By PEGGY DENNIS Socialist and Social Demo- acc Parties aroused ap- end Opposition from dif- cl sectors that tra- is Roe be expected to Mono - reverse positions. he aed Capitalist groups naysy Papers that do not or- a Become a unified Left a t Strengthen its organi- t oa political influence fot ¢ Support the merg- oie Se two parties. nigh tsely, the powerful Com- 2nd Left Socialist par- 4 leficat Benerally favor unity eer forces are high- nt j _Of this latest develop- a Italian political life. reas tsons for this seemi ntradiction are to be found in paave? of those who initiat- 4, 5UPport the merger. 4... Plenary meetings of his i Central committee in oe and again on ..” ~Ommunist party gen- netary Luigi Longo warn- a the chief aims of the a arty born out of the merg- ~€ Socialist and Social De- IC parties are: 9 split the working-cl "1 g-class et by breaking up exist- ists Y Coalitions between So- and Communists. : further the economic and nor clicies of the Christian Priaiig government under by a Democratic terminol- b Promises of inadequate 4Y reforms. Lo M80 said the new party rise no alternative , to the an Democratic party.” In- » Te explained, the new Was being formed on the a further capitulation of dec party to the Social jg «tic right-wing trend and recess of social democra- fill re Of the Socialist Party” W ,Sult in a “greater control Vey the Christian Democrats ho a Socialist and Social De- Me € parties.” Peiahige the Left inside the ln, Party oppose. unifica- ith the Social Democrats. these spokesmen, Fer- enti former joint gen- Nation etary of the Italian Fed- D not Of Workers, declared, “I hatter accept the ideological idle Pete document of prin- Nicer: merger) because of its lye. MUNism, because it in- he ¢., N€gative prospects for ae the trade unions.” Mee g Right field came evid- Punigt the validity of the Com- _ 4nd Left Socialist con- | So 4 d ae Democratic Party sec- Ng. -4ario Tanassi bluntly n terviewer of the news- 3 Be orere della Sera: that i. of the Communist Par- fen of the main goals of ger. ane alg business daily Il EF hey, Tote: “It is felt that in Ne Socionc what remains of Utratig ‘st Party's class spirit, omnia Collectivism and pro- do, SM wil be easily clean- NE nd absorbed.” Stian Democratic Party Ss recent merger of Italy’s - PIETRO NENNI Shift to the right secretary Mariano Rumor told the newspaper Espresso that should the new Socialist-Social Democratic Party win Commu- nist parliamentary support, even under the most limited circum- stances, the present Christian Democratic-Socialist government coalition will be dissolved. This not very subtle warning appears hardly necessary. The Italian Socialist movement has gone through a continual pro- cess of splits since 1947, and the issues were generally the same, that of: _ e The Socialist Party’s atti- tude to the conservative and/or reactionary domestic and foreign policies of the government party. e Socialist Party unity rela- tions to the Communist Party which is the largest single work- ing-class party in the country with a membership of over one and one-half million, polls some 25 percent of the popular vote in general elections and has 166 seats in the 630-member cham- ber of deputies, 85 seats in the 320-seat senate, and a_ large number of municipal positions. The new party with the com- bined strengths of the Socialist and Social Democratic parties will have about 700,000 mem- bers, 96 deputies and 83 sen- ators. A Socialist-Communist coali- tion could play a powerful, and at times decisive, role in both houses of parliament. But this would have to be on the basis of a shift in Socialist Party pol- icies and program towards a militant defense of the economic and social needs of the people, particularly the working people, and a break with the pro-U.S., NATO alliance of which Italy is a member. The new party, however, as a creature of the right wing of the Socialist movement, is com- mitted to coalition with the gov- ernment. ~ In 1947 the right wing of the Socialist Party, led by Giuseppe Saragat, who is now the presi- dent of Italy left the party to torm. the Social Democratic Party. The issue then was the official pact of united front. put into effect by the Communist and Socialist parties, the latter then headed by Pietro Nenni. Left opposition ran high in the Socialist organizations when in 1960 Nenni shifted his party’s official support towards a Cen- tre-Left coalition with the gov- erning Christian Democrats, So- cial Democrats and Republicans. Three years later Nenni ac- cepted cabinet posts in the gov- ernment. He is now vice-premier and, as the New York Times noted, “the reason for the schism’ (between the Socialist and Social Democratic leaders) had disappeared and negotia- tions for reunification began.” In 1964 angry Left militants walked out of the Socialist Party over Nenni’s embrace of the con- servative government, and form- ed the Socialist Party of Prole- tarian Unity. At the party congress called to ratify the unification at the end of October, Francesco de Martino, secretary of the Social- ist Party, claimed: “The unified party will seek to reconquer the majority of the labor movement, as-it had in 1946, contesting with the Communists.” The decisive ingredient that the Socialist leader is obviously omitting from his projected re- cipe “to conquer the majority of Italian socialists unite—for what? the labor movement,” is that factor which in the years follow- ing 1947 brought to a unified labor movement its period of greatest strength. That is, the unity pact with the Communists, under which the two parties jointly governed some 2,000 lo- cal, district and provincial gov- ernment .councils and in the powerful labor movement, the General Confederation of Italian Labor. : Italy’s years of “economic miracle” are ebbing. Expendi- tures for education, public health, housing and social insur- ance are being cut by the gov- ernment, with Socialist-Social Democratic assistance. Private U.S. investment in the Italian economy has risen by 50 percent in the last three years, with practically a U.S. takeover of the electronics and chemical industries. Italian foreign policies reflect these economic trends and the government, in the main, sup- ports U.S. policy on NATO as a last bastion of cold war, on giving West Germany access to nuclear weapons, on the Vietnam war. There is some reserve con- cerning some of Washington’s Dangerous dances more .crude methods, but sup- port to the essence of U.S. poli- cies remain. In recent months, after 29 years of cooperation, the So- tialists broke off all unity ties with the Communists in the municipal councils of Siena, Florence, Livorno, Ravenna and other towns. They are dissolv- ing similar working coalitions with the Communists in the peasant organizations and even in the Confederation of Labor where this unity has always been a powerful means of mounting workers’ economic struggles. : It is not expected that firm- ing up even more its collabora- tion with the Christian Demo- cratic government and destruc- tion of offiicial coalition agree- ments with the Communists will win for the new merged party that majority of the labor move- ment that de Martino seeks. Neither is the formal break in joint Socialist and Commu- nist activities by the Socialist leadership ‘expected to decisive- ly curtail such united actions at the job, strike, or peace move- ment levels or in municipal elec- toral struggles. DREAM WALTZ ROCK 'N ROLL QUADRILLE Abramov in Izvestia (Moscow) December 16, 1966—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 9