Suchergebnisse

The essay, starting from a recent publication, addresses the problem of the contradiction between Western-style democracy and the relationship with the Stalinist culture and with the Soviet Union that the Italian Communist Party has maintained. The role of Gramsci and Togliatti in the formation of what will be the largest communist party in Western Europe is highlighted. The PCI will reach the apex of development and the beginning of its decline, however, with the secretarial of Enrico Berliguer. The fall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of communism in Europe will lead to the dissolution of the party also in Italy. In short, Italian communism had tried to renew itself but probably too late. He had appeared slow and indecisive in the face of modernity. Furthermore, the long crisis that has developed within the Italian left after the end of the Communist Party emerges.

Summary in English.

Questo studio esamina il rapporto complesso, anche se poco approfondito dalla storiografia, tra il PCI/PDS e le cosiddette 'classi popolari' a Napoli dall'immediato dopoguerra fino al 1998. Nonostante dal 1958 in avanti il partito abbia costantemente raccolto più voti a Napoli che a Milano o a Roma, le classi popolari hanno sempre rappresentato un dilemma per la sinistra istituzionale napoletana e il suo modo di pensare la città. Da un lato, la mobilitazione della città 'plebea' è stata un obiettivo cruciale per la politica comunista, dall'altro, le forme di vita 'pre-politiche' delle classi subalterne sono state considerate un ostacolo a tale progetto. Attraverso un'analisi degli scritti dei dirigenti locali e della stampa quotidiana comunista, il contributo mostra come il rapporto tra la sinistra e le classi popolari si sia riconfigurato nel corso del tempo: dall'obiettivo di costruire una coscienza di classe nel 'sottoproletariato', all'intento, negli anni Novanta, di infondere nel popolo napoletano una 'coscienza civica'. ; This article examines the complex albeit rarely studied relationship between the PCI/PDS and the so-called 'popular classes' in Naples from the end of the Second World War to 1998. Despite the fact that the party after 1958 consistently received more votes in Naples than in Milan or Rome, the popular classes would always represent a dilemma for the Neapolitan institutional Left and its way of thinking about the city. On the one hand, the mobilization of the 'lumpen' city was considered a crucial goal for a communist politics, on the other, the 'pre-political' forms of life of the city's subaltern classes were seen to pose an obstacle to such a project. Through an analysis of the writings of local party leaders and the communist daily press, the article illustrates how the relationship between the Left and the popular classes was reconfigured over time: from the aim of building class consciousness among the 'lumpenproletariat' to the goal, during the 1990s, of inculcating 'civic consciousness' among the Neapolitan people.

This item is part of the Political & Rights Issues & Social Movements (PRISM) digital collection, a collaborative initiative between Florida Atlantic University and University of Central Florida in the Publication of Archival, Library & Museum Materials (PALMM).