Last of the commies
Local politics, force of habit and canny strategy help Europe’s communists cling on
A PERK OF being locked up by a fascist dictator is that it leaves you with a lot of time on your hands. Altiero Spinelli, an Italian communist, spent the bulk of his youth imprisoned by Benito Mussolini. During one stint of internment in 1941, Spinelli used his spare time to come up with the Ventotene Manifesto, named after the island off Naples to which he was banished. Pieced together on cigarette papers, it provided a socialist blueprint for a federal Europe, earning the communist thinker a legacy as one of the more obscure founding fathers of the EU.
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Marx brothers”
Europe November 20th 2021
- France is doing well, but feeling miserable
- The EU’s stand-off with Belarus is complicating its row with Poland
- Near death in jail, Georgia’s former president defies its current one
- Allies fear Germany’s incoming government will go soft on nukes
- Putting Cyprus together may be impossible
- Last of the commies
From the November 20th 2021 edition
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