Proletarian Democracy ( it, Democrazia Proletaria, DP) was a

far-left Far-left politics, also known as the radical left or the extreme left, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single definition. Some scholars conside ...

political party in Italy This article contains a list of political parties in Italy since Italian unification in 1861. Throughout history, numerous political parties have been operating in Italy, and since World War II no party has ever gained enough support to govern ...

History

1970s

DP was founded in 1975 as a joint electoral front of the Proletarian Unity Party (PdUP), Workers Vanguard (AO) and the "Workers Movement for Socialism" (MLS), for the

1975 Italian regional elections The Italian regional elections of 1975 were held on 15 and 16 June. The fifteen ordinary regions, created in 1970, elected their second assemblies. Following the 1971 census, Piedmont, Veneto and Lazio had ten more seats each. Electoral system ...

. At the local level, smaller groups joined, such as the "Marxist-Leninist Communist Organization", "Revolutionary Communist Groups - IV International" and the "League of the Communists". DP took part in the 1976 elections, winning 556,022 votes (1.51%) and 6 seats in the election to the Chamber of Deputies. On April 13, 1978, DP was transformed into a political party. The move to make DP into a real political party was pushed through by the minority wing of PdUP, led by

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

Vittorio Foa and Silvano Miniati; the majority of AO, led by Massimo Gorla and Luigi Vinci; and the League of the Communists, led by Romano Luporini. The main figure of DP was the charismatic Mario Capanna, a former student leader associated with the 1968

New Left The New Left was a broad political movement mainly in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of activists in the Western world who campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as civil and political rights, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights ...

movement. The strongholds of DP were the industrial cities of

Northern Italy Northern Italy ( it, Italia settentrionale, it, Nord Italia, label=none, it, Alta Italia, label=none or just it, Nord, label=none) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. It consists of eight administrative region ...

, which had strong leftist traditions. DP was opposed to the so-called ' historic compromise' between the

Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy. The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) ...

and the

Christian Democrats __NOTOC__ Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social tea ...

. During the 1978 electoral campaign,

Peppino Impastato Giuseppe "Peppino" Impastato (; January 5, 1948 – May 9, 1978), was an Italians, Italian political activist who opposed Sicilian Mafia, the Mafia, which ordered his murder in 1978. Childhood Giuseppe "Peppino" Impastato was born in Cinisi, i ...

, a leading DP militant from

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, was murdered by the Mafia. In the 1979 elections for the European Parliament, DP won 1 seat in the Technical Group of Independents group.

1980s

In the 1983 Italian general election DP won 542,039 votes (1.47%) and 7 seats in the election to the Chamber of Deputies. In the 1987 general election DP won 642,161 votes (1.66%) and 8 seats in the election to the Chamber of Deputies. In the same year DP won 493,667 votes (1.52%) and one seat in the election to the Senate. In 1987 Capanna stepped down, and

Giovanni Russo Spena Giovanni may refer to: * Giovanni (name), an Italian male given name and surname * Giovanni (meteorology), a Web interface for users to analyze NASA's gridded data * ''Don Giovanni'', a 1787 opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, based on the legend of ...

became the secretary of DP. Two years later, the DP suffered a split, as a section led by Capanna launched their own list on ahead of the elections to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the Legislature, legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven Institutions of the European Union, institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and in ...

, in association with leading

Radicals Radical may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Radical politics, the political intent of fundamental societal change *Radicalism (historical), the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and ...

, called the Rainbow Greens.

1990s

On 9 June 1991 the congress of DP in

Riccione Riccione (; rgn, Arciôn ) is a ''comune'' in the Province of Rimini, Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy. As of 2018, Riccione had an estimated population of 35,003. History The oldest archaeological findings in Riccione's area date to the 2nd ce ...

decided to merge the party into the Communist Refoundation Movement, which became the

Communist Refoundation Party The Communist Refoundation Party ( it, Partito della Rifondazione Comunista, PRC) is a communist political party in Italy that emerged from a split of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in 1991. The party's secretary is Maurizio Acerbo, who repla ...

Election results

Italian Parliament

European Parliament

References

{{Authority control Defunct political parties in Italy History of the Communist Refoundation Party Political parties established in 1975 Defunct communist parties in Italy Political parties disestablished in 1991 1975 establishments in Italy 1991 disestablishments in Italy