The suicide of the Italian left

(by John Blackeye) Until the eighties, early nineties, the Italian left was made up of fighters, veterans and workers who filled the squares of the largest Italian cities, waving red flags in their hands under the boxes of political representatives who fought for the rights of workers and families.

After twenty years, the situation has completely changed. We note, in fact, that today the left no longer takes to the streets alongside workers and families but participates in gay pride, fighting for the rights of the gay world and for the rights of Africans who land in Italy in search of fortune.

This is the extreme synthesis of the collapse of a left that has long since cut all links with the electoral base that has supported it for years, suddenly disconnecting from the Italian social reality.

But what happened?

It happened that with the old electoral system, every Italian went to the polls to elect a provincial or regional representative in Parliament. This representative was known in the area and entered Parliament with the hope of realizing what he had promised his fellow countrymen during the election campaign. The result was that politics remained connected with the electoral base and with the territory and was therefore aware of the real needs of workers in each sector.

With the advent of the new electoral system, which provides that the lists are formed by the parties, the representatives of the people have no longer entered Parliament but those who have alternated in the television lounges making themselves attractive to the electoral base or who have made a career within the parties themselves.

This system has made it no longer essential to identify regional or territorial political representatives as it was no longer necessary to listen to the electoral base to be elected but it is sufficient to be part of the ranks of friends of the Heads of Political Parties to find oneself in Parliament - no longer at the service of the people but in the service of a Party.

In this new scenario, the Italian Left suddenly understood that it was free from the problems of the factories and decided to transform itself into an intellectual body that placed the needs of the LGBT world and migrants in the first points of its electoral programs. and ecology, keeping metalworkers, workers and teachers out of his interests.

Proof of this is the proposal presented by the Secretary of the PD at the time of his inauguration to introduce it into the Italian system IUS ALONE for migrants and the vote for sixteen year olds. Lot of "Former comrades" at this point they asked themselves: what happened to the metalworkers, the workers, the school, the ex-Ilva and the factories that are closing?

Paradoxically, these categories historically connected with the Italian left, are today protected by other parties while the left continues to deal with civil unions, euthanasia, ecology, migrants and anything else that is not at the top of the list of the real needs of Italians.

The suicide of the left consists precisely in this, having lost contact with the people, believing that they no longer need them.

But this is precisely the big mistake. The people behind the electoral system no longer understand the left. Today's polls are just a hint. Tomorrow's elections will be the sentence.

The suicide of the Italian left