You write that Il Manifesto is an 'extremely leftist paper' in Italy. Well, it is and is not. It is when you think of the US Democrats as a centre of the road party. But since this is not an American discussion board, and since Il Manifesto is not a US paper, it is probably not a very accurate description of the paper's position in the Italian political spectrum.

That is not to say that Il Manifesto has never been extremely leftist. I agree that at the time of Lotta Continua it was leftist. However that ended in 1980. And even then was Il Manifesto an extremely erudite, academic paper for the communist 'aristocracy'.

The real function of Il Manifesto is surprisingly different. Let me give you an example. Our as we say here: 'an anecdotal experience'.

Over time I was always puzzled by the iconic use of Il Manifesto. It went so far that I would always notice a stack of last month's copies of the paper in some corner of my friends study rooms. And if you'd cared to give it a closer look you would notice that Il Manifesto was not negligently dropped there but artfully assembled to add to the room's 'cool' and intellectual atmosphere.

My personal impression is that most people don't ever buy it with the intent to read it.

Il Manifesto has - over time - become a cultish art object. The handling of the paper requires a standardised routine which consists in walking to the newspaper booth in the central piazza in the morning. There you buy it. Then you put it in your trouser's or jacket's pocket making sure that it is folded it in a such a way that part of the title can be seen by by-passers. Now it is time to have a coffee at the bar and you can take a look at the front page and smoke a MS. You also look at the Rome cultural events page and then slip it back into the pocket and walk back home. There you add it to the stack of the previous copies in the study room.

I'm totally convinced that Il Manifesto is not a leftist Italian paper, on the contrary: it is rigorously Prussian. Very much like RAI RADIO TRE it strictly caters to the Italian culture crowd (with some money) for the purose 'di fare bella figura'. And academics (without money) who read it because they like its rigid intellectual seriousness.

Btw: I still own some stocks of the Il Manifesto co-operative. It's a good paper.

"The USA appears destined by fate to plague America with misery in the name of liberty." Simon Bolivar, Caracas, 1819