ON the rainy afternoon of January 21, 1921, a small faction of disgruntled Socialists met in a darkened Leghorn movie theater to found the Italian Communist Party. Last week some 16,000 party faithful traveled from all over Italy by car and chartered bus to Rome's suburban Sport Palace for a four-hour rally to celebrate the 50th anniversary of that event. Party Secretary Luigi Longo, grizzled and ailing at 70, was presented with a framed replica of his 1921 membership card along with a 1971 model. He declared proudly: "The forecast was that our...
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