PASSINGS : Camilla Ravera, 98; Italian Communist Party Founder

Camilla Ravera, 98, a founder of Italy’s Communist Party who championed women’s rights and became the first woman elected to that nation’s Senate. She was one of nine people given the honorary title of senator for life and remained active in Italian politics through 1983. She was arrested in 1930 for anti-fascist activities and sentenced to 15 years in prison. She served five years in jail and eight in internal exile before being freed after the Allied invasion of Italy. Although Miss Ravera had been a founder of Italy’s Communist Party, she was expelled from the party in 1943 because she bitterly criticized Soviet leader Josef Stalin and the Soviet’s 1939 non-aggression pact with the Nazis. She was reinstated during the 1950s and was elected to the Senate in 1982. In Rome on Thursday.