Pietro Ingrao and Haidi Giuliani : we support Bertinotti’s candidature in the primaries

by Pietro Ingrao and Haidi Giuliani

Beat Berlusconi! Defeat the centre-right policies which have been wrecking our country for the last four years. Set up an alternative way of governing which will also bring about a real renewal in Italian politics, culture and democracy. These are now the priorities we agree on, despite the diversity of our history and opinions. This is why we are committed to a Union victory in the 2006 elections: an alliance unprecedented in the history of Italy - one which will really be able to win and which will understand how to combine its component forces for a great season of democratic participation.

These are the reasons why we are lending our active support to Fausto Bertinotti’s candidature in the Union Primaries elections which will be held on the 16th of October.

The main reason we think he is a good candidate is because he can talk the ‘language of the left’ in the Union, which will provide good arguments, greater efficiency and planning ability. This goes well beyond the boundaries of one single party: it springs from the conviction that the left cannot just resign itself to a junior, complementary role.

On the contrary: people on the left have to make the best possible use of their abilities, as regards both the choice of person who will guide the alliance and in the definition of its contents, ideas and values. In short, then, the left is not a lesser reality - it is the key force in bringing change and offering a way out of the country’s social and economic crisis.

This is why, because it is clearly alternative, European and popular, the choice of Bertinotti can help to identify the ‘people on the left’ - all those who in recent years have said no to war, neo-liberalism and the dominance of one single way of thinking and refused the ever-increasing growth in social inequality and unequal distribution of wealth, the commodification of knowledge and culture and resisted the worrying rise of obscurantism and the theory of the clash of civilisations. We call on all those who have created the old movements and the new - the people who have asked for the left to finally be itself.

For us, then, in the Union this is about consolidating a new frontier, resisting the moderate and neo-centrist temptations which are clearly visible in the centre-left. We have to build an alliance which will not betray the hopes and demands we have been talking about. Where this ambition is concerned it is vital that the primaries are not reduced to a worn-out ritual or to a predicted result: the spice of a new politics lies above all in the democratic confrontation, the dialectic of positions and participation by people who are aware of the issues. The October election, which was due to an unresolved conflict between the leaders of the centre-left parties, can become a great day for the people, when they can exercise democracy from below and break with elitist separatism. This has to some extent already happened in Puglia, during the primaries which led to Nichi Vendola’s victorious challenge.

It is in this spirit that we invite you to take part in the consultations which will designate the Union’s candidate for the leadership and get the vote out for Fausto Bertinotti.

The Bellaciao Collective of Great Britain