MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDrORD. OREGON
THURSDAY. JULY 25. 1963
Election Puts Italian Communist Leader Back in Limelight
(Editor's not: Western
observer are concerned by
the new vitality and renew
ed popularity of the polls oi
the Communist party in
Italy, the largest in Western
Europe. In this dispatch, a
veteran United Press Inter
national reporter in Rome
examines the situation.)
By ERNEST SAKLER
United Press International
Rome - (UPIl - The Commu
nist danger in Italy today is
greater than it has been since
1948.
Many have been saying in
recent years, especially since
the country's economic boom
in the Common Market, that
Italian Communism was dead.
But in the Italian general
elections in April, the Com
munists picked up one million
more votes than in the last
election.
The massive gains, which
no one has yet thoroughly ex--'ained.
put Italian Commu
nist leader Palmiro Togliatti
back in the limelight of world
Communism and put him in
a strong position at home.
A number of commentators
feel that responsibility for the
Red advance rests at least as
much with the shortsighted
ness of Italian Democrats as
with Togliatti's shrewdness.
Pickets Posted at Pilot Rock Plant
By United Press International
The Lumber and Sawmill
Workers Union have extend
ed its strike against Georgia
Pacific Corp. with the posting
of pickets at Pilot Rock, Ore.
About 2SD sawmill and log
ging employees were affect
ed. The pickets appeared
about 6 a.m. The Lumber and
Sawmill Workers and the In
ternational Woodworkers of
America began closing down
Georgia - Pacific operations
last week In a contract dispute.
The only plants still oper
ating are at Woodleaf and
Feather Falls, Calif.
Commercial Fishermen
End Strike For Prices
Portland - (UPIl - Indepen
dent commercial salmon fish
ermen along the Washington
and Oregon coasts have end
ed their spontaneous "strike"
for higher silver salmon
prices when most buyers
agreed to pay 32 cents per
pound.
But even Togliatti himself
stxmed to be surprised by his
massive election gains. Al
though now he has taken a
"knew-all-along'' attitude and
speaks with the assurance of
a man who feels Commu
nism's final climb to power
in Italy is only a matter of
time.
Some observers, both inside
and outside Italy, have blamed
the Red advance at least
partly on the Catholic
church's "softer" approach to
Communism during the reign
I of Pope John XXIII.
Jdut this ignores, or grossly
underestimates the indepen
dence and individualism of
the Italian voter, Catholic in
religion though most of them
may be. The question is one
lor politicians, the educators,
the civic leaders, not for the
cnurch.
If you ask an Italian why
the luiing Christian Demo
crats lost votes and the Com
munists gained, a typical an
swer is: "Because the people
were fed up."
Has Same Meaning
The same Italian will note
that the million votes gained
by the Liberals - a moderate
rightwing, staunchly demo
cratic and pro-Western opposi
tion party - had much the
same meaning: a protest
against the way the country i The "protest" itself is I against the tantalizing slow'
was being run. vague. It apparently is aimed 1 ncss of Italian bureaucracy,
YOUTHFUL LEADERS GREETED - Presi- The President is shaking hands with Rich
dent Kennedy is shown as he greeted the ard J. Stratton, 17, Boys' Nation president,
president and vice president of the Boys' of Leland, 111., as Jack W. Hanks, 16, Mid
Nation in the White House Rose Garden, land. Tex., vice president, looks on. (UPI)
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PROSPECT Gunderson's
FULLER
PAINTS
against recurrent financial
scandals - some true, some
manufactured - against poli
ticians generally. Italy's un
precedented prosperity of re
cent years did not seem to as
suage the discontent.
The argument seems to go
like this: If you used to earn
one Lira and someone else
earned 100, the fact that now
you cam two and the other
man 200 (or you believe he
does) doesn't make you any
happier. Another factor is
that the person who has just
discovered prosperity, things
that were tolerated for cen
turies may suddenly become
unbearable.
Togliatti's strength is In his
awareness of this discontent
and in his efforts to personify
it in his party. His recent elec
tion campaigns were almost
entirely "against" the Chris
tian Democrats rather than
being "for" anything.
with the uneasiness there
is in world Communist party
ranks over the Sino-Soviet
split and other aspects of Ni
kita Khrushchev's policies,
Togliatti might well have
been embarrassed in giving
the comrades too many spe
cific things to fight "for."
This has shown itself in Italy
in the fact that the Commu
nists have been plagued over
the past few months by a
steady trickle of defections of
minor provincial party offic
ials who searched their minds
and found that they were not
Communists any more.
But unlike the Marxist-
schooled party officials, Ital
ian voters are uncomplicated.
With many of them, Togliat
ti's campaign against govern
ment "inefficiency" and "cor
ruption" was a hit. The Com
munist vote skyrocketed from
6.7 million votes in 1958 to
7,767,601 in April, the highest
Italy s Reds have ever polled.
For the first time since 1946,
the Communists and Social
ists combined outpolled the
Christian Democrats 39.1 to
38.3 per cent.
Workable Alliance
If current efforts for
workable alliance of Christian
Democrats and Socialists fall
new elections in the spring of
next year are extremely like
ly. And if the Communists ad.
vance again, this could well
touch off a chain reaction In
which first the Socialists and
then other groups or Indi
vidual parliament members
would jump on the Red band
wagon.
Most non - Communist poll
ticians agree that a more ef
fective government policy in
past years could have stopped
the Communists and even
caused a serious crisis in their
ranks. But these critics have
opposite views of what that
policy should have been.
Togliatti, back after the
war from years of exile in
Moscow, rebuilt the Commu
nist party from scratch in
Allied-liberated Italy. The em
phasis then was on violence.
In the "Red belt" of Emilia
Romagna, Communist under
ground fighters who descend
ed from the hills at the end
of the war summarily "exe
cuted" hundreds - some of
them Fascists, others Just peo
ple they happened to dislike.
For a time, the tide was
running for them. Communist
ministers were in the govern
ment coalition while Commu
nist labor leaders stirred
strikes and riots against that
same government in a two
pronged bid for power.
Ousted The Communists
In 1947, the late Christian
Democratic Premier Alcide de
Gasperl ousted the Commu
nists and Socialists from the
government and forced a de
cisive test. In general elections
in 1948 the Christian Demo
crats and other democratic
parties under De Gasperl lead
ership trounced a Communist
Socialist "peoples front." Red
hopes of winning power
peacefully at the polls seemed
to be dashed for all time.
A few months later, a Si
cilian student shot and ser
iously wounded Togliatti. The
party, left leaderless, reacted
In the Instinctive way, launch.
Ing a nationwide Insurrection.
The fighting lasted five days
and claimed 21 lives. More
than 200 were wounded. But
eventually the tough riot po
lice under Interior Minister
Mario Scelba put down the In
surrection. One such occasion was In
July, 1BB0, when many were
killed in Communist riots
against the late Premier Fer
nando Tambroni, who rested
on unpopular neo-Fasclst sup
port. Tambroni's government
fell, but the Communists
gained no say whatsoever in
the cabinet that followed It.
Has Taken Pains
By and large, Togliatti has
taken pains to build a popular
Image of the Communists as a
peace-loving, democratic par
ty and a defender of the con
stitution against the "dicta
tion" of the Christian Demo
crats. His political game has
been rather unscrupulous
even by Communist standards.
In 1959-60 he shocked a
number of party members by
joining forces with neo
Fascists to support the Si
cilian government of rebel
Catholic Silvia Milazzo.
Even before then Tiogli-
atti's parliamentary policies
made a number of revolution
ary - minded party veterans
nd fellow-travelers unhappy.
In 1956, with dcStaliniza-
tion and the Hungarian revolt,
the Socialists of Pietro Nenni,
until then faithful allies of
Togliatti, broke their "unity
of action" pact with the Com
munists and started on a long
nd uncertain path which so
far has taken them only mid
way between Communism and
ami-Communism.
The shock at the time was
heavy. A number of leading
Communists, including depu
ty Antonio Giolitti and Sen.
Eugenio Reale, one of the
founding members of the
Cominform, noisily quit the
party. Hundreds of others tip
toed out quietly.
In two years, according to
official party figures, mem
bership in the Italian Com
munist party fell from 2,053,
000 to little over 1.7 million.
It has since been rising al
most steadily but Is still far
short of the 2 million mark
aimed for by the party leaders.
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