July 27^th, 2008 – Chianciano Terme (SI)

LET’S START AGAIN: A SHIFT TO THE LEFT

The Congress considers closed and overcame the phase characterised by the organic collaboration with the Democratic Party - PD during the unsuccessful government experience of the Unione, by the presentation of La Sinistra, l’Arcobaleno electoral list and by the wrong majoritarian management of the party’s National Direction.

The Congress assumes that none of the motions put forward for approval during the VIIth National Congress of the PRC was approved.

The Congress believes that a strong cultural, political and organizational re-launch of Refoundation Communist Party is a necessary imperative and a priority.

The Congress rejects the proposal of the a Left Consituency and any other hypothesis of overcoming or merging the PRC into another political force. Starting with this premise, the issue of left unity is an open question ripe for experimentation and research.

2.
The re-launch of the PRC, first of all, must be characterized by a shift to the left. The experience in the “Unione” government proved the impossibility, given the PD’s guidelines and the current balance of power, of organic collaboration in governing the country.

The defeat of the populist right and the anti-labor stance of the Confindustria (Confederation of Italian Industry) are our goals in this phase. To this end, the neo-centrist line that characterizes the Democratic Party is completely ineffective and the idea of re-constructing a center-left would be totally incorrect and would reduce us to playing second fiddle in the context of a bi-polar system.

On the contrary, it is necessary to construct an opposition to the Berlusconi government, mixing social, democratic and moral issues, within a context of an autonomous PRC which presents an alternative to the PD’s strategic plans.

It is important to recover the idea that the opposition is not merely a collocation in the political spectrum but must be a phase of reconstruction, of taking root, of social relations, of cultural and political battles. In the crisis of capitalistic globalization, the alternative has to be built through social and political struggle against the Berlusconi government, the projects of Confindustria and fundamentalist outlooks. Within this prospective, it is indispensable to strengthen the alternative left through the collaboration between the diverse anti-capitalist, communist and leftist movements; aggregating the collective and individual realities which are found outside of political parties in diverse social, cultural and labor strata.

3.
Re-launching the PRC by retaking the social and political initiative. Supporting struggles, the creation of grievances and disputes, the reconstruction of social ties starting from forms of mutual assistance, are indispensable in defining the historic role of communists and the left from the point of view of social utility. Just as they are necessary elements in evaluating the efficacy of our presence within institutions and to reaffirm our otherness and unwavering opposition to political degeneration. Even when taking into account the next administrative elections, without impinging on the full independence of the various levels of the party and in light of the importance of local governments in stepping away from the policies of privatization, subsidization and security, it is necessary to verify that the government’s decisions are in line with the general objectives the party has laid out at this time.

The struggle against the economic policies of the rightist government, the opposition to the racist and discriminatory initiatives against migrants and Roma, the opposition to the attacks on public workers and the public administration, to the counter-reform of the justice system and moral issues represent fertile terrain for our initiatives and for the mobilization and enlargement of a mass movement against the policies of the government.

It is therefore necessary that the party’s new leadership group immediately begin to work on all forms of coordination of the political, social and cultural left in order to have the widest and most vigorous mobilization against the government and Confindustria.  Within this framework, it is necessary to work towards the realization of another October 20^th.  A mass protest and an autumn political campaign which, starting with those who were present last year, gathers new forces and in particular movements and struggle expressions. The organization of next autumn’s National Conference of Workers falls within this framework.

But a protest march is not enough.  Re-starting the good fight requires a strong initiative in defense of life and labor conditions of popular classes; from defending the National Work Contract to issues like salaries and pensions, from fighting precariousness and unemployment in the South to fighting for housing and the defense and development of a welfare system.

Income is a pressing problem, from defending purchasing power of salaries and pensions which must be protected even through a mechanism automatically linking the real value of wages to purchasing power and the unavoidable issue of the social salary.

These are all crucial issues to reconstruct unity in the working world, between North and South, between public and private workers, between migrants and Italians and to close the rift between those with open ended contracts and those whose position is precarious. These conflicts must be resolved, tying them to the gender conflict and intergenerational relations. Only by taking up the class struggle we can avoid the war among poors which is taking root in our country, feeding racism and xenophobia.

Even while respecting the autonomy of trade unions, we can’t but underline the absolute necessity of overcoming the logic of social peace which has made the defense of workers at the lowest wager levels impossible. In this context, while re-affirming the necessity for trade unions to be autonomous from political parties, government and bosses, we hope for the construction of  broad trade union left able to put democracy and struggles at the center of its political action. In the same manner we welcome all forms of coordination and cooperation in the context of base trade unionism activity.

We favor every initiative of struggle at the grass roots level in work places, the re-birth of workers as protagonists of the struggle, the emergence of self-organization; all decisive elements in ensuring that the battle against social peace logics gains critical mass. To this end, a big investment by the party to ensure a strong presence in the workplace is necessary.

Along with social problems a number of important movements which deal with specific issues have taken root on themes like: state secularization, the defense of a Republican anti-Fascist constitution, renewal of schools and public universities, freedom of sexual orientation and the fight against all forms of discrimination, homophobia, violence against women and attacks on their liberties, the freedom to make decisions about their bodies and the attack on 194 (the Italian law ruling the abortion) and legislation on assisted conception, the defense of the environment and issues which involve local problems but have an impact on the model for national development. Consider the fights against the TAV (High Speed Train), against big public works projects and the proliferation of incinerators and regasification plants. We must actively support these movements towards an articulation of conflicts within a global strategy of transformation.

Social, civil and environmental rights are the different manifestations of the same issue: the creation of an alternative society.

The VII Congress of the PRC feels the need to start a season of referenda on problems of precariousness, of democracy in the work place, on anti-prohibitionism; to be managed with the widest possible coalition.

4.
PRC, taking back again the path started in Genova, stresses its internal participation to world movements against capitalistic globalization and, in this framework, the will to intensify the collaboration and the relations with communist and progressive parties, with all revolutionary movements and the very important Latin-American experiences, fighting against neoliberal and war policies, standing along with people’s struggling against military occupation and for self-determination. 

Particularly in Europe, the party works to strength the unity of communist and left forces that are alternative to the European Socialist Party, both inside the European Left Party and in the European Parliamentary Group GUE/NGL whose ranks our next elected comrades will join.

For this reason the Congress gives mandate to all leading bodies to present to the next European elections Rifondazione Comunista – European Left’s symbol and list based on the programme that will be agreed next autumn. In the occasion of the European Elections, this decision must look for convergences, within left, anti-capitalistics and communist forces on the base of the opposition of the Lisbon Treaty project and the neoliberal and war agenda of the European Union.  The congress strongly rejects any possible changes of the electoral law for the European elections and commits all the party to oppose this project with the strongest mass democratic mobilization.

In Italy, regarding next G8 summit, PRC must commit, inside the movement against globalization, to re-build the platform of political and social forces that brought into live the mobilization against Genova G8, without being silent on Prodi’s government responsibilities and on positive response given by the Sardinian Region President Soru proposing its region (Maddalena Island) as G8 venue.

PRC must commit, inside the peace movement, to every struggle against wars, against NATO and against all foreign military basis, starting from Vicenza and must commit for the withdrawal of Italian troops in war scenarios.

5.
The Congress believes is necessary to re-launch the party and the strategic project of Communist Refoundation and commits its new leadership group to promote and encourage a real and pluralistic political and theoretical debate that keep on tracks innovation and political research. In this framework, the research on the non-violence issue is for us not only a metaphysic absolute but a struggle practice inside conflicts and inside criticism to power.

At the same time is very important to deepen the analysis on contemporary capitalism morphology, to widen the research on the new class composition and on the ways in which conflict must be organised. 

Party re-launching is impossible without taking care of the party itself. The Congress commits its new leadership group to act toward a party reform, particularly questioning its monosexual and politically separated character, readdressing the issues stressed by Carrara’s Organizational Conference.

Is necessary to avoid any degeneration of the party in a leaderistic and plebiscitary way as any subordination of the party both to the institutional representation and to top level relations with other political forces.

The Unitarian ruling of the party, respecting possible internal dialectics inside all levels of leadership, must be understood as a participation of decision making process and not as sole right of criticism of the decision taken by the majority or, even worse, taken by a close number of leaders.

Democracy is not just any form of party’s functioning. It has not to be reduced to sole dialectic among different positions neither to be confused in anyway with plebiscitary forms of consensus.  Membership must be a tool of participation into party life, to its political projects, ant to its decisions. Never has to be reduce into a bureaucratic instrument of internal counting. Democracy needs free and informed participation to the decision taking processes about the main political agenda and the most important choices. In this framework gender democracy is an essential element for society transformation towards a world in which equality and differences are founding elements of critical, concerned and gender based subjectivities self-constitution.

 The leadership groups at all levels do not have to be addressed by an elite logic instead they must  be based upon the principle of responsibility. Main goals of the new leadership groups are: responsibilities’ turnovers, avoiding responsibilities overlapping among party and institutional-government roles, constant renewal of party bodies together with the  overcoming of the its mono sexual character, introduction of ethical codes related to behaviours connected to privileges. 

The Congress commits its new leadership groups to work with proper tools in order to improve the political training of all its members, militants and national leaders.

Chianciano, 27 July 2008

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