ITALY: Stirrings & Beginnings

Entrenched in the town halls of a third of Italy's municipalities, many Red mayors have long engaged themselves in a lucrative tax racket. Sometimes they call in private firms to collect local levies (a frequent practice in Italy), but add a twist of their own: the party kickback. On the books, the collectors got an exorbitant 30% commission; they actually kept a generous 18% to 20%, and handed over the rest to swell the coffers of the West's biggest, richest, strongest Communist Party. Typical annual payoffs for the Reds: 17 million lire...

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