View source for Proletarian Unity Party (Italy)

{{For|the [[France|French]] party|Proletarian Unity Party (France)}}
{{More citations needed|date=January 2023}}{{Infobox political party
| country        = Italy
| native_name    = Partito di Unità Proletaria
| logo = [[File:Partito di Unità Proletaria logo.svg|170px]]
| abbreviation   = PdUP
| foundation     = 1972
| dissolution    = 1984
| newspaper      = ''Unità Proletaria''<br />''[[Il manifesto]]''
| merger         = [[New PSIUP]] <br> [[Socialist Alternative (Italy)|Socialist Alternative]]
| merged         = [[Italian Communist Party]]
| ideology       = [[Communism]]<br />[[Socialism]]
| position = [[Far-left]]
| colorcode      = {{party color|Proletarian Unity Party (Italy)}} 
| europarl         = [[Technical Group of Independents (1979–84)|Technical Group of Independents]] (1979–84) 
| colours         = {{color box|{{party color|Proletarian Unity Party (Italy)}} |border=darkgray}} [[Red]]
}}
{{Communism in Italy|expanded=Defunct organisations}}
The '''Proletarian Unity Party''' ([[Italian language|Italian]]: ''Partito di Unità Proletaria'', '''PdUP''') was a [[far-left]] [[political party]] in [[Politics of Italy|Italy]].

==Origins==
The PdUP was founded in November 1972 by the minority factions of two parties: the [[New PSIUP]], led by [[Vittorio Foa]] and [[Silvano Miniati]], which gathered those militants from the [[Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity]] (PSIUP) who had not agreed on the decision to join the [[Italian Communist Party]] (PCI); and [[Socialist Alternative (Italy)|Socialist Alternative]], led by [[Giovanni Russo Spena]] and philosopher Domenico Jervolino, which was composed of several renegades from the left wing of the [[Workers' Political Movement]] (MPL) who had opposed that party's earlier merger with the [[Italian Socialist Party]] (PSI). The new party's symbol was the [[hammer and sickle]] over the world, which it had inherited from the PSIUP.

In 1974 these members were joined by ''[[Il Manifesto]]'', a group which had been expelled from the PCI some years earlier, and by the Autonomist Student Movement led by [[Mario Capanna]]. Together, they merged to form the '''Proletarian Unity Party for Communism''' ([[Italian language|Italian]]: ''Partito di Unità Proletaria per il Comunismo''). The now expanded party's founding congress was held on January 29, 1976. The leaders of the party's three main currents were: Miniati, Foa and Capanna (predominantly ex-PSIUP and [[far left]]-oriented, with a grounding in ''[[operaismo]]'' or "workerism"); [[Rossana Rossanda]] and [[Lucio Magri]] (who both hailed from ''Il Manifesto'', and leant towards collaborating with the PCI and the communist-backed [[Italian General Confederation of Labour|CGIL]] trade union); and [[Luigi Pintor (politician)|Luigi Pintor]] (who headed a minor 'third force' that frequently maintained the balance of power). Magri was elected as the party's first national secretary.

During the [[1976 Italian general election|1976 general elections]], the PdUP ran as part of an electoral coalition under the [[Proletarian Democracy]] (''Democrazia proletaria''; DP) banner. The party gained three seats in the [[Italian Chamber of Deputies]] (won by Magri, Eliseo Milani and [[Luciana Castellina]]) out of the coalition's total of six.

==Splits and alliances==
By 1977, tension had begun to develop within the party between its ex-PSIUP/MPL founders and Magri's ''Il Manifesto'' faction. The latter was deeply disappointed by the failure of the Italian left to establish a national government, but its focus on capturing power at the very top had always gone against the grain of the party's ''operaista'' (workerist) roots, which were typified by Foa's public insistence that "the real issue [for the party] was workers' control: left-wing power must be rooted in the struggles of the factories."<ref>Patrick McCarthy, 'The Parliamentary and Nonparliamentary Parties of the Far Left', in Howard R. Penniman (ed), ''Italy at the Polls, 1979: A Study of the Parliamentary Elections'' (Washington D.C., American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1981), p. 198. {{ISBN|0844734403}}</ref> Consequently, on February 20, 1977, the two tendencies split to form separate sections, with the far-left ''operaista'' element under Foa and Capanna soon abandoning the PdUP altogether in order to help constitute Proletarian Democracy formally as a new party. Magri's majority had earlier absorbed the ''Avanguardia Operaia'' movement, but it too was to leave the PdUP in 1978 following the congress held at [[Viareggio]] that year. However, during its third congress in [[Rome]] in 1981, the party was joined by the Workers' Movement for Socialism (''Movimento Lavoratori per il Socialismo''; MLS), a [[Maoist]] group led by Luca Cafiero.

==Absorption into the PCI and later events==
After the [[1983 Italian general election|elections of 1983]], the PdUP joined the PCI list, to which it had become closer after the PCI secretary [[Enrico Berlinguer]] had abandoned the ''[[Historic Compromise]]'' (a project for a PCI-[[Christian Democracy (Italy)|Christian Democracy]] alliance).

On November 25, 1984, the PdUP merged into the PCI. When, in 1991, [[Achille Occhetto]] started the process of transforming the PCI into the [[Social democracy|social democratic]]-oriented [[Democratic Party of the Left]] (PDS), some former PdUP members declared their opposition to the move and joined the [[Communist Refoundation Party]] (PRC). After the latter withdrew from the [[centre-left]] [[Lamberto Dini]] government in 1995, many former PdUP members left the party to create the [[Movement of Unitarian Communists]], which later was absorbed into the PDS' heir, the [[Democrats of the Left]].

==Notable members==
{{Div col|colwidth=18em}}
*[[Vittorio Agnoletto]]
*Luca Cafiero
*[[Mario Capanna]]
*Massimo Caprara
*[[Luciana Castellina]]
*Mario Catalano
*Famiano Crucianelli
*Ivano Di Cerbo
*[[Davide Ferrari]]
*[[Vittorio Foa]]
*[[Paolo Gentiloni]]
*Alfonso Gianni
*[[Franco Grillini]]
*[[Lucio Magri]]
*Ramon Mantovani
*Lidia Menapace
*Eliseo Milani
*[[Silvano Miniati]]
*[[Roberto Musacchio]]
*Aldo Natoli
*Valentino Parlato
*[[Carlo Petrini]]
*[[Luciano Pettinari]]
*[[Luigi Pintor (politician)|Luigi Pintor]]
*[[Rossana Rossanda]]
*[[Marianella Sclavi]]
*Giovanni Russo Spena
*Massimo Serafini
*[[Sebastiano Timpanaro]]
*Vincenzo Vita
{{div col end}}

==Election results==
===Italian Parliament===
{| class=wikitable style="width:50%; border:1px #AAAAFF solid"
|-
| colspan=7|[[Chamber of Deputies (Italy)|Chamber of Deputies]]
|-
! Election
! Votes
! % 
! Seats
! +/–
! Leader
! Government
|-
! [[1976 Italian general election|1976]]
| into [[Proletarian Democracy|DP]]
| –
| {{Composition bar|5|630|hex={{party color|Proletarian Unity Party (Italy)}}}}
| {{center|–}}
| {{center|[[Lucio Magri]]}}
| {{no2|Opposition}}
|-
! [[1979 Italian general election|1979]]
| 502,247 (9th)
| 1.4
| {{Composition bar|6|630|hex={{party color|Proletarian Unity Party (Italy)}}}}
| {{center|{{Increase}} 1}}
| {{center|[[Luciana Castellina]]}}
| {{no2|Opposition}}
|-
! [[1983 Italian general election|1983]]
| into [[Italian Communist Party|PCI]]
| –
| {{Composition bar|1|630|hex={{party color|Proletarian Unity Party (Italy)}}}}
| {{center|{{Decrease}} 5}}
| {{center|[[Lucio Magri]]}}
| {{no2|Opposition}}
|}

===European Parliament===
{| class=wikitable style="width:50%; border:1px #AAAAFF solid"
|-
| colspan=6|[[European Parliament]]
|-
! width=13%|Election year
! width=16%|Votes
! width=6%|% 
! width=1%|Seats
! width=8%|+/−
! width=19%|Leader
|-
! [[1979 European Parliament election in Italy|1979]]
| 406,656 (9th)
| 1.2
| {{Composition bar|1|81|hex={{party color|Proletarian Unity Party (Italy)}}}}
| {{center|–}}
| {{center|[[Luciana Castellina]]}}
|-
! [[1984 European Parliament election in Italy|1984]]
| into [[Italian Communist Party|PCI]]
| –
| {{Composition bar|0|81|hex={{party color|Proletarian Unity Party (Italy)}}}}
| {{center|{{Decrease}} 1}}
| {{center|[[Lucio Magri]]}}
|}

===Regional elections===
{| class=wikitable style="width:50%; border:1px #AAAAFF solid"
|-
| colspan=6|[[Regions of Italy]]
|-
! width=13%|Election year
! width=16%|Votes
! width=6%|% 
! width=1%|Seats
! width=8%|+/−
! width=19%|Leader
|-
! [[1975 Italian regional elections|1975]]
| 147,030 (9th)
| 0.5
| {{Composition bar|4|720|hex={{party color|Proletarian Unity Party (Italy)}}}}
| {{center|–}}
| {{center|[[Lucio Magri]]}}
|-
! [[1980 Italian regional elections|1980]]
| 372,102 (8th)
| 1.2
| {{Composition bar|8|720|hex={{party color|Proletarian Unity Party (Italy)}}}}
| {{center|{{Increase}} 4}}
| {{center|[[Luciana Castellina]]}}
|}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Historical Italian political parties}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1972 establishments in Italy]]
[[Category:1984 disestablishments in Italy]]
[[Category:Defunct communist parties in Italy]]
[[Category:Defunct political parties in Italy]]
[[Category:Political parties established in 1972]]
[[Category:Political parties disestablished in 1984]]