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PARTISAN REVIEW
we have great strength . Either we can insist on forming the government
together-on the condition that we can agree upon and follow a policy–
or we can remain in the opposition, but together. If we remain together
in the opposition, we can oblige the small parties to change their position,
and we will engender a process of disaggregation and decomposition
amongst the social and political forces which are now united in the
Christian Democratic Party. That is the ultimate issue we seek, and it
could bring about-not immediately and with many conflicts-our aim,
the disaggregation of the Christian Democrats . In that sense, this Parlia–
ment can eventually have a government of the left.
Birnbaum:
Of course, we could anticipate the emergence of some kind of
left Catholic grouping based on intellectuals and the working class , now
formally with the Christian Democrats . Presumably, to the extent of ten
percent of the electorate they would leave the Christian Democrats and
form their own party, or in part join the Socialists or Communists. Yet
earlier
you
spoke of the majority of fifty-one percent as insufficient for a
social transformation, for socialism. We would then have some fifty–
seven percent. There has been an American tutelage of Italy , which we
hope will change with the next administration ; doesn 't the putative dis–
aggregation of the Christian Democrats again pose the question of foreign
intervention? Foreign intervention could take the form of economic pres–
sure through the European Economic Community, or it could take other
forms-up to and including incitement of a civil war . I take it that this is
what Berlinguer is afraid of- in Chile, after all , the Christian Democrats
underwent just that disaggregation. What would
you
say to that?
Castel/ina:
First, let's consider foreign intervention . We can't imagine that
the United States would send Marines to Italy : that is impossible . But
what could be done would
be
to bring about a lot of difficulties to mangle
our economy. In any case, Italy has
to
take stringent and independent
measures
if
it wants a kind of recovery from the crisis not now envisaged
by large scale capital, a kind of recovery in which we would stand on our
own feet, count upon our own forces . This would mean a number of sac–
rifices. We have
to
renegotiate certain clauses of the Common Market
agreements, so that we can reduce agricultural imports. We will have to
invest much more in agriculture than we've done up to now, and the profits
in agriculture are lower than in other sections of the economy. These mea–
sures can be taken if there is a homogenous political force able to accept
difficult decisions: the Italian people, the Italian working class, can be
asked to make sacrifices-but only if they see that they have a government
which is really theirs . Under the Christian Democrats, they will never be
ready to make the sacrifices . In any case, there will be economic difficul-
