the strike at fiat in october 1942 had a huge impact on the italian fraction, which was deepened by the fall of mussolini's regime in july 1943. the italian fraction now saw a pre-revolutionary situation opening in italy and prepared to participate in the coming revolution. in 1943 the internationalist communist party was founded by onorato damen and luciano stefanini, amongst others. by 1945 the party had 5,000 members all over italy with some supporters in france, belgium and the usa. it published a "manifesto of the communist left to the european proletariat", which called upon workers to put class war before national war.