Thousands of members and supporters of the Communist Party (Partito Comunista) from across the country gathered on Saturday in Rome's Piazza Santi Apostoli, protesting against Italy's bourgeois government and the European Union.
In a symbolic gesture, the General Secretary of the Communist Party, Italy, Marco Rizzo tore up a copy of the recent EU Parliament's resolution which equates communism with fascism. In his speech, Rizzo condemned the resolution for rewriting history through the unhistorical and despicable claim that the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was the cause behind the Second World War.
"Without the Red Army", said Rizzo to a huge crowd of people, "we would all be speaking German today", pointing out that it was the forces of the Soviet Union that defeated fascism in Europe.
As Secretary Rizzo said, such resolutions are being used by the European Union in order to justify member states banning communist parties and symbols, something that is already happening in the Baltic countries and Eastern Europe. The only who benefits from such motions, Rizzo warned, would be the far-right forces which are on the rise across the EU.
"Do they thing that by acting in such a way they will stop our militancy and our determination?" Rizzo rhetorically asked and the crowd responded with a powerful "No!".
"Si fottano!" (Fuck it!) shouted the General Secretary while ripping off the copy of the hideous anti-communist resolution.
The demonstrators also expressed their opposition towards Italy's new coalition government which is comprised by the populist right-wing Five Star Movement and the center-left Democratic Party. Among the plans of the coalition government is the acceleration of the expulsion of immigrants from Italy and the continuation of the anti-people, anti-worker reforms in favor of the big capital.
