MANIFESTO FOR THE GENERAL ELECTION

Il Comunista, April 21, 1921

To the Italian proletarians

Proletarians!

The Communist Party of Italy takes to the electoral terrain to reaffirm, in the midst of the great masses of the working people, the watchword, more historically relevant and vigorous than ever, of the Communist International and the world revolution.

A great work must be carried out by the proletarian vanguard, by the most faithful and devoted militants of the working class, a work of reorganisation of the revolutionary ranks, of reconstruction of faith and will, of rearrangement of the forces necessary for defence and attack.

The Communist Party, inspired by the teachings of the history of modern proletarian revolutions and the body of doctrine elaborated by the Second World Congress of the Communist International, is persuaded of the necessity and usefulness of using the electoral period to realise these ends, and calls upon the best elements of the proletariat and the peasant class to mobilise around its banners all those who have preserved in the chaos and anguish of the present moment, a steadfast character and the tenacious intention to fight ceaselessly for the ideals of the oppressed and exploited classes, to hearten the disheartened and the dispersed, so that from this immense decomposition of the Italian revolutionary armies the new armies of redemption may be created, and the Caporetto of demagogic and armchair maximalism may be succeeded by the proletarian Vittorio Veneto. This great work must be done and will be done courageously, with a spirit of sacrifice and discipline, without infatuation for immediate successes, without discouragement for the difficulties to be faced, with the serenity and perseverance that must be proper to the revolutionary communist, who assesses the historical moment to be overcome, recognises the need for the specific work to be provided, and forges and welds a new link in the historical chain that leads to the emancipation of his class and the liberation of humanity.

Comrade workers!

These elections must show exactly and precisely what degree of political awareness and spiritual clarity the broad masses of the Italian working class have reached. The elections of 1919 were the trial of the ruling class of Italian society, of the bourgeois politicians who in 1915 had the fate of the people in their hands and made havoc of it, who had demanded all the sacrifices from the people, promising prosperity and freedom, and kept their promise by piling up disasters and shame, misery and tyranny. The elections of 1921 must be the trial of the Socialist Party, of the political personnel that the popular classes, after the disillusionments suffered in the war, had chosen in the Socialist Party to be represented in Parliament, to administer the trade union, cooperative and municipal institutions.

To the promises made by the bourgeoisie during the war, correspond the promises made by the Socialist Party after the armistice: to one failure corresponds another failure. The broad masses of the working class had entrusted their fate to the new leadership, they had formed an immense army in the field for the supreme struggle, they were prepared to face all dangers and all sufferings in order to emerge from the hell of capitalist exploitation and to begin, protected by a strong proletarian state, the work of elaborating and building a new civilisation on communist foundations. The uncertainties, hesitations, and fears of the Socialist Party led to the collapse of the proletarian army. The Socialist Party has revealed itself, especially since the communist minority emerged from its ranks, to be nothing more than a petty-bourgeois party, lacking an internationalist spirit, without faith in the revolutionary energies of the proletariat, imbued with a great admiration for bourgeois democracy and for the technical and political capacity of capitalism and its hostlers, incapable of organising the masses not only for supreme revolutionary victories, but also for the defence and preservation of the conquests already achieved and of class institutions. Every worker who is aware of the historical process of proletarian revolutions must by now be persuaded that his class will not be able to proceed any further in Italy if not over the corpse of the socialist party; he must by now be persuaded that it is not possible to conquer the bourgeoisie if he does not first clear the field of struggle of this rotting corpse, which weakens and often annihilates proletarian energies, delaying the awakening and organisation of the broad masses of the working class.

The Communist Party, without hesitation, without sentimental bitterness, certain of thus fulfilling a not inconsiderable part of its historic mission, sets its propaganda for the election period, opening fire on two fronts: against capitalist imperialism, now only capable of satisfying the vital needs of the proletarian masses with lead and the iron clubs of the white guards – and against the Socialist Party, which has disavowed the Communist International in order to exempt itself from the harsh duty of preparing the revolution, which, because it did not want to systematically prepare the working class for revolution, is incapable today of thwarting any reactionary attack, and must watch paralysed by stupor and panic as proletarian buildings are burned and destroyed and revolutionary militants are systematically massacred.

Communist proletarians!

The enlightening propaganda of the valiant theorists of international communism had prepared your spirits for the events unfolding in our country too. Therefore you are not intimidated, nor have you ever thought of amending and correcting your direction and programmes. The current events themselves are the best proof of how implacably the economic and social conditions for the advent of the workers’ state continue to exist and even deepen. If the parliamentary state can no longer guarantee fundamental freedoms to any citizen; if arbitrariness and abuse are rampant; if any private individual can with impunity replace legal authority in arresting, judging, condemning; if populations are tortured and terrorized; if the death penalty is de facto re-established against workers’ militants; all this means that the control of the productive forces now completely eludes the old ruling groups, that the established social hierarchies are irreparably broken, and that the day is not far off when an irresistible, immense uprising from the deepest popular strata against a regime that exists only as an infected excrescence of society will take place. It is now evident that capitalism cannot reorganise itself and rebuild its essential foundations other than by bringing about the death and decline of the broad popular masses.

It is also clear that further development of proletarian organisation in the old trade union, co-operative, municipal schemes has now become impossible. The peasant leagues, spread over a vast territory, cannot resist the systematic assault of the armed gangs. The great industrial workers’ unions are falling apart, as lock-outs and unemployment disarticulate the old workers, and redundancies drive the best proletarian elements out of the factories and towns, depriving the organisations of their agents and their living connective links. In the town halls, one of the fundamental theses of the Communist International is revealed with resounding clarity: when class struggle reaches its most acute phase, every oratorical duel between oppressed and oppressors in the elective assemblies becomes useless and ridiculous, and the domination of a single class, either the bourgeoisie or the proletariat, becomes imperative.

In Italy, the bourgeoisie chases workers’ representatives out of the municipalities with guns in their hands, forces socialist administrations to resign, and asserts its will to monopolise local powers with violence. The bourgeoisie itself therefore teaches the masses the path to follow in order to maintain the level of organisation achieved and to create the conditions for further development until total emancipation: the conquest of all state powers, class dictatorship, the use of proletarian armed force to crush bourgeois terrorism and to impose on the bourgeoisie, in the grip of dissolution and disorder, respect for laws,  and the law of productive labour.

Comrade workers!

The economic and social premises for the proletarian revolution and the founding of the workers’ state exist. What is still lacking are the spiritual premises: a precise political orientation of the broad masses, a concrete direction for action, the recognition by the broad masses of a central political organism that is capable of issuing passwords that resonate in the universal proletarian consciousness as the inescapable commands of history. You must, comrades, work actively, in this period of agitation of ideas and programmes, to make the Communist Party known, to make it alive and operative in the proletarian consciousness, to dispel the legends and calumnies that the mercenary press cunningly spreads about it, you must work so that the Communist Party becomes the greatest power in Italy, just as the Communist International has already become the greatest power in the world. Comrades, you must, with pride, support your party and its programmes; you must instil in the masses your persuasion and absolute confidence that only by implementing these programmes can the salvation of the working people from barbarization and physical and moral degeneration be achieved.

Yes, only in the revolutionary proletariat is the principle of order to be found today, which can reorganise the productive forces dispersed and squandered by capitalist imperialism; only in the Sovietist system, proper to proletarian civilisation, can the atrocious war that is tearing society apart find a repression; only in the Communist International, which has become the world government of the productive forces and the working masses of the entire world, can humanity resume its unitary development towards ever higher forms of coexistence and culture. Comrades, with the unshakable faith in the destinies of your class and in the energy of the proletarian vanguard to implement them, which you will spread in this period among the demoralised and disoriented masses, you must reconstitute the Italian armies of the world revolution and the Communist International; It is revolutionary work that the Communist Party is calling you to, it is work that must be done and that you will do, mobilising all your energies, concentrating all the passion and will of which loyal and devoted soldiers of a great ideal are capable.

Italian workers!

The Communist International, which demands your enthusiasm, is the movement of your redemption and emancipation. The Communist Party must become, through your work, the only political party of the Italian working class.

Long live the Italian proletariat, definitively liberated from the opportunists and renegades! 

Long live the Communist International! 

Long live the world revolution!

The Central Committee