Communist Party of Italy (Marxist–Leninist) Red Line

The Communist Party of Italy (Marxist–Leninist) Red Line (Partito Comunista d'Italia (marxista–leninista) Linea Rossa) was a political party in Italy that existed from 1968 to 1977. The group emerged in December 1968 after a split in the Communist Party of Italy (Marxist–Leninist). The split that produced the Communist Party of Italy (Marxist-Leninist) Red Line had simmered since mid-1968. Osvaldo Pesce (a veteran communist leader from Milan and key founder of PCd'I(m-l)) and Dino Dini had been sent to China as delegates of PCd'I(m-l). In Beijing, they were received by Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Chen Boda, Kang Sheng, Jiang Qing, Yao Wenyuan, and other Politburo members. This visit occurred in the midst of the Cultural Revolution, characterized by mass mobilization against the party and state bureaucracy. The experience in China impacted the two Italian delegates, who upon their return began to question the role of Fosco Dinucci as the hitherto undisputed leader of PCd'I(m-l). Dini emerged as a factional leader within the party. In November 1968, an extraordinary party congress was held in Rovello Porro, at which the self-styled group of Dini, Angiolo Gracci, and some cadres from Tuscany converged with Walter Peruzzi's Lavoro Politico group from Verona in accusing the PCd'I(m-l) leadership of representing the ideological line of 'the traitor Liu Shaoqi' (nicknamed the 'black line'). On December 10, 1968, a split in PCd'I(m-l) was formalized as an anti-Party group including Dini, Vincenzo Misefari and others, was declared expelled from the party. The same day, the group of Dini and Misefari began publishing their own version of the party newspaper nuova unità ('New Unity') from Florence (whilet the Dinucci loyalist wing of PCd'I(m-l) published theirs from Livorno). Effectively there were now two different parties using the name 'PCd'I(m-l)'. The Dini-Misefari group was joined by Arturo Balestri, Alberto Sartori, and the entire Florence unit of PCd’I(m-l) (one of the strongest local branches of the party).