The French Communist Party and the Algerian war : an ideological turning point?

The subject-matter of this thesis is the interaction between the Parti Communiste Français and the National Liberation struggle in Algeria , and the debate that ensued within the Party itself.For a detailed study of the Party ' s line on the war, PCF publications were contrasted with the texts produced by the opposition.Three main axes were identified crystallising discussion within the Party during the Algerian war: The relationship between France and Algeria and the Party ' s attitude to the French nation; The nature of the Algerian nation and its genesis; France's military engagement in Algeria.The dichotomy between the Party's national and internationalist responsibilities is shown to have resolved itself by the fundamental integration of the PCF into the political structure and value system of the French Republic. This study demonstrates the birth of a substantial internal opposition to the PCF during the Algerian war.

Between Nation and State: Albanian Associations from Ottoman Origins to a Communist Party, 1880 - 1945

This dissertation addresses the broader antecedents of the Communist Party of Albania (CPA) as one of a number of associations whose experience was central to Albanian political history. This long experience dates back to the informal national associations formed in the Ottoman Empire of the late nineteenth century. The dissertation examines the role of these associations which, pursuing language rights and political representation through imperial state reforms, set a pattern that struggled to connect nation and state, rather than asserting the territorial demands for a nation-state familiar across the region. Starting out in the Ottoman Empire, but then maturing in the Albanian diaspora in Romania, Bulgaria, Egypt and the United States, this dissertation shows politically significant processes of longer-term adaptation that created informal associations as institutional structures able to channel collective action. It then traces the reframing of these patterns through their destruction in the Balkan Wars and the First World War to the emergence of communist associations in the interwar period and beyond. This dissertation is a sustained study that traces long-term Ottoman imperial political legacies in the Albanian successor state. The story of the associations, based on hitherto unexamined archival documents, shows that the Albanians possessed a far greater capacity for political mobilization that previously acknowledged by historians. Moreover, the dissertation successfully challenges the conventional wisdom that portrays the Albanians as irreparably divided along sectarian and regional faultlines. It finds that Albanian national activism was civic in character rather than ethnic as elsewhere in the Balkans. The Albanians fought to remain within a multinational framework because this afforded them political security, social advancement and potential economic growth. In the late Ottoman period, this political objective was manifested in the acceptance of the supranational imperial order whereas during the Second World War, in the aspiration to become members of the Comintern internationalist movement. Another important find, is the newly-discovered evidence concerning the founding of the CPA and its wartime conduct as an organization created and led by the Albanians themselves, albeit with Yugoslav ideological assistance under the transnational umbrella of the Comintern.

Crise da esquerda comunista: políticas do PCI e do PCP sobre a união europeia

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

La base e il vertice. Uno studio sul Pci in Emilia-Romagna negli anni del compromesso storico (1972-1979)

La ricerca analizza la relazione che intercorre tra la linea politica del Pci e il modo in cui tale linea viene interpretata dalla base del partito in Emilia-Romagna negli anni Settanta.

La dialettica centro-periferia nella formazione e selezione della classe dirigente comunista. Il caso della Toscana (1945-1991)

Il problema storico che è al centro di questo progetto di ricerca può essere così riassunto: in che modo viene selezionata la classe dirigente comunista nell’Italia repubblicana? Ovvero, detto in altri termini, in che misura le nomine dipendevano dal centro, per cooptazione, secondo la tradizione del modello di partito centralizzato, e quanto, invece, costituivano una ratifica alta di processi di selezione che si sviluppavano in periferia? Quanto contava, insomma, l’aver avuto lo scettro del comando nei territori di provenienza per ricoprire incarichi direttivi nel partito a livello nazionale? La nostra ricerca vuole quindi verificare la validità di alcuni paradigmi interpretativi, scaturiti da un’analisi complessiva della politica comunista, prendendo in esame un caso di studio locale, quello di una regione «rossa» per antonomasia come la Toscana. Tenendo conto, contestualmente, della realtà nazionale e di quella locale, cercheremo di analizzare, le ricadute che processi di portata nazionale ebbero sulla realtà locale, e in particolare, sulle modalità che regolavano la selezione della classe dirigente, dando alla ricerca un taglio prosopografico.

Centro-sinistra e autonomia speciale. La DC trentina tra il 1955 e il 1968

La tesi è una ricerca di storia politica che affianca due diverse “storie” di centro-sinistra, quella nazionale e quella che vide protagonista la Democrazia Cristiana del Trentino. Lo studio analizza i fatti attraverso il filtro delle DC come se quello trentino e quello nazionale fossero due partiti, per poi tentare di capire ciò che accadeva alla loro sinistra alla ricerca dei diversi pesi e dei differenti equilibri che al centro e alla periferia si manifestavano nei rapporti con il PSI e con il PCI, e per osservare le reazioni della Chiesa così da valutare se le gerarchie romane e quelle trentine interagirono in modo differente sugli sviluppi delle rispettive esperienze politiche di quegli anni. Il testo è organizzato in quattro capitoli. Il primo e il secondo (speculari e dedicati allo stesso lustro: 1955-1960) rappresentano un confronto tra i differenti iter d’avvicinamento al centro-sinistra che la politica nazionale e quella trentina sperimentarono nella seconda metà degli anni Cinquanta. Nel terzo capitolo (1960-1964) e nel quarto (1964-1968) le vicende nazionali e quelle locali sono invece raccontate in modo intrecciato, ripercorrendo le diverse fasi dell’alleanza tra Democrazia Cristiana e Partito Socialista, e nel contempo dando conto della trasformazione del Trentino da una realtà di tipo agricolo ad una di tipo industriale, del passaggio da una comunità di tipo cattolico tradizionale ad una che si accinge a vivere in un contesto secolarizzato, e da una società che si autopercepisce come periferica ad una che ospita una delle contestazioni studentesche più peculiari, incisive e note d’Italia.

Sinistra extraparlamentare e Partito comunista in italia 1968-1976

La ricerca affronta il rapporto tra il Partito comunista italiano e le organizzazioni della sinistra extraparlamentare nate nel biennio 1968-1969. Sulla base di documentazione d’archivio e fonti a stampa, vengono ricostruite ed analizzate le relazioni tra questi due soggetti nel periodo compreso tra la fine degli anni Sessanta e la metà del decennio successivo, quando i principali gruppi politici della sinistra extraparlamentare si dotarono di una struttura organizzativa più stabile che segnava una discontinuità con l’esperienza precedente. Nel corso della prima metà degli anni Settanta, i rapporti tra il PCI e queste organizzazioni furono complessi e talvolta contraddittori. Il conflitto si consumò prevalentemente sulla reciproca pretesa di possedere l’esclusiva rappresentanza politica del fermento sociale che attraversava il paese in quegli anni: il PCI rappresentando se stesso come l’unica forza politica capace di mediare tra movimenti sociali e istituzioni; i gruppi della sinistra parlamentare come «avanguardie» di un irrealizzabile progetto «rivoluzionario».

"Un libro per ogni compagno". Case editrici e politiche per la lettura del partito comunista italiano (1944-1956)

Anche se la politica editoriale comunista rappresenta un campo di indagine fondamentale nella ricerca sul Pci, la sua attività editoriale è caduta in un oblio storico. Assumendo il libro come supporto materiale e veicolo della cultura politica comunista, e la casa editrice come canale di socializzazione, questa ricerca s’interroga sui suoi processi di costruzione e di diffusione. La ricerca si muove in due direzioni. Nel primo capitolo si è tentato di dare conto delle ragioni metodologiche dell’indagine e della messa a punto delle ipotesi di ricerca sul “partito editore”, raccogliendo alcune sfide poste alla storia politica da altri ambiti disciplinari, come la sociologia e la scienza politica, che rappresentano una vena feconda per la nostra indagine. La seconda direzione, empirica, ha riguardato la ricognizione delle fonti e degli strumenti di analisi per ricostruire le vicende del “partito editore” dal 1944 al 1956. La suddivisione della ricerca in due parti – 1944-1947 e 1947-1956 – segue a grandi linee la periodizzazione classica individuata dalla storiografia sulla politica culturale del Pci, ed è costruita su quattro fratture storiche – il 1944, con la “svolta di Salerno”; il 1947, con la “svolta cominformista”; il 1953, con la morte di Stalin e il disgelo; il 1956, con il XX Congresso e i fatti d’Ungheria – che sono risultate significative anche per la nostra ricerca sull’editoria comunista. Infine, il presente lavoro si basa su tre livelli di analisi: l’individuazione dei meccanismi di decisione politica e dell’organizzazione assunta dall’editoria comunista, esaminando gli scopi e i mutamenti organizzativi interni al partito per capire come i mutamenti strategici e tattici si sono riflessi sull’attività editoriale; la ricostruzione della produzione editoriale comunista; infine, l’identificazione dei processi di distribuzione e delle politiche per la lettura promosse dal Pci.

Mapping socialist solidarities: SWAPO, the Namibian liberation struggle, and the Global Cold War

This thesis addresses the entanglements between the Namibian liberation struggle and the global Cold War, focusing on the socialist support provided to the South West African People Organization (SWAPO), the liberation movement that fought for the independence of the country from the South African regime. This thesis aims at analyzing three socialist models of solidarity with the SWAPO’s struggle that developed especially from the late 1970s. Combining archival sources and biographical accounts, it examines the politics of solidarity with SWAPO implemented by East Germany, Cuba, and the Italian Communist Party. The interest lies in understanding how solidarity was declined and received by internal promoters and external addressees. Thus, I explore how these three actors constructed their concept of solidarity with SWAPO according to their national and ideological contexts and how this was received by the SWAPO members who experienced it in various ways. Each socialist actor promoted solidarity with SWAPO by using varying narratives, pursuing their own objectives, and employing diverse instruments, thus carrying out different and sometimes competing visions of socialism and solidarity. On its side, SWAPO was able to take advantage from such visions, as each of them could serve its different needs in diverse ways. In providing a general overview of these three solidarity policies, this thesis has the objective of highlighting the internal pluralization of the “socialist solidarity regime” while at the same time contributing to the debate on the extent of SWAPO’s commitment to socialism during the Namibian liberation struggle. It argues that, while pragmatism has always guided SWAPO during the liberation struggle and the post-independence period, and non-alignment has always been its international stance, socialism has to some extent been a model for the revolution in Namibia, to the point that it is still influencing the SWAPO party today.

Communism and Public Opinion in Queensland, 1939-1951 : An Explanation of Queensland's Vote in the 1951 Anti-Communist Referendum

The starting point of this thesis was a desire to explain the rapid demise in the popularity which the Communist Party enjoyed in Queensland during the second world war. Wartime Queensland gave the Australian Communist Party its highest state vote and six years later Queensland again gave the Communist Party its highest state vote - this time however, to ban the Party. From this I was led into exploring the changing policies, beliefs and strategies of the Party, as well as the many sub-groups on its periphery, and the shifts in public response to these. In 1939 Townsville elected Australia's first Communist alderman. Five years later, Bowen elected not only Australia's first but also the British Empire's first, Communist state government member. Of the five electorates the Australian Communist Party contested in the 1944 Queensland State elections, in none did the Party's candidate receive less than twenty per-cent of the formal vote. Not only was the Party seemingly enjoying considerable popular support but this was occurring in a State which, but for the Depression years (May 1929 - June 1932) had elected a Labor State Government at every state election since 1915. In the September 1951 Constitution Alteration Referendum, 'Powers To Deal With Communists and Communism', Queensland regist¬ered the nation's highest "Yes" majority - 55.76% of the valid vote. Only two other states registered a majority in favour of the referendum's proposals, Western Australia and Tasmania. As this research was undertaken it became evident that while various trends exhibited at the time, anti-Communism, the work of the Industrial Groups, Labor opportunism, local area feelings, ideological shifts of the Party, tactics of Communist-led unions, etc., were present throughout the entire period, they were best seen when divided into three chronological phases of the Party's history and popularity. The first period covers the consolidation of the Party's post-Depression popularity during the war years as it benefited from the Soviet Union's colossal contribution to the Allied war efforts, and this support continued for some six months or so after the war. Throughout the period Communist strength within the trade union movement greatly increased as did total Party membership. The second period was marked by a rapid series of events starting in March 1946, with Winston Churchill's "Official Opening" of the Cold War by his sweeping attack on Communism and Russia, at Fulton. Several days later the first of a series of long and bitter strikes in Communist-led unions occurred, as the Party mobil¬ized for what it believed would be a series of attacks on the working class from a ruling class, defending a capitalist system on the verge of an economic collapse. It was a period when the Party believed this ruling class was using Labor reformism as a last desperate 'carrot' to get workers to accept their lot within a capitalist economic framework. Out of the Meat Strike emerged the Industrial Groups, who waged not only a determined war against Communist trade union leadership but also encouraged the A.W.U.-influenced State Labor apparatus to even greater anti-Communist antagonisms. The Communist Party's increasing militancy and Labor's resistance to it, ended finally in the collapse of the Chifley Labor government. Characteristically the third period opens with the Communist Party making an another about-face, desperately trying to form an alliance with the Labor Party and curbing its former adventurist industrial policy, as it prepared for Menzies' direct assault. The Communist Party's activities were greatly reduced, a function of both a declining member-ship and, furthermore, a membership reluctant to confront an increasingly hostile society. In examining the changing policies, beliefs and strategies of the Party and the shifts in public response to these, I have tried to distinguish between general trends occurring within Australia and the national party, and trends peculiar to Queensland and the Queensland branch of the Party, The Communist Party suffered a decline in support and membership right across Australia throughout this period as a result of the national policies of the Party, and the changing nature of world politics. There were particular features of this decline that were peculiar to Queensland. I have, however, singled out three features of particular importance throughout the period for a short but more specifically detailed analysis, than would be possible in a purely chronological study: i.e. the Party's structure, the Party's ideological subservience to Moscow, and the general effect upon it of the Cold War.

Translating and analysing songs: three songs in the context of communist Romania

Songs were the means used by the Romanian Communist Party to ‘educate’ Romanians. Through them, Romanians were told what they had to appreciate, how grateful they were supposed to be to the regime, how great President Ceausescu was and how they had to work harder and harder so that they could be even better Communists. This paper comprises the translation of three songs composed, performed and broadcast in Communist Romania and their analysis from the point of view of communication. In translating the song, I have chosen to translate closest to the original possible meaning and meanwhile to respect to the best of my ability Low’s ‘pentathlon principle’: singability, rhyme, rhythm, naturalness and fidelity to the sense of the source text

Advertising America: VOA and Italy

With President Truman’s ‘Campaign of Truth’ in the Fifties, Voice of America (VOA) established itself as one of the most important information programmes of the US government. The 20 million dollar budget allocated to VOA in those years enabled it to employ about 1,900 people and to broadcast in 45 different languages. Italy, with its strong and threatening Communist Party, was one of VOA’s main targets. Audience research however (performed by the United States Information Agency’s Italian branch and by the Italian opinion poll company Doxa) shows that the Italians always preferred their own national network RAI. The US government therefore started to target the RAI, with the aim of placing VOA-produced programmes directly on the Italian network in order to reach a mass audience. This article looks into what went on both ‘on’ and ‘off the air’, analyzing how various Italian ‘target groups’ were addressed by VOA. Drawing on documents from the National Archives and Records Administration in both Washington DC and New York City, and from the Doxa archives in Milan, the study examines how the American government prepared itself to conquer the Italian network RAI.

Riccardo Lombardi nel socialismo italiano (1947-1964)

Il primo capitolo della tesi verte sull’ultimo anno di vita del Partito d’Azione, sulle modalità di partecipazione di Lombardi allo scontro elettorale del 1948 nelle liste del Fronte democratico popolare, e sul breve periodo di direzione ‘centrista’ del Psi a cavallo tra il 1948 e il 1949, quando Lombardi, appena entratovi, fu magna pars nel gruppo dirigente del partito. Il secondo capitolo abbraccia il periodo in cui Lombardi agì all’interno del Psi ‘morandiano’, o frontista: si è cercato di dare ragione sia dell’inserimento di Lombardi nelle logiche del frontismo socialista, sia della peculiarità di quell’inserimento negli ambiti privilegiati della politica economica e della politica estera. Oggetto del terzo capitolo è il ruolo giocato da Lombardi nella definizione delle linee guida dell’autonomismo socialista, un ruolo fattosi via via più pregnante a partire dal 1956, che ebbe la sua massima consacrazione col XXXIV Congresso del Psi, celebrato a Milano nel 1961: centrale in questo periodo la riflessione lombardiana sulle «riforme di struttura», un argomento che ci si è sforzati di inquadrare storicamente, sfuggendo dai luoghi comuni storiografici di cui spesso – con lodevoli eccezioni – è caduto vittima. Tali «riforme di struttura» Lombardi avrebbe voluto alla base dei governi di centro-sinistra. La tesi si chiude con un ultimo capitolo dedicato ad illustrare l’apporto di Lombardi al quarto Governo Fanfani e al primo Governo Moro, il ruolo da lui giocato nella loro nascita e il suo progressivo allontanamento da quell’esperimento che era stato, in gran parte, sua creatura.

Communist propaganda : Hearing before the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-third Congress, second session.

Hearings held June 22-Oct.14. 1954.

The Transitioning Economic Dynamics of the Military in Communist Regimes: A Comparison of Cuba, China and Vietnam [Student's Paper Series]

Several factors can increase or decrease military-economic involvement in communist regimes. This anomalous form of military behavior, labeled as the Military Business Complex (MBC), emerged in various communist regimes in the 1980s. However, in early 2000s, the communist governments of China and Vietnam began to decrease the number of military-managed industries, while similar industries increased in Cuba. This paper explains why military industries in Cuba have increased over the last two decades, while they decreased in the Chinese and Vietnamese examples. This question is answered by comparatively testing two hypotheses: the Communist Party and the Bureaucratic-Authoritarian (BA) Hypotheses. The Communist Party hypotheses helps explain how the historical and current structures of Party oversight of the military have been lacking in strength and reliability in Cuba, while they traditionally have been more robust in China and Vietnam. The BA hypotheses helps explain how, due to the lack of a strong civilian institutional oversight, the Cuban military has grown into a bureaucratic entity with many political officers holding autonomous positions of power, an outcome that is not prevalent in the Chinese and Vietnamese examples. Thus, with the establishment of a bureaucratic military government and with the absence of a strong party oversight, the Cuban military has been able to protect its economic endeavors while the Chinese and Vietnamese MBC regimes have contracted.