Acknowledgements

PART ONE: A HISTORY OF PRE-WAR ITALIAN SOCIALISM (1882-1914)

• The first steps of Socialism in Italy
• The Revolutionary Socialist Party (1881-1893)
• The Italian Workers’ Party (1882-1892)
• Foundation of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI, Genoa 1892)
• The Italian Socialist Party until World War I
• The Reformist deviation in the European Workers Movement
• Reform and Revolution in the Marxist Perspective
• The Tendency Struggles in Italian Social Democracy
• The Transient Victory of the Anti-collaborationist Currents (1904-1906)
• The General Strike of September 1904 – The Supremacy of Reformism (1906-1912) and the Split of the Revolutionary Syndicalists (1907)
• The PSI-CGdL Relationship
• Universal Suffrage, the Libyan War and Italian Socialism
• The Crisis of Reformism and the Congress of Reggio Emilia (July 1912)
• Benito Mussolini and the Formation of the Intransigent Revolutionary Left
• The Early Political Trajectory of Amadeo Bordiga (1912-1914)
• The Congress of Ancona (April 1914)
• The «Red Week» of June 1914

PART TWO: GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY UNTIL WORLD WAR I

• Germany in 1914
• The Social-Democratic Party of Germany on the Eve of World War I
• Kautsky’s Political Pathway in the First Decade of the 20th Century
• The Break of the Anti-Revisionist Current
• The Signs Announcing the Capitulation of 1914

• The International Socialist Movement against the danger of war in Europe
• Italian Socialism before World War I
• Amadeo Bordiga’s opposition to the War
• The Socialist Party from the beginning of the War to the defeat of Caporetto (9-11-1917)
  • The Zimmerwald and Kienthal Conferences
  • The PSI and the perspectives of an exit from the War
  • The PSI and the Caporetto debacle
• The PSI faced to the Russian Revolution
• Bordiga and the problem of splitting the Party
• Towards the Congress of Rome and the end of the War
• The Congress of Rome

• Annex
• Bordiga’s initial positions on Bolshevik politics (1917-1918)
• Gramsci and the October Revolution

• The Oppositions to the War in Germany
• The anti-War Mobilizations of April 1917
• The beginning of the Baltic Seamen’s Revolt in the summer of 1917
• November 1917 – January 1918. The October Revolution, Brest-Litovsk and the Strikes of January 1918
• February – October 1918
• The collapse of the German Imperial Regime and Social Democracy as a bastion of bourgeois order
• November 1918
• The problem of «double power»
• The first steps of the Counter-Revolution (December 1918)
• The Congress of the German Workers’ and Soldiers’ Councils
• The unstable equilibrium between Revolution and Counter-Revolution
• The foundation of the Communist Party of Germany (Spartacus)
• The defeat of the German Proletariat between January and April 1919
  • January 1919: the offensive and victory of the Counter-Revolution in Berlin
  • The counter-revolutionary Offensive in the Reich
    • A.- The Ruhr Basin
    • B.- Central Germany
    • C.- Berlin, March 1919
    • D.- Bavaria
• The end of the «Socialist Republic» farce
• The First Communist International Congress (March 1919)

• ITALIAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY, FROM THE IMMEDIATE POST-WAR PERIOD TO THE FACTORY OCCUPATIONS (SEPTEMBER 1920)
  • ITALIAN SOCIALISM FACED TO THE RISE OF IMMEDIATE POST-WAR STRUGGLES
    • The national movement against the high cost of livelihoods
    • The revolutionary struggles of the Italian peasantry
  • ITALIAN SOCIALISM FROM THE CONGRESS OF ROME TO THE CONGRESS OF BOLOGNA (OCTOBER 1919)
  • THE BATTLE OF IL SOVIET (DECEMBER 1918- OCTOBER 1919)
    • The problem of the revolutionary preparation of the party and the masses
    • The problem of the creation of workers’councils
    • The problem of the unity of the proletariat and the trade union question
    • The question of abstentionism until the Bologna Congress
  • THE POSITIONS OF L’ORDINE NUOVO UNTIL THE CONGRESS OF BOLOGNA (MAY-OCTOBER 1919)
  • THE CONGRESS OF BOLOGNA (5-8 OCTOBER 1919)
  • THE SOCIAL STRUGGLES IN ITALY UNTIL SEPTEMBER 1920
    • The Turin Factory Councils
    • The “Lancette strike”
    • The Bersagliere mutiny in Ancona
    • The factory occupations of August-September 1920
  • THE PSI BETWEEN THE BOLOGNA CONGRESS AND THE SECOND CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL
    • The controversy on the nature and establishment of the Soviets
    • The Crisis of Ordinovism
    • The Communist Left, from the Congress of Bologna to the II Congress of the Comintern
    • The theses of the Abstentionist Communist Fraction (June 1920)
• THE GERMAN COMMUNIST PARTY BETWEEN THE SPLIT WITH THE ULTRA-LEFT AND KAPP’S PUTSCH
  • Kapp’s Putsch (March 1920)

• PART ONE: THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL, GERMAN CENTRISM AND THE ITALIAN SOCIALIST PARTY ON THE EVE OF THE SECOND CONGRESS (AUGUST 1919 – JULY 1920)
  • The Leipzig Congress of the USPD (December 1919)
  • The relations between the Communist International and the Independents
  • Lenin, Serrati and the Bologna Congress
• PART TWO: THE SECOND CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL (19 JULY – 7 AUGUST 1920)
  • Theses on the Fundamental Tasks of the Communist International
  • Theses on the Role of the Communist Party in the Proletarian Revolution
  • Theses on the Trade Union Movement, Factory Committees
  • Theses on the National and Colonial question
  • Theses on the Agrarian Question
  • Theses on the Communist Party and Parliamentarianism
  • The Conditions for the Admission of Parties to the Communist International
  • The Statutes of the Communist International
  • The Italian Communist Left in front of the Resolutions and Theses of the 2nd Congress
  • L’Ordine Nuovo and the Theses of the 2nd Congress
  • Serrati’s opposition to the decisions of the Second Congress
• PART THREE: THE FOUNDATION OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF ITALY AND THE UNIFIED COMMUNIST PARTY OF GERMANY
  • The foundation of the Communist Fraction and the preparation of the split of the PSI
  • The Livorno Congress and the foundation of the Communist Party of Italy
  • The merger of the KPD(S) and the Left Independents

• PART ONE: THE PCI UNTIL THE 3RD CONGRESS OF THE INTERNATIONAL
  • The PCI’s position against the fascist offensive
  • The PCI and its characterization of fascism
  • The PCI’s position on Italian Social Democracy
  • The balance of forces in the Labor Movement and the (lack of) tactics of the PCdI towards the Social-Democrats, the Syndicalists and the Anarchists
  • The Arditi of Italy and the «Epic» of Fiume
  • The Arditi del Popolo
  • The controversy between the International and the PCI concerning the Arditi del Popolo
• PART TWO: THE GERMAN PARTY UNTIL THE III CONGRESS OF THE INTERNATIONAL
  • The KPD crisis in early 1921
  • The March 1921 Action in Germany
  • Towards the 3rd Congress of the Communist International
  • The conflict in the Russian Party over the German Question
• PART THREE: THE THIRD CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL
  • The Theses on tactics approved by the 3rd Congress
  • The discussion on tactics between Terracini and Lenin
  • The «Open Letter» problem
  • Terracini’s defense of the «Revolutionary Offensive Theory» and the PCI’s position
  • The 3rd Congress and the «Theses on the Structure, Methods and Action of the Communist Parties»
  • The 3rd Congress and the Trade Union question
  • The 3rd Congress and the «Theses for the propaganda among women»
  • The 3rd Congress and the ECCI’s attempt to achieve the unification of the PCI with a PSI sector

• The crisis of the German Communist Party after the 3rd Congress of the International
• The PCI and the «Labor United Front» motto
• The Communist International’s tactical turn and the «United Front» motto
• PCI’s official position on the ECCI’s United Front tactics
• The controversy over the United Front in the First Expanded Executive of the International
• The Second Congress of the Communist Party of Italy (March 1922)
  • The Theses on tactics (Rome Thesis)
  • The Theses on the Communist Party and the Trade Unions
  • The Theses on the Agrarian Question

• PART ONE: ITALY 1922 – THE FOUNDATION OF THE “LABOR ALLIANCE” AND THE FASCIST OFFENSIVE
  • Towards the “Labor Alliance” (October 1921 – February 1922)
  • The foundation of the “Labor Alliance” (20 February 1922)
  • The PCI and the “Labor Alliance”
  • The trajectory of fascism and the bourgeois offensive
  • Political confusion about the “Labor Alliance”
  • Once again on the tactics of the PCI at the eve of the fascist conquest of power
• PART TWO: THE DISCUSSION ON TACTICS IN THE 2ND ENLARGED IC EXECUTIVE
• PART THREE: TOWARDS THE NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE OF AUGUST 1922 AND THE CAPORETTO OF THE PROLETARIAN MOVEMENT
  • The workers’ political currents and the “Labor Alliance”
  • The civil war in the industrial bastions of Northern Italy
  • The action of the PCI on the eve of the August 1922 Strike
  • Parliamentary maneuvers and reformist sabotage
  • Towards the general strike of August 1922
  • The general strike and the Caporetto of the Italian Labor Movement
  • The PCI faced to the defeat of August 1922
  • The attempted agreement of the left-wing unionists
  • A historical problem
  • General remarks on the trajectory of the Italian Communist Left until 1922
  • The split of the Socialist Party in October 1922
• PART FOUR: THE RISE TO POWER OF FASCISM AND THE MARCH ON ROME
  • The Communist Party faced to the March on Rome
• PART FIVE: THE CONFLICT BETWEEN THE PCDI AND THE ECCI PRIOR TO THE IV CONGRESS
  • The reports submitted by the PCdI to the Fourth Congress of the Communist International
• ANNEX: Remarks on the ideological evolution of Amadeo Bordiga

• PART ONE: Germany 1922
  • The trigger of price inflation
  • The War reparations
  • The organization and influence of the KPD in 1922
  • El KPD ante el auge de los movimientos nacionalistas
• PART TWO: THE FOURTH CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL
  • The motto of the Workers’ Government
  • The motto of the Workers’ United Front
  • Theses on Trade Unions Activity
  • Other theses and resolutions approved in the 4th Congress
  • The «Italian Question»
  • The question of the Program and the transitional mottos

• The Invasion of the Ruhr
• The KPD and the Ruhr Invasion
• Bavaria and the rise of radical nationalist movements
• The Leipzig Congress of the German Communist Party
• The loss of influence of Social Democracy and the Conquest of the Masses by the Communist Party
• The KPD’s Crisis following the Action of the Communist Left in the Ruhr
• The Moscow Conference on the German Party (April 1923)
• The Third Expanded Executive of the Communist International (June 1923)
• The resolution on Fascism and the “Schlageter Line” of the Third Expanded Executive
• The resolution on the Workers’ and Peasants’ Government
• The application of the «Schlageter Line» in Germany
• June-July 1923 and the general rise of workers’ struggles
• The Antifascist Day of July 1923
• Towards the fall of the Cuno Government
• Strikes against the Cuno Government
• The Bolsheviks’ awareness of the revolutionary situation in Germany and the preparation of the insurrection
• The geopolitical context of the German Revolution
• The situation in Germany under the Stresemann Governments (August-November 1923)
• The political approach to the insurrection
• The inexorable chain of the October 1923 fiasco
• Towards the stabilization of the situation in Germany

• The conflicts in the Bolshevik Party in the Years 1922-1924
• Radek-Brandler’s theses approved by the KPD Central Committee
• The first reactions of the ECCI
• The assessments of Brandler, Thalheimer and Clara Zetkin
• The theses of the New Provisional Majority
• The assessment of the German Communist Left
• The theses of the Presidium of the Communist International
• Trotsky’s lessons
• The lessons of the Italian Communist Left

• PART ONE: THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF ITALY BETWEEN THE FOURTH AND THE FIFTH CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL
  • The Fascist offensive against the PCdI
  • The failure of the merger with the PSI, the «Italian question» in the III Expanded Executive and the appointement of a new management of the PCI
• PART TWO: THE FIFTH CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL
  • The United Front
  • The Worker’s and Peasant’s Government
  • The question of Fascism
  • The proposal to unify the Red Trade Union International with that of Amsterdam
  • The reorganization of the Communist Parties based on factory cells
  • The «Russian question»
  • The Italian Left and the 5th Congress