(from I.S. Information Bulletin)
An Italian edition of Trotsky's writings 1926-36 has recently been published. Its publication gave rise to well attended public debates. in Rome and Milan. At the Rome debate (covered by Italian Radio and Television —- RAI-TV) the proceedings were opened by Livio Maitan, secretary of the Fourth International.
The next speaker, Raniero Panzieri, a leading member of the Italian (Nenni) Socialist Party, vigourously criticised bureaucractic leadership. It is thanks to Trotsky, he said, that there has been no discontinuity in Marxist. thought between the death of Lenin and our time. He insisted that Trotsky's writings be re-integrated in the common heritage of the workers' movement, and that serious study be made of tha,
This demana was then supported by Lucio Colletti, a lecturer at the central school of the Italian Communist Party, who declared that reading these works of Trotsky had been a revelation for him. He found there, he said, the most penetrating analysis ever made of fascism and of the tactics needed to defeat it, by the big workers! organisations and by the German Communist Party in particular. He aslo paid tribute to Trotsky's analysis of the development of the colonial revolution today. The lively discussion which followed included a contribution by one of the editors of the C.P. daily "Unita". The speeches of Maitin and Panzieri were later broadcast by RAI.
During March in Milan, a club of left-wing intellectuals organised a discussion, under the title "Trotsky as a theoretician and politician." Maitin again spoke, as did Lucio Magri, member of the Lombardy Region executive of the Communist Party.
The debate was on ta high theoretical and political levels; there was no attempt to distort the political position of Trotsky or of the Fourth International, For the first time in many years, the real ideas of Trotsky and the Fourth International were discussed in Cammunist Party circles.
The most debated themes were those of the positions of Lenin and Trotsky in 1905, the theory of Permanent Revolution, and the theory of Socialism in One Country. On these points decided differences emerged, with Lucio Magri denying the validity of Trotskyist positions as far as the more advanced countries are concerned, whereas Livio Maitin affirmed their validity in the advanced countries.
Press reviews of the book included the following from "Paesa Sera", evening daily of the Communist Party (April lst):
“seoeesthey are works of combat, we might say, which were written in the heat'iof the struggle, so to speak, for journals and reviews, in order to give a lead to the workers' movement.
"This is the first time that these writings have appeared in the Italian language, and it was stated last night that they complete and make more precise the thought of Trotsky as already known through his main works. In particular, having been written at special moments in the history of the political strugcle, they give the lie to the traditional conception of a Trotsky who, as man and theoretician, was attached to certain fixed themes, certain ideal aspirations, but was incapable of giving conerete answers on the political level. Trotsky would not be, then, simply the man of great historical intuitions, but also a tactician, with a profound knowledge of economic questions. With his ideas connected with the theory of the permanent revolution, he would have comprehenisd in a clear-sighted manner the enomsus possibilities which opened up for the Guropean proletariat and for certain countries in porticular (France, Germany, Spain) once seen in connection with the perspectives of economic development existing in the Soviet Union..."
The reviewer in "La Gazetta del Popolo" (March 30) wrote:
",eeeeTrotsky never deceived himself on the peril from fascism: the followers of Stalin, on the contrary, unda@estimated the German crisis, and instead of making common cause against the imminent dictatorship, they ferociously attacked the Social—Democrats.e.ec.
"Trotsky's figure henceforth belongs to history. Over 20 years have passed since his tragic death, and the ripening of events has turned out to give yet again a clear confirmation of the correctness of his predictions. The histo-— rical stature of Leon Trotsky will henceforth be recognised by all; but few indeed are those who have teken up again the thoyghts or studied the work of his bitter years, his years (after 1930) of exile...."
In "Il Giorno" (IMarch 28th): ".....Neither in the USSR today, nor offi— cially on the part of the Western Commnist Parties, is there any intention of proceeding to an objective revaluation of Trotsky. At bottom, the reason for this attitude is the one Livio Maitin combats energetically in his presentation to the publicof his translation of a collection of Trotsky's work. Trotsky, it is said, at certain times was indeed right as a critic and oppositionist. But, in substance, events have justified Stalinisn...Maitin (who is the most coherent and active pro— pagandist for Trotskyism in Italy) vigorously attacks this manner of reasoning..."
It is worth noting that the Communist Party review, "Rinascita', includes the book in its list of new publications, and that it is on sale on the Italian Communist Party bookshops.
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