NORMAN BIRNBAUM
589
Fanfani was right: Italian Catholicism has changed, and with it, the country.
The long march of the Communists to electoral respectability owes much to
the founder of the party, Gramsci. Gramsci held that the Italian left had ftrst
to become an integral part of Italian culture . By fusing Marxism with the
Italian republican tradition, by treating the Catholics not as enemies but as
belonging to a different but related spiritual family, the Communists have
made ofMarxism something indigenous. They have also created an alliance of
intellectuals and workers of unusual durability and texture. The third gener–
ation of descendants of Garibaldi and Mazzini (and sometimes Cavour) are
found on the left, and not infrequently among the Communists.
The Communists have also been able to present themselves as a party of
moderation and order. The right has employed a " strategy of tension ." The
Christian Democrats have connections with the neofascists, the Mafta, and the
military secret services . A series of attempted coups d'etat , kidnappings,
bombings, wildcat strikes by dubious " unionists ," terrorists with" revolu–
tionary" slogans and police subventions, have polluted the Italian political
climate for years . The strategy is clear : create an atmosphere of disorder, and
open the way either for a fascist takeover by the military-or for severe repres–
sion by a Christian Democratic Party standing for order. The strategy has
failed , not least owing to a free press and the devotion to democracy of a large
number ofItalians who are not leftists but republicans. It has also cast great
discredit on the United States, whose ties with some of the more political
elements in the Italian armed forces are close . In any event, the Communists
have been able to advance their claim of adherence to constitutional and
republican principles with considerable plausibility.
The Communists now are the largest party in Bologna, Florence, Naples,
Venice , Turin , Milan , and Rome. They do not yet seek entry into the govern–
ment. Instead , they continue to pursue the " historical compromise" pro–
posed by Berlinguer, their secretary . Berlinguer (whose associates include
some Catholic Communists) has argued that the party and the left generally
ought not to seek power through a frontal collision with Italian Catholicism.
Indeed, that collision is unnecessary : many Catholics favor the creation of a
different kind of national community, and are enemies of the values of
capitalism . The Communists , the Italian left generally, have already won a
major place for Marxism in Italian culture. Rather than push toward immedi–
ate hegemony , why not let history do its work in more subtle fashion? By
joining the Christian Democrats in government to reform state and society,
the Communists can extend their influence-and meet their responsibilities
as a party in which a third of the electorate has reposed its conftdence . For the
moment , the Communists ask (with insistence) to be consulted-that is, to
have a major and not so silent share in the coalition supporting the govern-
