There’s been widespread news coverage in Italy regarding the recent decision in Canada to ban polycarbonate baby bottles containing bisphenol-a, a chemical that has been linked to hormonal changes in animals tested. Risks related to the use of the chemical were identified as early as the 1930’s but its use has been widespread nonetheless. Amongst the risks suggested by some studies are infertility and neural disfunction.

In last week’s election results the ‘leftest’ coalition, the ‘Sinistra Arcobaleno‘ (Left Rainbow) were decimated. The party, which combined the Italian Comunist Party and the ‘Rifondazione‘ Comunist Party along with the Green party. They were, in a very real sense the biggest losers of the election. The next parliament will be the first in Italian post-war history to have no serious left-wing representatives amongst its members.

In the best tradition of western communist parties, the auto-critique has begun, as party leaders attempt to understand why the party’s progressive program was so roundly ignored by the electorate (they polled 3.08% in the lower house, and 3.2% in the Senate).

Two fairly obvious reasons have been outlined by various commentators, including Party leader Fausto Bertinotti:
1) The party was put together at the last minute, to present a unified front at the election, something that, it seems, failed to convince the sizeable left-wing vote in Italy
2) The election campaign was dominated by a clash between the two largest parties the Partito Democratico of Veltroni, and Berlusconi’s Popolo della Liberta. Both parties aggresively marketed the idea that a vote to smaller parties would be at best a vote wasted, and at worst a favour given to the enemy.

Undoubtedly the coalition also suffered from its participation in Prodi’s lacklustre government of the last two years, where their radical agenda failed to get a foothold.

Other possible motives for their defeat? Lack of credibility, perhaps. A party that stressed its dedication to feminism*, and rejuvenating the Italian political system, and yet went for the easy option of choosing a veteran male candidate in the person of Fausto Bertinotti as party leader. Bertinotti before the election campaign did a ‘Veltroni’ denying that he would lead any new movement, given that he was too old.

Various reasons then to explain the decimation of the Italian left-wing in these elections.

Olivier Diliberto, leader of the Italian Comunist Party, in the aftermath has chosen, though, to focus on one main thing. In a curt press release, Dilly (someone for whom this monkey has generally had a lot of time) announced:

“At this point we have to start from scratch and start over with the old symbols, the hammer and sickle.”

Ah yes, that will make all the difference! Leave aside the fact that for millions of people the symbol is associated with stalinist mass-murder, the question is what possible meaning can the symbol have for a ‘new’ left-wing in Italy. Hand either a hammer or sickle to your average twenty-year-old Italian, and you will, rightly, get a bemused look, as peasants or factory workers scarcely exist in a partially globalised twenty-first century Italy.

But what about the tradition, and identity built up over decades of hard struggle? What about it? For many the symbol which Dilly so cherishes has become a symbol of clinging onto the past impotently rather than grasping the opportunities of the future.

To paraphrase Twain, reports of the demise of the Italian left have been widely exaggerated. After all, look back to 2006 and the now-triumphant Lega Nord had a poor showing which under today’s rules would have had them similarly excluded from the parliament. Instead they hold the balance of power.

The comrades need to take note of the crafty post-fascists, like il Duce’s grand-daughter Alessandra Mussolini, who have happily embraced Berlusconi’s new symbols (not a flame or a fasce in sight) whilst incorporating their traditional family values (nationalism, xenophobia & security).

What’s needed now are new faces, the mixing of old and new ideas, and less of the bottle-fed ideologies of the past.

*In their favour, they were the party who presented the largest number of female candidates in their electoral list.