The Italian Communist Party (Italian: Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy.
The PCI was founded as Communist Party of Italy on 21 January 1921 in Livorno, by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI). Amadeo Bordiga and Antonio Gramsci led the split. Outlawed during the Fascist regime, the party played a major part in the Italian resistance movement. It changed its name in 1943 to PCI and became the strongest political party of the Italian left after World War II, attracting the support of about a third of the voters during the 1970s. At the time it was the biggest communist party in the West (2.3 million members in 1947 and 34.4% of the vote in 1976). In 1991 the PCI was disbanded and replaced by the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS), which was accepted in both the Socialist International and the Party of European Socialists. The more radical members of the party left to form the Communist Refoundation Party (PRC). The PCI was the largest communist party in Western Europe.
Read more about Italian Communist Party: Leadership
Famous quotes containing the words italian, communist and/or party:
“Until recently the word fascist was considered shameful. Fortunately, that period has passed. In fact, there is now a reassessment of how much grandpa Benito did for Italy.”
—Alessandra Mussolini, Italian actor, politician, and medical student. As quoted in Newsweek magazine, p. 19 (February 17, 1992)
“I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.”
—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)
“Whoever has provoked men to rage against him has always gained a party in his favor, too.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)