Flippant Analysis

To the Editors of The Crimson:

There is no excuse for the kind of flippant analysis which accompanied the announcement in What Is To Be Done? of the April 11 speech by Giorgio Napolitano. The gratuitous remark that from some points of view, the terrorists of the Brigate Rosse (Moro's kidnappers) are characterized as freedom fighters ignores the unanimous condemnation of such acts by the Italian democratic left. The implication that the Italian Communist Party may actually be sympathetic to such acts of violence is not only uninformed but offensive; that the Communists welcome violence as an occasion for insincere disclaimers to assuage the fears of an unconvinced populace is absurd.

Aldo Moro was among the Christian Democrats who favored closer cooperation with the Communists; his abduction can only hamper relations between the two parties. Furthermore, contrary to J. Wyatt Emmerich's assertions that the Communists stand to benefit most from terrorism, domestic strife threatens to increase support for politicans of the right who would impose their own version of order.

The author superficially assumes that Giorgio Napolitano, being a Communist, must necessarily offer a simplistic account of "the crisis of capitalism and the inevitability of the demise of an inherently exploitative system." In fact, the title of the talk is "The PCI and the Crisis of Italy's Political Economy." Emmerich's parochialism is evident in his assumption that any attempt to apply "Communist dogma" to a "real social situation" will be of merely quaint interest. If he can only see foreign class conflict and byzantine political plots in the current crisis in Italy, then perhaps Emmerich would be better off letting Napolitano speak for himself and should simply content himself with announcing events. Paul Levenson '79   and Eric Gilioli '79