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Party of Italian Communists, Italy

Partito dei Comunisti Italiani

image by M. Schmöger, 3 May 2013

Overview
Earlier Flag

See also:

Overview

Founded 11 October 1998 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_of_Italian_Communists

I would like to report some changes to the flag of the Italian political party named Partito dei Comunisti Italiani (or, in short, Comunisti Italiani). The new flag has the same size as the old one (i.e. 140 x 100 cm), and has maintained the circular cyan/pale blue logo, whose diameter is approx.80 cm, on a plain red background.
The logo, though, is now surrounded by a thin blue rim (which used to be white). Also the lettering used to be white and is now blue. The name of the party is spelt in a font somewhat similar to Times New Roman, and a further text, PER LA SINISTRA ("for the left wing"), has been added in the upper part of the logo, in Arial (Helvetica) font. The two overlapping flags inside the logo are now slightly larger than the ones in the old flag.
I first became aware of the new flag on October 20, 2007, on the occasion of a national rally in Rome, but the aforesaid changes in the party's official logo, featured in posters, etc., were already extant since 2005.
Andrea Pollett, 21 and 23 October 2007

PdCI (Partito dei Comunisti Italiani = Party of Italian Communists)

As the PdCI is now part of the Federazione della Sinistra (FdS), the FdS flag is used much more frequently than the PdCI flag.

Sources:
[1] flag no. 138 in Italian political flags collection Schmöger, bought on ebay.it
[2] http://static.controlacrisi.org/images/auto/84/843728b1541f2ef51b02bde56ad52f28db79aa35e98b082240684fce.jpg
[3] http://www.tempostretto.it/sites/www.tempostretto.it/files/immagini/politica/bandiera500.jpg
[4] http://www.comunistiroma.it/old_site/images/stories/pdci/san%20giovanni%202.jpg
[5] http://www.comunisti-ancona.it/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/congresso1.JPG

M. Schmöger, 3 May 2013

Earlier Flag

image by Eugene Ipavec, 22 June 2006

A left-wing federation
G. Vacca, 22 September 1997

The symbol of of the PdCI can be seen at www.comunisti-italiani.it. It looks quite similar to the one of the Unitarian Communists but I'm not sure if it is an old symbol or that of a different party.
In the same PdCI site the Statutes of the party describe the flag and the way it should be shown in public, with two stripes in the hoist. Here is the transcripction in italian of article 43:
"La bandiera La bandiera del Partito dei Comunisti Italiani e' rossa, e reca in colore giallo la falce, il martello e la stella d'Italia. Quando viene esposta in pubblico, all'asta vengono legati due nastri, uno coi colori nazionali, l'altro coi colori dell'Unione Europea."
M.V. Blanes, 27 September 2000

Two groups split off from the RC (Communist Refoundation Party - Partito della Rifondazione Comunista) consecutively. The second fission of the RC occurred in 1998: another more moderate group founded the PdCI ("Partito dei Comunisti Italiani" = Party of Italian Communists), that is still an independent party in the L'Ulivo coalition. The logo is similar to the logo of the "Comunisti Unitari" (Unitarian Communists), only the inscription reads "COMUNISTI ITALIANI" and is arranged in a semi-circle. The logo appears (with a thin white border) in the center of flags with a red field.
M. Schmöger, 2 August 2002

The flag of the Comunisti Italiani (Italian Communists), whose logo is the same one that the old Italian Communist Party used to have, i.e. a red flag with a yellow sickle and hammer overlapping an Italian one of similar size, although in this case the background is cyan, or pale blue. The standard size of the flag is 140 x 100 cm.
Andrea Pollett, 3 June 2004

Other Flags used by this party and PRC

The two current communist parties in Italy, the PRC and the PdCI, do use some other flags as well, beside their own party flags proper:

Peace (Pace) flags. See the photo at www.rifondazione.it.
Frequently used are flags with the portrait of Che Guevara and the inscription "Hasta la victoria siempre" in Castilian (Spanish) . The one variant shows the portrait in black on a plain red background, the other in red on the Cuban flag. See the fotos at www.rifondazione.it/gadgets/img/foto/b_hasta.jpg and ban_cuba_che.jpg.
image by M. Schmöger, 2 August 2002
Not very frequently red flags with yellow hammer & sickle and yellow star (USSR style) are used. See photo at www.rifondazione.it
image by M. Schmöger, 2 August 2002
Followers of the PdCI seem to prefer a hammer & sickle flag with the portrait of Lenin. See photo at web.tiscali.it.

Other flags seen during demonstrations are, for instance, the PLO flag and the flag of the Kurdish ERNK. During one demonstration there was also one flag of the Bloque Nacionalista Galego. See foto at <www.rifondazione.it>.
M. Schmöger, 2 August 2002