ATTEND THAT CONFERENCE?
ROME -- The Italian Communist party [por] appears to have oriented toward not participating in the conference of Communist parties proposed by the Khrushchevist leadership of the Communist party of the Soviet Union [cPSu]. For some time it has indicated opposition to the idea, and. has sought to put pressure on Khrushchev through Assistant Seoretary Longo who took a trip to Moscow. The Italian leaders. are again referring, | in a more or less veiled way , to their. theses about "polycentrism," maintaining this view even after the official position taken by the Soviet heads and the release of Suslovts report.
LtUnita, the party's daily newspaper, has published articles along this Tine, and the weekly Rinascita. featured an editorial by. Togliatti which in reality posed the question of the struggle against the Chinese not in terms of excommunication but as if it were a matter of accepting a challenge, letting practice and its results demon-~ strate in the end who is right in the current conflict.
In fact three tendencies face each other in the party leadership, The Longo-Togliatti group hold that. a conference would not be opportune and they don't want it to take place, . But, at least up to several weeks ago, they were prepared to participate in case the CPSU actually held a conference, Now doubts have arisen and some circles are of the opinion that Togliatti. is ready to change his attitude and..not participate under any circumstances in a conference which could only summarily condemn the Chinese. It is known that a letter, expressing this view, was recently sent by the leaders of the PCI to the Soviet leaders and, according to information which leaked out, -the decision to send such a letter was taken with only one person’ opposed; namely, ‘the head of the Control Commission, Scoccimarro, who favored participating, (Scoccimorro is generally come ynores to have greeted de- Stalinization with but little onthusi-~ asm,
The rightist group (Amendola, Pajetta, Alicata) is flatly against participating, They are primarily concerned about domestic tactical problems: If the PCI does not go to the conference and does not sign a document excommunicating the Chinese, the party will be in much better position to point to an independent stand, to make good its olaim of being a "national," "democratic" party that is not subservient to Moscow. Thus the common arguments of the bourgeoisie and the right-wing socialists will lose weight in this case,
As for the left wing -- a very mild left, in truth -- it also opposes participating, as its leader Ingrao already made clear at the national organizational conference held in Naples. The left wing believes that everything that has been gained in recent years in the way of "autonomous" party life would be put in question if the PCI agreed to passively associate itself in an operation of excommunication, In any case it is not interested in seeing the POI tied still more closely to the rightist Khrushchevist tendenoy. The left wing agrees with the idea that the Chinese concepts must be rejected, but thinks this should be done through firm politioal debate, through practical verification, without splits, without resorting to the methods that featured the struggle against "Tito-~ ism,
Will this orientation of the Italian leaders be maintained? Above all, will Togliatti hold firm and not go himself, or send one of his associates to the conference, if Khrushchev cracks the whip?
It is diffioult to answer these questions at the moment, The first significant indication could come at the next plenum of the Central Committee, scheduled for April 20, which has only one point on the agenda -- Togliatti's report on the situation in the inter~ national Communist movement.
U.S. HEADED FOR A "DIEN-BIEN-PHU"
At a recent discussion in Paris, André Bettencourt, Vice~President of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs Commission, tolled the bell for the U.S. adventure in South Vietnam,
"The Americans," he said, "have lost the game in South Vietnam and are headed toward a Dien-Bien~Phu. . . In one or two years the Americans will be forced to leave, This will be a sensational thing for the greatest power in the world,"
Bettencourt should know, He saw the French expeditionary force of some 200,000 men defeated by the Victnamese in the historic 1954 battle, Such experts calculate that the U.S. expeditionary foroe of some 16,000 men will not do any better despite the dollars poured by the U.S. Treasury into "the game,"