ThePrismsofGramsci Historical Materialism Book Series EditorialBoard SébastienBudgen(Paris) SteveEdwards(London) JuanGrigera(London) MarcelvanderLinden(Amsterdam) PeterThomas(London) volume103 Thetitlespublishedinthisseriesarelistedatbrill.com/hm The Prisms of Gramsci ThePoliticalFormulaoftheUnitedFront By MarcosDelRoio Translationby PedroSette-Câmara leiden | boston OriginallypublishedinPortuguesebyXamãeditoraas“OsprismasdeGramsci:aformulapolíticadafrente única(1919–1926)”,SãoPaulo,2005. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData DelRoio,Marcos,author. [PrismasdeGramsci.English] TheprismsofGramsci:thepoliticalformulaoftheunitedfront/byMarcosDelRoio;translationby PedroSette-Camara. pagescm.–(Historicalmaterialismbookseries,ISSN1570-1522;103) "OriginallypublishedinPortuguesebyXamaeditoraas"OsprismasdeGramsci:aformulapoliticada frenteunica(1919-1926)",SaoPaulo,2005." Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978-90-04-22582-4(hardback:alk.paper)–ISBN978-90-04-30418-5(e-book) 1.Gramsci,Antonio,1891-1937.2.Communism–Italy–History.3.Communism–History.I.Title. HX289.7.G73D45132015 320.53'20945–dc23 2015029493 Thispublicationhasbeentypesetinthemultilingual“Brill”typeface.Withover5,100characterscovering Latin,ipa,Greek,andCyrillic,thistypefaceisespeciallysuitableforuseinthehumanities.Formore information,pleaseseewww.brill.com/brill-typeface. issn1570-1522 isbn978-90-04-22582-4(hardback) isbn978-90-04-30418-5(e-book) Copyright2016byKoninklijkeBrillnv,Leiden,TheNetherlands. KoninklijkeBrillnvincorporatestheimprintsBrill,BrillHes&DeGraaf,BrillNijhoff,BrillRodopiand HoteiPublishing. Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,translated,storedinaretrievalsystem, ortransmittedinanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recordingorotherwise, withoutpriorwrittenpermissionfromthepublisher. 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The same ray of light passes through different prisms and yields different refractionsoflight:inordertohavethesamerefraction,onemustmakeawhole seriesofadjustmentstotheindividualprisms. gramsci1975,p.33;1992,p.128 ∵ Contents Foreword:IdentityandDiversityinGramsci’sThought ix AcronymList xiii Introduction 1 1 War,RevolutionandtheCommunistScissioninGramsci 12 1 CommunistScissionandCommunistRefoundationinLeninand RosaLuxemburg 12 2 Liberalism,RevisionismandtheProblemoftheScission(or Cleavage)inGramsci 22 3 TheOrganicScissionoftheWorkers’MovementandtheFoundation oftheCommunistPartyinItaly 38 4 TheOriginsoftheUnitedFrontPolicyintheCommunist International 50 2 TheParadoxbetweenCommunistScissionandUnitedFront 58 1 HowtheCommunistScissioninItalyConsolidatedItselfoverthe DisputewithintheCommunistInternationalandtheFascist Offensive 58 2 TheUnitedFrontPolicyintheCommunistInternationalandinthe ussr:TheoreticalWeaknessandPoliticalDefeat 68 3 GramsciinMoscowandtheSolutiontotheDisputebetweenthe PCd’IandtheCommunistInternational 77 4 GramscibetweentheCommunistRefoundationandtheTheoretical RegressionofBolshevism 87 3 TheCommunistRefoundationandtheUnitedFrontinGramsci 104 1 TheInfluenceoftheTheoreticalRegressiononthePoliticalActions oftheCommunistInternational 104 2 GramsciinViennaandHisConfluencewiththeCommunist Refoundation 112 3 GramsciinRome:TheUnitedFrontPolicyandAnti-Fascism 121 4 OntheWaytotheThirdCongressofthePCd’I 131 4 TheStrategyoftheAnti-FascistUnitedFront 140 1 The‘LyonsTheses’andtheTheoryoftheSocialistRevolutionin Italy 140 viii contents 2 TheThirdCongressandtheNewLinesofDivision 150 3 GramsciandtheRussianQuestion 161 4 TheAgrarianQuestionasaNationalQuestion,andtheProblemof theSouthernIntellectualsintheUnitedFront 174 Conclusion 186 References 201 Index 205 foreword Identity and Diversity in Gramsci’s Thought* MarcosDelRoioprovidesuswithasoberandcarefulanalysisofGramsci’spolit- icalandintellectualactivities,butitisalsoforcefulanddetermined,proposing astrongandradicalthesis:namely,thatthereisacontinuitybetweenpolitical actionandphilosophicalthoughtthroughoutthewholeofGramsci.Irecalla statementtothiseffectexpressedinnouncleartermsbyBattistaSanthià,the workerwhowastheleadingfigureofthebienniorosso[‘tworedyears’of1919– 20],whenIcarriedoutalonginterviewwithhimathishomeinTurinin1987,a fewyearsbeforehispassing.Santhiàwasnotanintellectualbyprofession,even thoughhisapproachwasthatofthe‘organicintellectual’asdefinedbyGram- sciinhisspeechtothePoliticalCommissionatthe1926CongressoftheItalian CommunistParty[PCd’I]inLyons.Disputingthepreferencegiventointellec- tualsbyAmadeoBordiga’sextremeleft,hesaid:‘theintellectualswerethemost politicallyandsociallyadvancedelements,andwerethereforedestinedtobe the organisers of the working class. Today, in our view, the organisers of the working class must be the workers themselves’.1 It must be highlighted that, accordingtothelanguageusedinthe PrisonNotebooks,theterm‘organisers’ referstointellectualsinabroadsense. Atthetime,Santhià’swordsseemedtometobefilledwith‘triumphalism’. YetasIreconsideredthem,Isawthathewasverymuchintheright.Toinsist upontheunityofGramsci’swholeworkdoesnotimplyunderestimatingthe change, transformation, or even the ruptures that occurred in his brief but densely-layered existence. Conversely, today we know that it is impossible to study the Notebooks without using the analytical tools of a genetic and evolutionarymethodofresearch–andthisdoesnotmeanwipingawaytheir internalunity. As we read Gramsci, certain key ideas come forth, and they determine in unitaryfashiontherhythmofhisthought,atleastfromthetimeofthefactory councilstothewritingofthelastnotebooks(Gramscihimselfpointsoutthe pathofthiscontinuityinastrategicnoteintheNotebooks).2Iamreferringto thekeyideasthatconstitutetheidentityofhisthought,throughoutandbeyond thediversityofitsmanifestations,thatidentitywhichistheusualhallmarkof allgreatthinkers. * ThisforewordwastranslatedfromItalianintoPortuguesebyAlvaroBianchi. 1 Gramsci1999a,p.430. 2 Gramsci1977,vol.4,p.328ff. x foreword BoththetitleandsubtitleofDelRoio’sbookreminduspreciselyofthecoun- terpoint between identity and diversity, which Gramsci theorised in highly imaginativetermsinNotebook1,andwhichwecan,perhapswithalittlemore audacity,applytohisownthought: Theunitaryelaborationofacollectiveconsciousnessrequiresmanifold conditionsandinitiatives…Thesamerayoflightpassesthroughdifferent prismsandyieldsdifferentrefractionsoflight…Findingtherealidentity underneath the apparent differentiation and contradiction and finding the substantial diversity underneath the apparent identity is the most essential quality of the critic of the ideas and of the historian of social development.3 The subtitle’s essential category, as well as the contents of Del Roio’s work – the ‘united front’ – direct us to an identical problem dealt with in Gramsci’s politicalaction,namelythatconcerningtheradicalLeninismthatguidedhim inhisconfrontationwithBordiga. DelRoiorecallsthebirthofthis‘politicalformula’–intheGermanyof1921– whichwascentraltoLenin’smaturethought,showsthevariouswaysinwhichit wasinterpreted,andanalysesGramsci’scautiousattitude.Animportantaspect ofthislatteristhefactthatitisthepracticalnecessityimposedbytheunited frontstrategythatexplainsthemonumentalprudenceandflexibilityGramsci displayedtowardsBordiga,bothwhenBordigaestablishedthepartyline,and later,whenGramsci’ssupremacybegantotakeshape. The metaphor-image of the ray and the prism allows us to approach the guiding thread that accompanies the transition from Gramsci’s final year at libertytothegenesisoftheNotebooks.Inthisrespect,DelRoiopicksoutsome importantelements,particularlyfromtheincompleteandthen-unpublished 1926essayonthe‘Southernquestion’.However,itwasboththepoliticaland theoreticalelaborationsofGramsciinthatyearthatbrokethegroundforthe constructionofhisthoughtasitmaturedinprison.Torecallthemainstages, we have the Lyons Congress and the corresponding theses (21–26 January), his letter to Togliatti on the situation within the Bolshevik Party (October), andSomeAspectsoftheSouthernQuestion(inthemonthsbeforehisarreston 8November). 3 Gramsci1977,vol.1,p.33ff.Intheseconddraftofthispassage,inq24,§3(thespecialnotebook dedicatedtojournalism),the‘unitaryelaboration’becomes‘thenationalunitaryelaboration’, andthe‘qualityofthecriticofideas’becomes‘themoredelicategift,albeitmisunderstood, butstillessential,ofthecriticofideas’,amongotherchanges.