The International Communist Party (ICP) is the name assumed by a number of left communist international political parties today. The ICP has often been described as Bordigist due to the contributions by longtime member Amadeo Bordiga, although the adherents of the party don't define themselves as Bordigists.[1]
Origins
Early Development within the Italian Socialist Party
The roots of the International Communist Party can be traced to the left wing of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), founded in 1892. The first two decades of the PSI were marked by an internal struggle led by the left faction to establish Marxism as the party's official ideology.[2] Initially a minority, the left gained prominence at the 1910 congress, where they organized themselves as the Intransigent Revolutionary faction. By 1912, this faction had become dominant within the PSI, with key figures including Benito Mussolini, Angelica Balabanoff, and Amadeo Bordiga.[3]
World War I and Political Divergences
The outbreak of World War I led to significant ideological divisions within the PSI. Mussolini broke with the left by adopting a pro-Allied stance, while Bordiga developed an anti-war position similar to Lenin's revolutionary defeatism. This position, though rejected by most socialist leaders, established Bordiga as a prominent voice within the party base.[4] After Mussolini's expulsion for his increasingly militarist position, leadership passed to Giacinto Menotti Serrati's centrist faction, which maintained an ambiguous position between the right wing led by Filippo Turati and the left.[5]
Like Lenin, faced with the Second International's support of various sides in the war, Bordiga called for the formation of a new international.[6] When the left encountered Lenin's views after the October Revolution, they considered them not a new adaptation of Marxism but a restatement of it.[7]
Formation of the Communist Party of Italy
Under the influence of the Russian Revolution, the 1918 congress of the PSI officially adopted the policy of the dictatorship of the proletariat.[4] In 1919, the left organized as the Abstentionist Communist Faction, seeking to exclude reformists and align with the Communist International (Comintern). The implicit support given by the Comintern at the 2nd World Congress enabled the Abstentionist Communist Faction to break out of its isolation as a minority in the party.[8]
Simultaneously, the Ordine Nuovo group emerged in Turin under Antonio Gramsci and Palmiro Togliatti. Initially close to Serrati's maximalists and in favor of participating in elections, they first entered into polemics with the Abstentionist Communist Faction, only to move closer to it in 1920 as it gained majority support in cities such as Naples, Milan, Florence, and Turin.[9]
In January 1921, these revolutionary elements split from the PSI to form the Communist Party of Italy (PCd'I) under Bordiga's leadership, taking with them approximately one-third of the PSI's membership and most of its youth wing.[10] The new party maintained a critical stance toward several Comintern policies, including the strategic position of anti-fascism, the tactical position of the united front, the policy of "Bolshevization" and the formation of workers' governments.
Despite representing the majority faction, the PCd'I's left leadership was replaced in 1924 by Gramsci under pressure from the Comintern, then effectively controlled by Joseph Stalin.[11] This didn't prevent Bordiga from challenging Stalin directly at the 6th Enlarged Executive of the Communist International in 1926, arguing that Russian affairs had to be decided by the International.[12]
Left Opposition and Formation of the Left Faction
The Left Faction of the Communist Party of Italy formed in 1928, primarily composed of Italian émigré communities in Belgium, France, and the United States.[13] The formation was prompted by Leon Trotsky's expulsion from the Soviet Union, the adoption of the theory of socialism in one country, as well as a growing number of other disagreements with Comintern policies.
Though initially sympathetic to Trotsky's Left Opposition, the faction maintained its independence. Trotsky eventually turned towards the New Italian Opposition, formed by former Stalinists, as his Italian contacts due to the faction's hesitation about hastily forming heterogeneous opposition groups into an organized whole.[14]
Wartime Activity and Formation of the Internationalist Communist Party
The Left Faction opposed the Spanish Civil War, viewing it as a prelude to the coming imperialist war.[15] In 1938, the International Bureau of Left Factions was founded as the only organ from which the future party would emerge.[16] During World War II, the scattered militants maintained a revolutionary defeatist position.[17]
In 1943, a nucleus led by militants including Onorato Damen, Fausto Atti, Mario Acquaviva, and Bruno Maffi established the Internationalist Communist Party in Northern Italy.[18] The party conducted significant anti-war agitation among factory workers and partisans.[19] Eventually, Atti and Acquaviva were killed by Italian Communist Party members in 1945 for their intervention among partisan groups.[20] Following the Allied invasion of Italy, the Left Faction of Communists and Socialists around Bordiga formed in Naples and was absorbed into the new party in 1945,[21] although Bordiga himself did not formally join until 1949.[22]
Immediately, serious divergences emerged between two main currents of the Internationalist Communist Party, eventually leading to a split in 1952. The faction centered around Damen favored electoral participation and rejected both union work and national liberation struggles, whereas the faction centered around Bordiga opposed the policy of revolutionary parliamentarianism, supported union work, and maintained the Communist International's position on national and colonial questions.[23] Following the 1952 split, Damen's group continued to publish the magazine Battaglia Comunista, while Bordiga's faction published Programma Comunista.[24]
History
Formation of the International Communist Party
The faction around Bordiga, now organized as a new party, did not officially adopt the name International Communist Party until the early 1960s.[25][26] Afterwards, its internal organization underwent significant changes. The policy of democratic centralism was replaced with organic centralism, which eliminated internal mechanisms of democracy. Party congresses were substituted with general meetings featuring detailed presentations, and a single commissioner (Bruno Maffi) was appointed with the task of linking different sections of the party.[27]
1960s
In 1964, the Milan section split off to form Rivoluzione Comunista, which was opposed to the concept of organic centralism.[28] In 1966, the Paris section under Jacques Camatte and Roger Dangeville split off as well. Camatte's group formed around the magazine Invariance, and Dangeville's followers gathered around Le Fil du Temps.[28]
The party experienced significant growth in France following May 1968, despite taking a critical stance toward the student protests.[29] However, it recognized the workers' strikes as superior to those during the 1937 May Days in Spain.
1970s and onward
1973: Danish and Swedish sections departed over union strategy[30]
1974: Florence section forms separate International Communist Party publishing Il Partito Comunista[31]
1982: Major crisis over political positions and El Oumami newspaper leads to party implosion[32]
1984: Legal battle over party name and publication rights[33]
Contemporary Organizations
Several organizations now claim the ICP name, distinguished by their publications:
Florence-based ICP (Il Partito Comunista) - Publications in multiple languages including English, Italian, Spanish, and web presence in various other languages
Milan-based ICP (Programma Comunista) - Regular publications in Italian, German, and English
Franco-Italian ICP (Le Prolétaire/Il Comunista) - Publications in French, Italian, English, and Spanish
Theoretical Positions
The Invariance of Marxism
The ICP does not view Marxism as a doctrine discovered or introduced by Marx, but rather as a theory that emerged alongside the modern industrial proletariat. According to the party:
Marxism cannot be molded or remolded by adding or changing aspects
The doctrine must remain common, uniform, monolithic, and steadfast
Any attempts to "update," "revise," or "distort" Marxism must be opposed
The doctrine accompanies the proletariat throughout social revolution[34]
The ICP replaces democratic centralism with organic centralism, characterized by:
Rejection of voting mechanisms within the party
Development of specialized organizational organs
Unity of theoretical and practical work
No formal separation between study and action
According to the party, organic centralism means developing organs suited to various functions (propaganda, proselytism, union work, etc.) while ensuring all comrades remain involved in multiple aspects of party work. This prevents the deadly division between theoretical study and practical action.[35]
Role of the Party
The ICP considers the class party indispensable for proletarian revolutionary struggle. Its key functions include:
Uniting working-class efforts and transforming group struggles into general revolutionary movement
Propagating revolutionary theory among the masses
Organizing material means of action
Leading the working class throughout its struggle
Securing historical continuity and international unity
Representing, organizing, and directing the proletarian dictatorship[36]
Political and Economic Positions
Democracy and Parliamentarianism
The ICP maintains a stringent anti-parliamentary position:
Rejects parliamentary assemblies in favor of working bodies
Advocates single-party proletarian state
Opposes "democracy" in all forms, including: "Bourgeois democracy", "Democracy in general", "Class democracy", "Workers' democracy"
The party advocates:
Immediate recall of state officials
Worker-level wages for officials
Systematic rotation to eliminate bureaucracy
Ending civil service as a career or profession[37]
Trade Union Work
The ICP maintains the position of the Communist Party of Italy regarding unions:
Aims for party control over leading bodies of economic organisms, especially national union executives
Avoids splits in unions when leadership remains with other parties
Members follow union directives in action while maintaining right to criticize
Views unions as mechanisms for leading proletarian movements outside party ranks[38]
National and Colonial Questions
The ICP's analysis of anti-colonial revolutions distinguishes between:
Major Post-Colonial States:
Continue struggling against imperialist influence
Develop their own forms of imperialism
Prioritize heavy industry within monopolistic framework
Nurture finance capital
Minor Post-Colonial States:
Remain fundamentally colonial despite political independence
