Ninety years after the Russian Revolution, fresh on the news stands this month – The Family Album by the left leaning national newspaper – The Manifesto. The album when completed will contain 220 figurines dedicated to the history of communism, anarchism and various revolutionaries ranging from the inventor of the guillotine to Subcommander Marcos. The collection is accompanied by a short ideological manifest which states; "Companions, we can finally build communism in one country, even in one village, indeed in one apartment" In Barga this week, small groups of people have been seen excitedly opened up tiny packages containing their precious stick down images of heroes (and others) of the left.
Just when people are seriously considering cutting down on using paper, low and behold, it comes creeping back into our lives in the shape of a medium that was once the realm of cigarette cards, footballer images, and collections of Japanese manga stars but this time the much sought after images are political figures from the past. It is a strange sight to see a group of young people, excitedly pulling images out from the packages with shouts of glee that they have found a Nikolai Bukharin, Alexey Stakhanov or a Friedrich Engels to add to their collection and the real roar of approval is saved for when Karl Marx's face is slowly pulled out of the envelope. Discussions then start on just how bad was the Pol Pot era, just how many millions of people did Stalin actually destroy and was Veltroni ever really a communist ? A quick delve into the net here in Italy show that there are ad hoc groups of people springing up all over the country preparing to swap their cards with others in an attempt to complete their albums. Who would ever have thought such a thing ? What next … the bargajazz festival figurines album … ? Hey, now that is not such a silly idea after all …. watch this space.
Is there really hope in self-parody? Will clever stickers rejuvenate the Left? And what is to be gained by debating “just how bad the Pol Pot era was?” I’d recommend that you avoid posing that particular question to a Cambodian…
I know:
– how’s about a photo album of the entire Third Reich!
After all, the debate over how many Jews, Gays and Gipsies they actually knocked-off is always a jolly after dinner conversation piece!
While we’re at it, why not throw in Gerneral Franco – I understand the old softie had it in for the clergy too?
And seeing as we’re in Italy, you can’t really leave goold ‘ole Benny out, can you?
Over the pond you’ve got your Pinochet and, further North, there’s any number of U.S. presidents culminating in that lovable old rogue George – or is it that, to be counted-in, it’s only how many of your very own you massacre – not an undefined number of nameless and innocent civilians in some God forsaken Vietnam or Iraq (not to mention covert support of non democratic terrorists organizations in South America, Africa, etc …)?