To reconstruct the history of Lotta Comunista is to trace the genesis and evolution of its Marxist strategy through the dense ideological fogs of the post-war Yalta partition. Born facing the “question of times,” this nucleus of young manual workers, shaped by the Resistance, had to confront profound obstacles: the paralyzing “psychological time” of Italian maximalist tradition, the illusion of an imminent US-USSR war, and a deep disconnection from Lenin’s analysis of global capitalist development in the imperialist stage. By forming GAAP (Anarchic Groups of Proletarian Action), they sought to leave behind a tradition of individual rebellion opposed to organisational control. A divergence quickly unfolded: while Pier Carlo Masini wanted to draw vital force from the anarchist tradition to avoid becoming a small, closed group, Arrigo Cervetto sought theoretical and political clarity from Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Gramsci. Cervetto utilized the toolbox of Marxist theory to oppose the ideologies of Yalta by defining the USSR as imperialist and State-capitalist in nature. Focusing on the real timescales and objective forces of class dynamics, he sketched a preliminary outline of his thinking on the party, unitary imperialism, and the State that would ultimately define the revolutionary party.
Read Lotta Comunista: The Origins — 1943–1952
