“Let’s free ourselves from Zionism and capitalism”. A rally organised by a young Democrat

“We are the children, we are the grandchildren of the history of Italian communism. In practical terms, we must free ourselves from the imperialist yoke of Trump and the United States. From oppressive Zionist rhetoric, from the temptation to succumb to the siren call of capitalism, capital and free-market ideology.” At the Festa dell’Unità in Reggio Emilia, Marco Rocco De Luca—a PD city councillor in Cesena and the national coordinator for political culture, foundations, remembrance and anti-fascism within the national Gd—draws on expressions and rhetoric from a distant past. He reminds everyone that Schlein’s party’s youth wing is currently the driving force behind the party’s most extremist tendencies.

The words of an old communist, or perhaps simply an old man. “To finally set sail with courage towards new horizons of liberation, of an internationalist future, of multipolar peace and happiness where we might all rise up materially”. He then calls on us to adopt “the stance of theoretical critique and genuine struggle against this capitalism” to avoid becoming “yet another pale, palliative apologist for the oppression, injustice and suffering that the powerful in this world inflict, with impunity, on a large part of civilisation.”

The speech by Gd secretary Virginia Libero – "we will organise the deserters against your war" – whilst chilling, at least employed contemporary language and tone. De Luca, on the other hand, seems to have stepped out of another era. Both, however, were warmly applauded by the audience of Democratic Party activists.