New Political International, the "Progressive Alliance"

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Basically an attempt to recreate the SI as it was before the pretty much entirely misguided expansion efforts.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The trouble with that argument is that it rests on the assertion that the SI in its current configuration is something other than what it is...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Have any of these parties left the SI?

It seems to be more a case of ceasing to pay dues and getting knocked down  to 'observer' status rather than actually leaving.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Internationals (when not functionally moribund or close to it) are mostly for networking and drinking rather than great statements of ideological purity. There have been strong personal connections between parts of the Democratic Party and parts of some European social democratic parties since the start of the Cold War*; this is mostly a formalisation of a longstanding relationship, rather than the start of a new one.

Of course it's incongruous, but these things tend to be. Now for irony, note that the Democrats have (and for a while now) been a member of the 'Alliance of Democrats', which also includes the Italian PD. Who are (of course) the legal successor to the PCI.



_{*Perhaps inevitably, Sam Watson - the Durham Miners leader and Russophile Cold Warrior  - was a key figure in this.}