Under Attack? The PCI and the Italian Peace Movement in the 1980s

Abstract

This article investigates the key role played by the peace movement in re-defining the Italian Communist Party’s (PCI’s) identity, after the failure of the Eurocommunist project and the end of the historical compromise strategy in Italy. The first part of the article is dedicated to the international dimension: the relationship between the PCI and the Kremlin on the issue of peace protests, which was characterized both by growing mutual intolerance and the need to maintain a strong and effective internationalist tie. The second part examines how the PCI struggled domestically to deal with new political actors involved in peace mobilisation and the challenges of maintaining the hegemony within the peace movement. The article argues that the challenge posed by the surge of peace movement represented a genuine, albeit missed opportunity for the PCI to renew its own political identity.