Italy : Anti Austerity Protests and Pitchfork Movement

Democracy and Class Struggle say the Pitchforks Anti Austerity Movement in Italy is a Movement of Contradictions similar in some respects to the Breton Red Cap Movement in France.

We have a mass movement in which Fascists in Italy like Roberto Fiore of  Forza Nuova are attempting to hijack - the Pitchforks Movement which was founded has a non party political movement in Sicily  against Austerity and for Autonomy,but some recent statements from a Pitchforks spokesman about "Jewish" Bankers reflect right wing influence on the movement.

We also understand that the Forza Nuova is a centralist party and would abolish Italian Regions - so much for Sicilian Autonomy ! Then we have demogogue Giuseppe Piero "Beppe" Grillo supporting the Pitchforks.

In France we have seen the Front Nationale trying to hijack the Breton Red Cap Mass Movement against austerity and for Autonomy but a quite clear rejection of the anti autonomist centralism of the Front Nationale has come from the Bretons themselves..

The phenomena of fascist attempts to hi jack mass movements should not come as a surprise has the petty bourgeoise is being proletarianised and is wavering politically between left and right.

The position of the Left in France and Italy in regard to these movements is critical if a progressive direction  to these anti austerity movements is to develop or we will see the re-emergence of Fascist Mass Movements has in the 1930's.

It is also a test of revolutionary communist politics and its level of maturity in both countries in how they deal with the contradictions in these movements.

We at Democracy and Class Struggle  are watching closely developments in France and Italy and the position that comrades take towards these movements and how these contradictions both among the people and with the enemy are handled.