Bella Ciao

In response to: "Get your priorities right" 1133 days old
by Harry Perkins [Visitor]

Let battle commence!

http://reclaimlabour.blogspot.com/ more…

In response to: "Football fascists" 1308 days old
by leonora [Member]

our house is near Livorno...the Livornese are rightly proud of their reputation as the reddest town in 'Red Tuscany". In other words, I think the Livornese are perfectly aware of what they are doing when they sing "Bella Ciao"! (Good for them!) more…

In response to: "Bye bye Berlusconi" 1319 days old
by bellaciao [Member]

From what I can see the rest of Berlusconi's coalition are already planning for the post-Berlusconi era and just wish he would shut up. I don't think anyone seriously thinks there could be a grand coalition here, not after the vicious election campaign, and I suspect the rest of the right would rather re-group than try and hang on. They desperately more…

In response to: "Anti-war demo, 18 March" 1319 days old
by leonora [Member]

Just to say...we share your views, there was quite a big anti-war demo in London that day as well. more…

In response to: "Bye bye Berlusconi" 1319 days old
by leonora [Member]

Ciao! Siamo adesso a Livorno...siamo felici, che Prodi abbbia finalmente vinto!
(It was a close-run thing...we're still not sure whether Berlusconi has actually conceded defeat!) more…

In response to: "Bye bye Berlusconi" 1319 days old
by Matt [Visitor]

How is Berlusconi's refusal to accept the result (and his demanding a grand coalition) being intrepreted?

When Schröder refused to accept he'd lost (with even less justification) and demanded to continue being Chancellor (possibly in a grand coalition) people laughed about it - but Schröder's style is quite different to Berlusconi's. N more…

In response to: "Bye bye Berlusconi" 1319 days old
by bellaciao [Member]

They did stand candidates in the north and have won seats in nearly all the northern regions.

In my local branch I haven't seen anything to suggest that people would want to rejoin with the Comunisti Italiani, but they aren't necessarily representative of the party as a whole (the activists here seem to be more on the left). more…

In response to: "Bye bye Berlusconi" 1320 days old
by Scott [Visitor]

just wondering why the RC did not stand candidates in the north is this historical or more tactical.

also is there a feeling that the RC will re join with PCI seeing as they have now re joined the coaliton again. I gather most CPers will be older, I met what looked like a mostly Older RC in fact the speakers looked the younger of the more…

In response to: "Rifondazione shenanigans" 1347 days old
by Mark P [Visitor]

The various internal factions of Rifondazione are enough to make the head spin - particularly as the various "Trotskyist" groups are not necessarily on the left of the organisation. Erre for instance, the second largest Trotskyist group and the USFI section, has been on the right wing of the party for many years, generally supporting the leadership more…

In response to: "Cartoon minister quits" 1358 days old
by kaowinston ^Pro

Great to see someone writing about politics. And coming from Italy, all the more interesting. He desrved to go; his stunt was a 'worldwide' embarrassment. Keep writng.

Check out my 'On the Move'.

more…

In response to: "Rifondazione shenanigans" 1371 days old
by bellaciao [Member]

They did, as expected, remove Ferrando as a candidate. more…

In response to: "Everybody in PACS" 1399 days old
by bellaciao [Member]

The membership turnover may - in part - be a product of the Italian system of 'tesseramento', whereby political parties (and many other organisations) have a single round of membership card issuing each year. So if, for example, you join the party in November 2005, you're no longer a member come January 2006. more…

In response to: "Everybody in PACS" 1402 days old
by Mark P [Visitor]

I think that the internal workings of Rifondazione are still a bit of a mystery to many of its members! It seems to be a remarkably fluid organisation or at least to have a highly permeable boundary. Their reported membership turnover is phenomenal, recruiting and losing tens of thousands a year.

I get the impression though that this more…

In response to: "condom craziness" 1403 days old
by Janine [Visitor]

Is it just a case of trying not to offend Catholic voters?

Could it be that Rifondazione are getting drawn into the political 'game' of simply rubbishing whatever your opponents say, whatever its actual content?

BTW, I have no evidence for this, just speculating. There is a path well worn by lefties who move from the fring more…

In response to: "Everybody in PACS" 1405 days old
by bellaciao [Member]

I’m working on it! The internal workings of Rifondazione are still a bit of a mystery to me, to be honest. I have met someone from the Young Communists and someone from the Falce Martello tendency and will keep this blog updated with my progress. more…

In response to: "Everybody in PACS" 1406 days old
by Mark P [Visitor]

Sounds interesting. The annual pride march here in Dublin tends to have a left presence consisting only of Labour Youth and Socialist Youth (the Labour and Socialist Party youth wings unsurprisingly). It's not the most political event in the world, perhaps surprisingly in a country where male gay sex was illegal until fairly recently.

more…

In response to: "condom craziness" 1422 days old
by Matt [Visitor]

"...but the idea that free contraception is somehow a bad thing, or beside the point, is clearly ridiculous."

Clear to me, clear to you. Here in Germany, contraception (the pill) is only free to women up to the age of 18 (or is it 16?). Family planning? Forget it? One of the main tenets of German politics is encouraging people to have more…

In response to: "all legal now" 1422 days old
by Matt [Visitor]

Germany's rules (and the bureaucracy) are very similar. A problem when getting my residence permit was the fact that no-one seems to be aware that Britain is a member of the EU...

In Britain you don't need a residence permit as an "EU-foreigner", do you? Sometimes I get the impression (also based on talking to other people working in o more…

In response to: "Football fascists" 1438 days old
by dannicho [Member]

I'm really glad that DiCanio isn't at my club, West Ham, anymore. If he did the same thing in the U.K. he would receive a lengthy ban, but the Italians seem to think that paltry fines suffice. As the presenter of "Football Italia" said the other day, racism is another problem that Serie A seem content to sweep underneath their already bulging carp more…

In response to: "condom craziness" 1443 days old
by Darren [Visitor]

Political differences aside, I enjoy reading your blog as I've always been fascinated with Italian left politics.

My Italian is non-existant but you may be interested in the following Italian political blog:

http://worldsocialism.blog.excite.it/ more…

In response to: "Another Europe?" 1459 days old
by M [Visitor]

The Weekly Worker's report says this:

"As usual, the British contingent was rather small. Apart from myself and Hilary Wainwright (Red Pepper), there were three members from Workers Power and Kat Fletcher, former president of the National Union of Students, who currently lives in Italy."

I think osmething needs to be corre more…

In response to: "Abortion pill - trial back on" 1465 days old
by bellaciao [Member]

I think it's a bit more complicated than that report suggests. What has happened is that since the Turin pilot re-started, various other regions have given the go-ahead to doctors who want to prescribe the abortion pill RU486 (not the morning-after pill). They are not bothering with trials, saying quite rightly that if it can be used safely in the more…

In response to: "Abortion pill - trial back on" 1465 days old
by Janine [Visitor]

Did I read somewhere that the Italian government is considering making women who access the morning-after pill talk to anti-abortion counsellors beforehand?

Yuck. How to make a horrible situation even more horrible. more…

In response to: "Beyond satire - Berlusconi latest" 1479 days old
by wensum24 [Member]

oh...what can make of politicans???
in the uk we are being led by someone so out of touch with his own party and the people it's laughable.
but we do not stand up enough in the uk.

did your friend from forza italia call back yet? :)

nice interesting blog.
take care more…

In response to: "Primaries - comments from the Rifondazione left" 1482 days old
by bellaciao [Member]

Ovviamento posso capire perché ci sono molte persone che vogliono che sia sconfitto il governo Berlusconi e per questo motive credono che il PRC debba essere unito con gli altri partiti della sinistra. Ma quello che non posso capire è come – se vincesse le elezioni – il centro-sinistra potrebbe governare insieme quando i partiti hanno i programmi t more…

In response to: "Primaries - comments from the Rifondazione left" 1483 days old
by sonolaico [Visitor]

non penso che a Rifondazione e al paese faccia bene assumere una posizione come quella che si auspica Cannavò.
Ma che dentro Liberazione (per cui anche Cannavò lavora) ci sia un po' troppo poca democrazia interna, con il segretario Bertinotti continuamente incensato di pregi da parte della Gagliardi e di Sansonetti, devo purtroppo notarlo. < more…

In response to: "More on the student protests" 1490 days old
by menhir [Member]

Ciao,

I have sent the links to my daughter who is at university here in the UK.

Mi dispiace che c'é questo fiasco. Penso io l'educazione e la ricercha sono delle piu importante sviluppa nella nostra civilizazione; senso questi dove ci saremmo? more…

In response to: "Primary colour" 1496 days old
by Daniel Nichols [Visitor]

Two questions:

1.) Does the fact that the PRC are now going to stand their own independent list mean that they have now pulled out of the L'Unione coalition!

2.) Why is participation in politics in Italy so high? They seem to be bucking the trend of most western democracies. more…

In response to: "Engineering workers protest" 1501 days old
by bellaciao [Member]

I think that at most workplaces all the federations have a branch. There seems to be a lot of national collective bargaining over contracts - in this case all the unions representing engineering workers sit down with the engineering bosses' organisation and negotiate a contract (or fail to). Similarly when the journalists were on strike last week i more…

In response to: "Engineering workers protest" 1501 days old
by Mark [Visitor]

How are the unions organsied in Italy. At Ducati for instance do all the federations have a branch? Do they have elections for which union negotiates as they do in France? If not how do the different unions negotiate with? Are there national aggreements that deal with this sort of thing? more…