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Italy on the March 2002
A massive confrontation between the classes in Italy is
under way. The barrage of arch-reactionary policies issuing from the Berlusconi
government has been met by an ‘equal and opposite’ barrage of strikes,
occupations, and mass demonstrations, with all the union organisations heading
united for a one-day national stoppage in April. CLARE DOYLE writes.
IN BARCELONA FOR the EU summit meeting, Silvio Berlusconi
posed as a determined champion of deregulation, flexibility, privatisation and
neoliberal ‘reforms’, along with Tony Blair and Spanish premier, José
María Aznar, in the so-called BAB axis. Their despicable project, on behalf of
Europe’s capitalists, is to drive down the living standards and working
conditions of workers, and make them pay the price for a recovery of European
capitalism’s ‘competitiveness’.
But at home, Berlusconi’s programme of cuts, privatisation
and attacks on basic democratic rights has provoked a mighty confrontation with
the Italian working class that he is by no means sure of winning. Already layers
of his ‘natural allies’, in the ruling and middle classes, have been peeling
away from him like the outer leaves of an artichoke being removed.
First this year was the resignation of the acceptable face
of the government, foreign minister Renato Ruggiero, in protest at the ultra
nationalism of the prime minister in relation to Europe. Some of the big bosses
like Agnelli – head of Fiat – had already expressed anxiety at Berlusconi’s
extremism, fearful of isolation within Europe and also of avoidable breaches in
labour relations that could cost the (profits of) industry dear.
At his heels, on the other side, bay the dogs of the Liga
Nord and National Alliance, led respectively by Umberto Bossi and Gianfranco
Fini. In parliament they have pushed forward a vicious piece of racist
immigration legislation (which in January brought 200,000 protesters onto the
streets of Rome), while mass deportations have already begun. On 18 March, the
arrival in Sicily of over 1,000 refugees on one boat prompted a state of
emergency and will undoubtedly give the far-right a chance to frighten Italian
workers about the consequences of being ‘swamped’.
As is well known in the country, the Italian prime minister
was heavily involved in large-scale fraud and deception long before he came to
power for the first time in 1994. Now he is so blatantly manipulating the law to
save his own skin that Milan magistrates in their ‘togas’, and then hundreds
of thousands of ‘concerned’ citizens around the country, have been on the
streets repeating the chant: ‘Resist! Resist! Resist!’
The anger of the middle classes has been further inflamed by
the effective privatisation, or ‘appropriation’ by Berlusconi and his
cronies, of the state-controlled RAI television and radio channels. Even the
president of Italy, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, has felt compelled to warn his
government of the dangers of overstepping the mark.
The tens and now hundreds of thousands of protesters filling
the squares of all the major cities on these issues, have pushed the previously
docile parliamentary opposition parties in the ‘Olive Tree’ coalition to
begin to make a noise and call their own demonstrations to defend basic
democratic rights. The ex-‘communist’ Democratico della Sinistra (DS –
Left Democrats) have been particularly stung into action by a recent much
publicised debate in Florence.
Up to 4,000 people tried to get into a hall made for 1,000
to hear how DS president, Massimo D’Alema fielded critical contributions like
that of the Florence-based historian, Alan Ginsborg. Those unable to get in
crowded round transistor and car radios to hear the party leader greeted by
whistles and cat-calls like those he had heard on the Perugia peace march in
October. They also heard Ginsborg’s taunt: ‘The leading group of the centre-left
must wake-up… The politicians must learn to listen!’
A few days after this debate, on 2 March, the Olive Tree
scored a considerable success in bringing up to half-a-million protesters to
Rome to voice their objections to the takeover of RAI. The leaders of
Rifondazione Comunista (RC) dismissed it as a predominantly middle-class affair.
But the ferment in this layer of society has enormous significance for future
developments towards a new wave of revolution that could sweep across Italy in
the very near future.
It is true that on the big social issues affecting the
working class, the ‘centre left’ remains luke-warm in its support for a
struggle. Within the DS itself, the new general secretary, Piero Fassino, was
the candidate of the right in the party (and favoured by D’Alema). He won in
spite of considerable dissatisfaction, often outright anger, in the ranks of the
party over the odious positions taken by the leadership in the past year. These
include the decision to stay away from the anti-G8 protest on the day after
Carlo Giuliani’s murder by the carabinieri in Genoa last summer and, most
controversially, the decision to support in parliament the participation of
Italian troops in the US war in Afghanistan. Nevertheless, at its congress in
October, no grouping succeeded in galvanising a left (let alone a genuinely
socialist) alternative.
Within Italy’s largest union confederation, the Cgil, at
its conference in Rimini in February, not even the forces of the RC or the
Cambio Rotta (Change Course) grouping, maintained their opposition to the
moderate (right-wing) national leadership. One lone voice, that of a RC member
from the Genoa area, stood out against the final conference document which
talked more in terms of ‘concertazione’ and co-operation (with the bosses)
than of a struggle to defend the rights of a beleaguered working class.
Nevertheless, since the decision of the Cgil conference to
go for a general strike, with or without the other union federations’ support,
some illusions have developed in Sergio Cofferati, the leader of Cgil for just
another three months until he has to step down. The Wall Street Journal’s
European edition maintained that the Cgil risks ending up like the miners’
union in Britain, which was defeated after a long strike against Margaret
Thatcher’s pit closure plans in 1984-85. This is the way Berlusconi wants to
see things go. But the power of the working class in Italy and of the Cgil
itself, with the metalworkers of Fiom as its driving force, is still intact.
They are not doomed to repeat the history of defeats in other countries. Like
all workers, they can learn from each other. Precisely because of the disaster
that was Thatcherism, Italian workers are even more resolved to resist.
There are some remaining members of the DS, dissatisfied
with their party’s continued rightward trajectory, who are now looking to
Cofferati to take on a leadership position in the DS and push it back to the
left. It is extremely unlikely that there is any basis for a left turn in the DS
now and Cofferati, given his track record, is no Fausto Bertinotti (leader of
the RC)! If anything, at the moment it is Coferatti who is being pushed by his
own rank and file to take a radical position. In February, he was party to the
midnight signing of an inadequate deal with the government on the eve of a
national strike in the public sector. Many Cgil members expressed their anger at
the time by proceeding to strike and to demonstrate along with 100,000 other
workers in Rome on 15 February. Goaded by the militancy of the Cobas and other
‘unions of the base’, which organised that demonstration, Cofferati is now
‘101% in favour’ of mobilising for a mass turnout on the 23 March
demonstration in Rome and for a total stoppage of work across Italy for eight
hours on 5 April.
At the behest of the Cgil, well over a million –
predominantly working and young people – are expected to join the six
processions on 23 March that will converge on the centre of the capital. The
recent national congress of Italy’s social forums in Bologna came out for a
maximum mobilisation for this day and for the general strike, too. The leaders
of the ‘disobedients’ and the social centres, along with the left cultural
organisation, Arci, Attac Italia and other organisations are giving full backing
to this double call to arms. At present, some of the leaders of the Cobas are
expressing reluctance to participate in the Cgil-organised activities. But they
will undoubtedly be swept into supporting the action by the overwhelming desire
of their own members to be part of this one big, determined push to get rid of
Berlusconi.
Berlusconi can be defeated
THE STRENGTH OF feeling over Article 18 of Italy’s labour
code is because its amendment would mark a watershed for either side of the
battle. Workers see that they must fight to keep what they have or end up going
down the Thatcher, Anglo-Saxon road of neo-liberalism and lose everything they
have fought for over the years. Article 18, like so many other real reforms for
workers and their families, was established as a direct result of the
pre-revolutionary crisis which existed in Italian society in 1970. It gives an
element of protection to workers against ‘unjust’ sacking.
Today, with a world recession and a halving of the growth
figures for Italian industry, this ‘article’ has assumed both a very real
and a symbolic importance for the struggle between the two major classes – the
employers and the employed. The bosses demand the right to sack without
hindrance while the workers demand the right to keep their jobs.
In the run-up to a battle that could prove to be his
downfall, Berlusconi has been trying to play-off one part of the working class
against another. He has dubbed the current strike movement as ‘a strike by
fathers against sons’. The younger generation, not prepared to be turned
against the veterans of the great battles of the 1970s and after, have come onto
the streets to declare that, ‘the fight over Article 18 is a fight for the
right of all of us, young and old, to work!’
The cabinet in mid-March decided to ‘offer’ the revision
of Article 18 in relation to employers in the South (the Mezzogiorno), on the
phoney pretext that this will enable them to create jobs in an area of
catastrophic and persistent unemployment. This blatant attempt to mollify the
powerful organised workers of the North at the expense of their brothers and
sisters in the South, however, has not got past first base. The generally
conciliatory leaders of Uil and Cisl, the second-largest union confederation,
along with Cofferati and the Cgil, have totally rejected it.
The most militant workers of Fiom (engineers in the car
factories) and Cobas, plus RC leaders and others, have gone onto the offensive.
They are demanding that Article 18 should be extended to cover all workers, not
just where there are more than 15 employees! It is a testament to the traditions
of struggle in Italy, that workers in call centres and other ‘service’
industries have been organising and taking strike action.
In an incident of great symptomatic significance for the
future, thousands of workers and their families in Gela, Sicily, organised a
blockade of their town against the closure of the petrochemical plant there. The
livelihoods of nearly all 80,000 inhabitants of the town depend on its continued
operation. The workers threw up barricades across all the entrance roads to the
town, organised food supplies to be brought in, and pushed the trade union
federations into calling a solidarity general strike in defence of their jobs.
Mindful of the dire effects of burning pet-coke in their
boilers, the pickets explained, ‘we do not want to die – either of hunger or
of tumours’. A report in Liberazione, the daily paper of the RC, described the
mood even amongst the police where, "the young bobbies looked on without
displaying any ‘offensive weapons’ and with an air of wanting to fraternise".
They were chatting and sharing bottles of water with the workers (the tap water
being yellow and undrinkable). The authorities quite rapidly climbed down over
the use of pet-coke and allowed the processes to be resumed, though at a reduced
rate.
The main demand should be that the multinational, Agip,
which has already made its millions from this site, should be forced to clean it
up and to introduce methods which would allow the production of the chemicals
with no damage to the environment or to the health of workers in the industry.
If this is not possible, then a plan should be drawn up in conjunction with the
workers’ representatives from the site and the town for the provision of
alternative useful work for all those whose jobs are threatened.
The powerful workers’ action at Gela was of particular
note given the mistaken ideas circulating in Italy’s ‘movement of movements’
about the weakening, even disappearance, of the traditional working class and,
therefore, of ‘traditional’ methods of struggle. Many on the left in Italy
also still insist that Berlusconi is ‘too strong to defeat’. He has a big
majority in parliament for his ‘Polo’ coalition but, if it is properly
mobilised, a powerful movement of the working class outside parliament could
split the already divided ruling class and even break up the coalition. Many
have forgotten that this is what happened to Berlusconi last time he was in
power in 1994. After just nine months it was a mass extra-parliamentary movement
that opened up the cracks in his government coalition and brought him down. This
time the movement is of a much broader and more determined character.
What political alternative?
IN THIS CONTEXT, the unions and the main party of the left,
the RC, should be pressing home the advantage. Remembering the five years of
Olive Tree governments which preceded Berlusconi’s election victory last May,
there are workers who blame them for today’s situation. The centre left, after
all, pioneered the neoliberal agenda in Italy and carried out stiff cuts in
spending on vital services. As a train driver in Northern Italy explained on the
eve of the 3 March national rail strike, ‘under the Olive Tree there were no
strikes. We ended up with the terms of our wages, hours and conditions set back
25 years’. This worker, already a firm supporter of the right, would not be
looking to a new ‘centre left’ government to sort things out.
But there are others who still blame the defeat of the
centre left, or the coming to power of Berlusconi, on what they see as the ‘defection’
of the RC. After acquiescing to an Olive Tree government which pushed through
anti-working class policies and big cutbacks in spending, the RC failed to
explain and prepare the ground for the withdrawal of its support. By then,
however, it should have been clear to all who were active in the movement, that
the Olive Tree was carrying out the dictates of capital and not of the working
class. It was cutting back drastically on public services and began a programme
of privatisation in the same (third) way as Blair and Lionel Jospin have done.
A new Olive Tree government, wedded to the capitalist way of
doing things, and in the context of a worsening economic situation, would be
forced to opt for anti-working class measures similar to those of Berlusconi, if
not in quite such a belligerent style. Because of this, it would again lead to
disappointment and pave the way for, rather than block the path of, a new
right-wing government. Given this, the debate inside the RC in the run up to its
congress in April is of considerable importance. A party claiming to be both
revolutionary and communist must not hide behind the broadness of the anti-globalisation
movement to dilute its programme. Instead, with a sensitive approach to the
younger generation who understandably have little confidence in parties, the RC
should be trying to win these fresh layers over to understanding the need to
counter capitalism as a system and not just the worst aspects of capitalism.
The social forums and the ‘movement of movements’ are a
kind of ‘united front’ of anti-globalisers, although the forums can also
involve elements of a ‘popular front’ or an alliance of forces from both the
exploited and the exploiting classes. The differences can get glossed over in
the interests of ‘consensus’ and lead to confusion and paralysis. On the
other hand, they can lead to the opening up of ferocious conflicts, splits and a
falling away of active participation. Both these tendencies have been seen in
the ‘No Global’ movement in Italy in the recent period, but this does not
mean that Marxists should turn their backs on them.
The RC leaders should be sensitive and aware of the nature
of these broad movements. The young people involved can be initially attracted
by the idea of reforming capitalism. Many of them, for the best of reasons,
throw themselves into doing good works that ameliorate capitalism’s worst
features for particularly disadvantaged groups. What is really necessary,
however, is to set the goal of eliminating a system that can only survive
through the super-exploitation and even the destruction of human and natural
resources.
The RC should be able to step in here and act as a catalyst
for the youth drawing revolutionary conclusions. In the present stormy
atmosphere, it should be able to recruit to its ranks the best layers. Instead,
in some areas, it has alienated them by trying to impose its policies on the
movement. In others, in the North East of Italy (Friuli) for example, the RC has
reacted against the amorphous nature of the social forums by marching their
local branches out. On the other hand where the RC is actually represented on
local government, sharing power with the DS (as in Perugia/Umbria) and carrying
through cuts, it has been understandably pushed out of the social forums!
If its elected representatives implement austerity programmes, instead of
resisting them, they will not be seen by workers and young people as anything
different from other parties.
While the overall support for the RC must be increasing
countrywide as the struggle intensifies, it seems there are some layers of
workers and youth who have become disappointed with the party and even moved
away from it. The vagueness of some of Bertinotti’s speeches must be a factor
and also his increasing tendency to move in the social circles of ‘the other
side’ – soirees, Berlusconi anniversary festivals etc! By contrast, the most
attractive element of any party aspiring towards a genuine government of workers
and poor people is a clear, independent class programme. This is
something the RC majority (and minority, for that matter) have yet to elaborate.
The raw material for such a programme is abundant. Just on
the question of jobs, the lies and hypocrisy of the ruling clique can be
exposed. Berlusconi actually claims to have created 700,000 new jobs since
coming to power, but the vast majority are unskilled and ‘precarious’,
temporary jobs. Most will sooner or later be nothing more than low-paid,
insecure versions of jobs that are at present held by organised workers. In the
South, unemployment is often as high as 30% and yet worse amongst
school-leavers. A campaign around the demand for jobs and housing for all could
attract thousands of youth into a revolutionary party.
A display of power
THE CURRENT WAVE of trade union struggle in Italy may still
have a long way to run. If the one-day general strike does not force the
Berlusconi government to back down (or even if it does) it will be necessary to
go for more determined action. To avoid frustration and disappointment, the
trade union leaders at a national and local level will have to work out a
strategy for victory. Troops cannot be pushed constantly into battle without a
perspective of winning. Workers can begin to feel their energies are being used
up to no avail. Negative moods can develop, especially amongst the young and
understandably impatient. Adventurism can tend to fill a gap left by inadequate
leadership but it advances the movement not one inch. It is a blind alley.
The Bologna killing of one of Berlusconi’s advisors will
not stop the government from attacking the rights and living standards of
workers. In fact, it gives the state an excuse for intensified repression
against workers and their organisations. Only a mass movement that threatens the
very existence of capitalism will achieve fundamental change.
The bomb which went off in Rome a couple of weeks ago was
more likely to have been a provocation than a serious expression of frustration
by workers or youth. Official fingers were immediately pointed at the usual
scapegoats – immigrants (especially Muslims or Arabs), ‘anarchists’ and
‘left’ forces – in a mini-strategy of tension, à la late 1970s and 1980s.
But attempts to intimidate the workers’ movement in the run-up to the general
strike have been quickly dismissed by both its leaders and the rank and file.
A successful general strike requires the fullest
mobilisation through elected committees and co-ordination on a regional and
national level. If it brings Italy to a halt, the April strike will help workers
feel the potential power they wield in society. Again, a revolutionary party
needs to help workers conclude, in the course of such a struggle, that they are
the class which, through its own actions, can determine what happens and what
does not happen in the whole of society.
The more intense the industrial struggle becomes, the more
inadequate is a purely trade union approach. A political campaign, aiming to
channel the energies and anger of the youth and workers, would have to have the
clear aim of winning a majority to the idea of replacing capitalism not just
with ‘something nicer’ but with a socialist organisation of society.
The RC and any Marxist forces in Italy should, in this
heightened political climate, spell out a programme for linking up the basic
demands of workers for their rights, decent jobs and welfare provisions with the
need to transform society. This means putting forward an alternative to
capitalism and authoritarian rule that involves taking into public ownership the
big banks, industrial and agricultural enterprises, and running them on the
basis of a democratically elaborated plan and workers’ control and management
through elected committees.
With this as a concrete aim, and not just an ideal for
special occasions, the movement can link the struggle for democratic demands and
for economic and social measures in the interests of workers and young people
with the need for socialism. The struggle of workers and youth in Italy is
indeed setting the pace for elsewhere in the world. The outcome is of vital
interest not only within the borders of Italy but far beyond.
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