On January 11th, a new party was founded in Italy: the Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity (psiup). By the end of January it already had 60,000 members. The new party was inaugurated when the Italian Socialist Party (psi) entered the Moro government and its left wing broke away in protest. A third of the members of the psi regional committees left to join the psiup. Within a fortnight psiup membership overtook the psi in Emilia, Tuscany, Sardinia, Sicily and the Abruzzi. The psiup recruited numerous former psi trade-unionists and many young Italians who hitherto belonged to no party. Many socialists outside Italy have been bewildered by the events which led up to the split in the psi. The foundation of the psiup has helped to clarify the situation. It is now possible to give outline answers to a number of important, interconnected questions. How did the centre-left come about? What is the present Moro government programme? What conditions did Nenni and the psi accept before going in with Moro? Why was the psiup founded? What is the attitude of the Italian Communist Party (pci)?

Since 1947, when Saragat and the Social Democrats (psdi) split from the psi, Italy has been governed by the Christian Democrats (dc) in alliance with the psdi and various smaller parties of the right. This coalition is no longer numerically feasible in Parliament and it has also become inadvisable for social and economic reasons. The original impulse behind the centre-left was the need to modernize Italian capitalism (although not all Italian capitalists support this choice of method). The speed with which the Common Market was established put a special strain on Italy. Rapid changes had to be imposed on the economy, if Italy was to compete on more or less equal terms with its partners in the eec. At the same time, inside Italy there was an electoral swing to the left and the threat of sharp social confrontation. In order to keep control of political power the Christian Democrats had to look leftward. The centre-left was the only course open. (The centre-right was out of the question as a long-term solution.)