from ‘World Outlook! After the summer psuse, the situation in Italy is again stirring. The big topics under discussion in the workers parties are Vietnam and the unification of the Social emocrats. Vietnam is becoming an increasingly hot subject and the Communist Jeaders find it more and more difficult to convince the rank and file that the Soviet policy of playing dead is correct. In any local of the PCI(Italian Communist Party) where the issue comes up on the agenda, left and richt-wingers clash, The editorial that appeared in Sartre's magazine 'Les Temps “odernes', calling on the Soviet leaders to initiate a "counterescalation" to deter ashington in Vietnam, has aroused great interest among militants in spite of the attempts of 'L'Unita', the PCI organ, to criticize it under the signature of its associate editor. Closely connected with Vietnam are the events in China. So far, the PCI hes been unable to come up with a satisfactory analysis of what is going on. any Communist militants wonder about the signif -icance of the events 2nd criticise their party for confining inforn-tion to sources in the bourgeois press. The pro-liao tendency in the PCI, at least the one not tied to pro-‘lao groups outside the party, is growing more and more critical of the Mao government, particularly in regard to their rejecting. an anti-imperialist front to aid Vietnam. During August, a minor incident affected 'Mondo Nuomo', the official weekly of the PSIUP(the leftist socialist party that split from Nenni's party). ‘hile General Secretary Vecchietti was on holiday in the USSR, a member of the editorial staff published a rather pro-Chinese article on the front page. The paper likewise published some “hinese documents ignored by the Communist press and other interesting documents ignored by 'L'Unita' such as the editorial in ‘Les temps Modernes'. As soon as Vecchietti got back he hastened to issue an extremely pro-lMoscow statement, to assure the Soviet leaders that the pro- Chinese article was but an incident. However, he was unable to move against the author of the article, since he had to take into account the unusually favourable response which that particular issue of '!ondo Nuovo' had evoked among its readers. But the warmest topic is the Social-Democratic unification. In the PSI(Nenni's party)and the PSDI(the party founded by Saragat, the incumbent president of Italy, out of a split from “enni's party), the delivery is taking place with no birth pains, A relatively small group of PSI left-wingers have refused to go along. But the top left-wing leaders, including Lombardi and Scanti, have stated that they will join the new party, while reserving the right to s&ssue public statements against the leadership when the situation warrants such action. It is reported that Lombardi got in touch with the PCI to find out whether they would let him publish his own magazine as a tendency organ if he should join. The Comiunist leaders, despite all their talk about a united party of the Italian workers, would not sgree to endanger their bureaucratic grip by grenting such tendency rizhts. In the present situatio~ in the party it might set off a chain reaction of similar demands. Thus Lombardi and his followers were left with the alternative of joining the Social Democratic party where they can at least maintain their label while dissppearing from view in the quicksand. The document sealing the unification- once it is approved '?~ a very formal congress set up by the two parties- is one of the thinnest to s+ appear in Italy in many years. The capitulation of the PSI is complete...But if the unification is causing no great embarassment to the PSI and PSDI, it is likely to become a bone of contention among the Communists. The PCI leadership is formally criticizing the operation; at the same time it is preparing to open 4 dialogue with the new united party instead of fighting it politically.
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