At the moment my poor command of Spanish is a real handicap. The following article is one of the rare occasions where my degree in Italian Language and Literature comes in useful. I’ll do more work on it later in the week.

The “centre-left” coalition which Romano Prodi put together to oust Silvio Berlusconi covers most of the spectrum of Italian politics. It includes members of the Christian Democrats, the party which misruled Italy for decades. Lamberto Dini, a former director of the Bank of Italy and an ex member of Berlusconi’s Forza Italia is there representing big capital. Democratici di Sinistra have a relationship with some unions which resembles that shared by the US Democrats and the AFL-CIO. Also in the government coalition is Rifondazione Comunista which has 41 seats in the lower house and 27 in the Senate. These include a member of the Fourth International in each house.

Despite the breadth of this coalition in succeeded in winning barely 50% of the vote. The other 50% was also won by another part of the ruling class. On its side was a whole spectrum of bosses of small and medium enterprises, organised crime and many working class people.

Prodi fought a notably timid campaign against an increasingly deranged Berlusconi. He refused to oppose Forza Italia’s neo-liberalism. He would not conduct a struggle around the massive tax fraud and avoidance so dear to Berlusconi and his core supporters. His programme in government is as lukewarm as his electioneering. Yet Fausto Bertinotti, the leader of Rifondazione Comunista has locked the party into an alliance with Prodi.

The Italian workers’ movement has a dread of Berlusconi’s return akin to that workers in Britain have of the Tories. Bertinotti will play on this fear to encourage “disciplined, responsible” politics. This will mean a programme for Italian capitalism only marginally different from that of Forza Italia. Big capital was equally well represented in each electoral bloc.

Prodi has chosen to make his government’s support for the war in Afghanistan the subject of a vote of confidence. Bertinotti is likely to support him in this and will win majority support among the party’s senators and MPs. On June 17th Rifondazione’s national committee defeated by 100 votes to 57 a resolution calling for the party to adhere to its five-year-old position of withdrawing Italian troops from Afghanistan. This had been proposed by supporters of Sinistra Critica, a current which includes the supporters of Associazione Bandiera Rossa, the Fourth International in Italy.

Their choice is no choice. They can vote to support Italy’s imperialist intervention in Afghanistan or they can make Prodi and Bertinotti pay the price for their capitulation to Bush. The political battle inside Rifondazione has now begun. Anti-war deputies and senators have started an petition in opposition to the leadership’s capitualtion. Branches thoughout Italy have started bombarding Bertinotti with statements and resolutions demanding that he defend the party’s anti-war position. Some of the young communists have begun taking more militant action. Rifondazione minister Paolo Ferrero found himself heckled by a group of communist youth who stormed the platform on which he was speaking and hung up a banner saying “not in our name”. With his support for Prodi’s war Bertinotti is risking a serious split in Rifondazione Comunista.