The left-communist theorist who rejected parliamentarism and analyzed the USSR as state-capitalist
"We do not wish to evangelize, but to ignite, and when the moment arrives the flame will burst forth." — 1912, Karl Marx Circle, Naples
Founder of the Italian Communist Party and a leading left-communist theorist. He championed parliamentary abstentionism and an 'invariant revolutionary program,' debating Lenin directly at the Second Comintern Congress. After his 1930 expulsion, he developed a distinctive analysis of the USSR as state-capitalist.
Career timeline
- 1910Joins the Italian Socialist Party (PSI)
- 1912Founds the Karl Marx Circle in Naples, nucleus of the abstentionist left
- 1920Attends Second Comintern Congress — debates Lenin on parliamentarism
- 1921Founds the Communist Party of Italy at the Livorno Congress — first General Secretary
- 1923–1924Arrested by the Mussolini regime; on release declines to reclaim his post
- 1926Arrested again, exiled to Ustica — reunited with Gramsci
- 1930Expelled from the party on charges of Trotskyism
- 1951–1970Active in the International Communist Party — contributes to Battaglia Comunista and Prometeo
The brain a prison was meant to stop: theorist of hegemony
“The old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.” — Prison Notebooks
Italian Marxist philosopher who theorized hegemony: the insight that rule is maintained not by force alone but through consent organized in civil society. From a fascist prison he wrote the Prison Notebooks, laying foundations for Western Marxism.
Career timeline
- 1919Founds L'Ordine Nuovo; the Turin factory-council movement
- 1921Among the founders of the Italian Communist Party
- 1924–1926Party secretary and deputy
- 1926Arrested — 'we must stop this brain for twenty years'
- 1929–1935Writes the thirty-three Prison Notebooks
- 1937Dies days after his release
- 1948–1951Prison writings first published posthumously in six thematic volumes as Prison Notebooks
'Gallo': commander in Spain and the Resistance, PCI secretary-general who endured Cominform self-criticism and succeeded Togliatti
When he succeeded Togliatti as PCI secretary-general in 1964, Longo declared: 'I am a secretary, not a boss.'
A founder of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) at the 1921 Livorno Congress, Longo fought as inspector-general of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War under the nom de guerre 'Gallo.' During World War II he commanded the communist Garibaldi Brigades in the Italian Resistance and afterwards served as PCI deputy secretary under Palmiro Togliatti. In September 1947 he attended the founding Cominform conference at Szklarska Poręba as the PCI's delegate alongside Eugenio Reale, where the PCI and the French Communist Party were subjected to harsh criticism and forced into a self-critical turn toward militant struggle. Succeeding Togliatti as secretary-general in 1964, Longo pursued the 'Italian road to socialism' with growing autonomy from Moscow and formally opposed the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.
Career timeline
- 1921Co-founder of the PCI at the Livorno Congress
- 1936–1939Inspector-General of the International Brigades in Spain, nom de guerre 'Gallo'
- 1943–1945Commander of the Garibaldi Brigades, Deputy Commander of the CVL
- 1945–1964Deputy Secretary of the PCI
- 1947.09PCI delegate to the Cominform founding conference (Szklarska Poręba)
- 1964–1972Secretary-General of the PCI
- 1972–1980Honorary President of the PCI
