Correspondents' Correspendence The CPI Strategy
ROBERTS, COKIE
Correspondents' Correspondence BRIEF TAKEOUTS OF MORE THAN PERSONAL INTEREST FROM LETTERS AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED BY THE EDITORS. The CPI Strategy Frattaminore-Traveling the campaign...
...Vive Populo Americano...
...While Ms...
...The project was typical of many initiated by Communist municipal authorities throughout Italy in their effort to develop a reputation for honest, effective programs devoted to the needs of the people...
...Over and over Ms...
...She pulled out a picture of herself taken at her daugher's First Communion...
...would cut off funds to Italy if party members joined the government in Rome...
...In the town square, a huge red banner set on a platform in front of the neighborhood church flew only a few feet from a painting of Christ on the Cross, underlining the distance the party has moved from its traditional stance of hostility to religion...
...The two biggest opposition figures facing the Communists in the election, she went on, were Pope Paul VI and Henry Kissinger...
...The Christian Democrats are corrupt-during the cholera epidemic in Naples they not only were too disorganized to vaccinate the populace, they even stole the money allocated for burning the garbage...
...The CPI understood these concerns and trod softly, saying it merely wanted to retain the 33 per cent of the vote they won in the last regional elections??and that, it turned out, is precisely what they did.??Cokie Roberts...
...All those years of keeping the place sparkling had finally paid off...
...Rinonapoli, "and it's taken a new Communist mayor to start a sewer system...
...and no middle party has emerged...
...Long live the American People), amended one young man...
...Rinonapoli explained she had decided to go with the Communists as a direct result of the teachings of the Gospels and the encyclicals of Pope John XXIII, our hostess bustled to find a family photo album...
...Look," she said, "there's the biggest Communist in town...
...The CPI Strategy Frattaminore-Traveling the campaign trail with a Communist Party (CPI) candidate for the Chamber of Deputies, I came to this old town near Naples one evening shortly before the June 20-21 Italian elections...
...Her speech touched on all the, issues plaguing the area-high unemployment, crime, illiteracy, corruption in government...
...We wandered past 15th-century houses to the town square, side-stepping a huge trench dug into the street...
...About the first she responded: "You can go to church every Sunday and vote Communist...
...In a neighboring town three young girls had recently burned to death in a textile factory, and the all-male audience cheered when she said the victims had been forced to accept unsafe working conditions because their fathers and brothers had no jobs...
...Since the crowd was still sparse, a local Communist woman invited us into her home for refreshments...
...When she served us brandy in gleaming cut-crystal glasses someone raised a toast, "Vive America...
...The candidate, Paola Rinonapoli, was a 50-year-old Catholic teacher, running as an independent on the CPI ticket...
...But Eastern Europe is nearby and like many of their countrymen, they feared the loss of freedom under the Communists...
...What's written in the Gospels reflects the Communist line completely: freedom, equality and the improvement of the conditions of life.' As for the U.S...
...They did not want to reinstate the rulers who seemed to bring only poverty and despair...
...Thirteen kilometers from Naples," exclaimed Ms...
...As she climbed the steps to stand before the red flag, an old man handed her a bunch of homegrown roses...
...Secretary of State, she pointed out that America has relations with the USSR and other Communist countries, and told the voters not to worry that the U.S...
...Rinonapoli stressed what was the Communists' key argument: There is no alternative...
...Soon the crowd outside had grown to an acceptable size and the candidate, much to my dismay, begged off a spaghetti dinner, laughingly saying, "Excuse me, I have to go make the revolution...
...The conversation centered on the conflict between the Communist party and the Catholic Church, reflected in the Pope's coming out against Catholics running with the CPI...
...The tiny living-dining area shone spotlessly and the woman beamed with pride as the "notables" sat at her table...
...I was reminded of what the leader of the party in Naples had said to us earlier in the day: "A vote for the Communist party in Italy isn't a vote for the revolution of the working class, but a vote for a government that will administer the city...
...What followed does not of course fully explain the CPI's capturing over a third of the national vote, but many of the elements that combined to bring about its impressive showing were present here...
...The people in the street were uneasy about the choice they faced...
Vol. 59 • July 1976 • No. 14
