Workers' Communist Party (Italy)

History

The foundation of the Italian Communist Workers' Party as a new political entity was the result of a split within the Communist Refoundation Party when the PCR joined the second government headed by Romano Prodi. The movement, known as "Common Project" since its inception, had taken a stance further to the left within the party: it opposed the political alliance with The Olive Tree (political coalition), an association of center-left parties as it was extremely critical of past centre-left governments, in particular the first Prodi government with D'Alema and Amato. The "Common Project" movement was also opposed to the politics of the then Secretary of the Communist Refoundation Party, Fausto Bertinotti . The group refused to be part of the new government, maintaining that such participation would be disastrous. Moreover, following the exclusion of their leader, Marco Ferrando, from the electoral list of Communist Refoundation Party for the elections to the Senate in the 2006, his followers pushed for a split in the party to maintain a "Communist opposition" to the new government.

The birth of the movement was seen as a response to the emergence of two new left-wing political parties: the Democratic Party, the fusion of the DS and Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy, and the Rainbow Left, an organization that grouped together the Party of Italian Communists, the Communist Refoundation Party, the Democrats of the Left and the Greens. The backers of the PCL believed that the future Democratic Party would be centrist and liberal, and close to the interests of banks and corporations. Regarding the Rainbow Left, they considered this coalition fundamentally social-democratic and too close to the administration with only a pretension of revolutionary idealism and radicalism.

The constitution of the PCL was implemented on 18 June 2006, at the Barberini movie theatre in Rome. Agreement was reached regarding a new symbol and a coordination at the national level. From this date onward, member were free to join the new party and promote political activism.

Adherence to the new party comes from activists and communist leaders, members of Communist Refoundation Party, from the leftist trade unions, the CGIL (from the group of "28 April Network") and other trade organizations (RdB, CUB, COBAS, Sin COBAS, SLAI COBAS). Further support come from the anti-globalization movements, groups opposing imperialism, and those in favor of overthrowing the government in Israel (in particular the Palestine Forum) or protesting against the war. Representatives of the civil rights and sexual liberation (especially in Rome) movements also manifest their interest.

In autumn 2006, the PCL together with other peace organizations and anti-imperialist participants in the protest against the military missions in Afghanistan and Lebanon (30 September) and in the national demonstration of Anti-Israeli activity with Palestinian people, sponsored by the Palestine Forum. The 17 November 2006, the PCL participates in the general strike called by trade unions against the government.

In the autumn, members were elected to the National Coordination and the new National Executive bodies to organize the PCL constitutive congress in January 2008 .

On April 14th 2007 the first meeting of the movement was held, which according to its managers had about 1,300 members (530 participants in meetings) in the congress.

At the 2008 elections the Workers' Communist Party got 208,000 votes, or 0.6%.

In 2009 it was joined by the CLP dell'OCAP (Alternative Proletarian Communist Organization), born from a split in the Communist Alternative Party.

There was some possibility that it would be the only party using the label "communist" standing in the Italian general election, 2013. However, the PCL decided to run under their official name, in which they gained slightly less than 90,000 votes.