Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Livio Maitan was the foremost leader of the Italian Trotskyite movement. Born in Venice in 1923, Maitan took part in the resistance movement during Nazi occupation of Italy, and was soon after a leader of the youth movement of the Socialist Party . By 1947 he was active in the Fourth International, holding leadership positions from 1951 until his death in September 2004; his militancy throughout was well documented. As a militant and a theorist he closely followed Italian and European events, but was also interested in the revolutionary processes of Latin America, gaining allegations of guevarisme from the more dogmatic components of Trotskyism. He later joined the Partito della Rifondazione Comunista (PRC; Communist Refoundation Party), where he also held positions of national leadership. Beginning in 2001, Maitan was an active and critical participant in Italy's anti-globalization movement. His perennial militancy drew him into political and economic analysis, to which he devoted articles, essays, and books. He covered social classes in Italy and other countries with regard to world economic crises, the history of the Italian Communist Party , the political heritage of Gramsci , and the Chinese Cultural Revolution to name a few. Maitan edited and translated many of Trotsky's (1879–1940) works into Italian, and some of Ernest Mandel's (1923–95) as well, and was a close ... log in or subscribe to read full text