World Notes ITALY

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If Will Rogers were an Italian Communist today, his famous wisecrack, slightly modified, would apply: "I am not a member of any organized political party. I'm a Democrat -- of the Left." After nearly a year of debate, Italy's Communists joined their East European counterparts last week by adopting a new name, the Democratic Party of the Left, and a fresh insignia: a spreading tree, with the old hammer-and-sickle symbol reduced and planted at the roots.

"We are changing so we can change Italy," said party secretary Achille Occhetto. He might have said his party, Italy's second biggest and the West's largest Communist Party (1.4 million members), was changing to catch up with voters, whose support has dropped from a high of 34% in 1976 to 28% in the 1989 elections for the European Parliament. Occhetto must still win approval for his proposal at a congress in January, overcoming resistance from an Old Guard that remains proud to be red. A week earlier, Occhetto's rival on the left, Socialist leader Bettino Craxi, upstaged the divided Communists by announcing that his party would henceforth be known as Socialist Unity.