common enemy of all parties taking part in the election, therefore grass-roots Party organizations should focus their political work on the election campaign, around the slogan “Only socialism can save Italy and give power to the proletariat.”

 

In conclusion, Comrade Scuderi remarked that the 200th birth anniversary of Marx is approaching on Fifth May. The Party will mark the anniversary with a poster, a special issue of “Il Bolscevico” and a DVD on his life and work. Grass-roots organizations should do their part organizing at least one propaganda stand or handing out leaflets. The General Secretary, among applauses, called the Party to inspire after “Marx’s exceptional and exemplary revolutionary life” to handle its current problems.

 

THE DEBATE

 

A lively and rich debate and airing of views followed. The contribution of comrades who were co-founders of the Party was particularly significant, after they were praised in the opening of the speech for their Marxist-Leninist political experience and their example. Unanimous were the gratitude to the General Secretary for his work as well as CC members’ agreement with his speech – some comrades called it “a speech out of the ordinary,” an example of synthesis and of how to concentrate on priorities – for the analysis of Party state, national situation, measures to handle open problems and new issues it dealt with. The speech should be studies and studied again collectively and individually, carried out by all comrades, used as a basis to sum up one’s own militancy in a critical and self-critical way, to be followed by concretely carrying out the Party’s line.

 

Several interventions underscored the proletarian revolutionary peculiarities of the PMLI against reformist and electoralism. Speakers repeated the need to solve the contradiction between the acceptance of the line and the failure to carry it out, to have a clear idea of priorities, to focus more on quality than quantity, to better study the concrete situation, to make tactical plans adequate to problems we are facing, to work seriously to change our worldview, and to be students to the masses. The General Secretary interjected on multiple occasions, particularly to further emphasize the importance of setting priorities and making a careful study, not to carry out a superficial, irregular work. He said once again: “We should study, study, study.”

 

Some comrades made frank and loyal self-criticisms on their work, deserving warm thanks by the General Secretary for having fulfilled this Marxist-Leninist right and duty. He also called on those who failed to self-criticize to awaken and do so.

 

The session also discussed on the use of technologies and internet tools such as social networks. The Party is not against it, as long as we do not have an idealist vision of them, always bearing in mind that social networks also reflect a certain conception of relationships and of the use of technology. Anyway, available forces should focus on priorities also when it comes to propaganda. According to the PMLI, direct relation with the masses is always foremost.

 

CONCLUSIONS AND DECISIONS

 

In his conclusions, Comrade Scuderi, noting the ideological and political unity of the CC, called the 6th Session “a very strong push to the whole Party to close ranks, to improve, to expand, to study.” He reminded that Mao continued studying even on his deathbed. Priority in individual and collective study now goes to the Electoral Document of the CC, to programmes and candidates of other parties, mainly those on the “left” of the Democratic Party, in order to talk first to those who are closer to our positions and keeping in mind that our main targets are the proletariat and the students.

 

He called on working “face down in our campaign for non-vote, we should not miss one single day or opportunity. If possible, if we have enough forces and if priorities allow it, we should also engage in public discussion with ‘left’ lists, let’s enter the lion’s den and air our positions.” He also invited the Lombardy Party Committee to draft a document on the Lombardy regional election as soon as possible. He praised comrades from Milan and Lombardy for being always present in street demonstrations, and a very warm applause followed.

 

The election campaign is “an excellent occasion to make ourselves known to the masses,” especially now that the left of the Communist Refoundation Party and the Italian Communist Party does not accept the abandonment of the hammer and sickle in the symbol of Power to the People. It is also “an opportunity to clarify what two lines are facing each other in this campaign – the bourgeois line and the proletarian line, a demarcation line whose political meaning is capitalism on the one hand and socialism on the other.” Almost every list, he went on, “are focusing on the problem of labor, but it’s nothing more than a bluff,” as capitalism is left intact.

 

Comrade Scuderi said that the approval of his speech by the session is “a starting point, now we need to carry out its instructions. On this we will test our collective and individual strength for what concerns our coherence and concrete activity.” First of all, we should sit around a table to discuss the above-said slogan, immediately after the election campaign, as it is essential to give the PMLI a body as a red giant.

 

The General Secretary finally thanked the Organization Commission of the CC and those comrades “who worked splendidly” to make the session possible.

 

The CC approved some internal decisions on strengthening the central leading group of the Party and the Central Board of “Il Bolscevico”; on the possibility for applicants who do not agree with some points of the Party’s line to be members of the PMLI, as long as they accept its Statute, General Programme and abstensionist line, and observe democratic centralism; on the Party’s contrariety to the merging of municipalities as this restricts bourgeois democracy and makes it more difficult for the masses to supervise elected officials. The Commission for Drafting the Communiqué of the 6th Plenary Session was formed. Speakers and themes of the 2018 and 2019 Mao memorial meetings were decided upon.

 

The session closed with a collective singing of “The Internationale.” Before the session started, the leader of the Party said: “Good morning, comrades, let us paint the day 14 January 2018 red, so that it may remain in the memory of our dear Party and give all Party members new energy and new inspiration to carry along the path of the October towards united, red and socialist Italy.” And so it was.

 

After the session, its participants had a varied and delicious collective lunch in a fraternal and joyous atmosphere.