IV340 - May 2002

The first round of the French presidential election provoked a real trauma, particularly among the masses and traditional left supporters. The final election will be a run off between outgoing president Jacques Chirac, a particularly corrupt rightwing figure, and Jean-Marie Le Pen, representative of the racist and fascist far right.

Since Sunday April 21, 2002 a massive movement, essentially made up of young people, has erupted onto the streets of France.

The Front National is a current that represents a direct continuity with Vichy, fascism and the Nazi crimes of World War II. Tonight I share the sadness of millions of people in the face of this advance of the far right.

The score of the far left in the first round of the French presidential election is a major political event even if it has been relativised by the electoral success of the Front National.

For a week now demonstrations against Le Pen and the Front National have continued. Hundreds of thousands of young people are expressing their anger against the far right.

The Fifth Congress of the Italian Partito della Rifondazione Comunista (PRC) which took place in Rimini from April 4th-7th 2002 was an extraordinary event. In the pages that follow we assess the conference and publish extracts of speeches and resolutions.

At its fifth congress since its foundation in 1991, Italy’s Party of Communist Refoundation confirmed its specific, indeed unique, character in the history of the Italian workers’ movement. It would today be difficult to find its equivalent not only among the parties of the European left, but also among those parties which identify with the working class and socialism in Europe and other continents.

With this conference our party completes a determined and innovative step forward in the process of refounding modern thought and communist action to meet the great challenge that faces us with the deep transformations taking place in the capitalist system world-wide in the current phase of globalisation.

On April 16 2002 around13 million Italians took part in a general strike in opposition to the social policies of the Berlusconi government.

In today’s world there are two great antagonistic currents, two long-waves that are destined to mark the future of the humanity, of work and life. They go in opposite directions. The first is a cold current speaking the language of competition, the supremacy of the market and commodities, of the economy, of domination and war. The other, a warm current, speaks the languages of the people, of another possible world, of peace; and is critical of this economy. Our individual and collective destiny depends on which of the two prevail.