leaflet distributed during the demonstration in Rome on 17th March 2007 calling for Italian withdrawal from Afghanistan

War on wages and imperialist war

While on the one hand institutional secularists are having to face up to the presumptuous insolence of the Catholic Church in Italy and having trouble getting approval for their watered-down version of civil unions which goes by the name of "DICO" [1], on the other hand a vitally important game is being played out, involving the interests of Italian capital both inside and outside the country.

It is a game in which capitalism, both private and State, industrial and financial, is trying to impose new rules on its opponents, giving itself a fine head start on the rest of society thanks to its renewed aggressions of recent years and a helping hand from the partnership trade unions and the so-called radical left parties.

On the home front, we are witnessing a systematic attack on wages, an attack requiring planning at the minutest level. In their insatiable desire to increase the surplus value share of the value cake, the capitalist lackeys of the centre-left government are using the excuse of re-launching the Italian economy to continue the work of previous governments, left and right, and are facilitating the spread of forms of legalised exploitation whose most common form is by now that of precarious labour, thanks to which the bosses can remain firmly in control, above all when it comes to direct wages.

But there is also the ongoing attack on indirect wages with these leftist lackeys giving a hand to financial capital and to the promoters of investment fund (the unions included) who are all busy trying to get their hands on the workers' TFR [2], without caring to inform the workers about the dangers involved and often deliberately hiding this information from them. This is in fact a masterpiece of financial trickery on the part of the State which ensures itself a good slice of the TFR funds in order, with the connivance of private capitalism in the form of large companies and the "red" cooperatives [3], to finance large infrastructural projects and Italy's military missions abroad, with the former destroying the environment and the latter destroying human life. Not to mention the State media terrorism spreading doom-laden (and untrue) news about the Italian pension system being on the verge of bankruptcy in order to justify raising the retirement age and social insurance contributions.

The war is also being fought on the front of indirect wages, through the liberalization process begun by the Minister for economic development, whose real aim is privatization by means of horizontal subsidiarity. It is a mechanism whereby the State guarantees itself greater financial wherewithal but also ensures closer links with private capital in service companies. Furthermore, the system of tenders for public works also ensures greater political and institutional consensus.

This restructuring at home is of the utmost importance for Italian capitalism if it is to appear strong and stable abroad. The struggle for control over the last fossil-fuel reserves and the defence of strategic energy corridors is getting harder by the day and anyone swimming with the imperialist sharks needs good strong teeth.

And who is best placed to be able to carry out all this? Certainly not the right-wing gang of merchants and financial speculators. No, it is the centre-left with its better technical background and greater ability to hold onto the consensus of the public at large, the public which meekly accepts one thing after another for fear of a return to the dreaded Berlusconi. All for the benefit of capital and imperialism.

This was what could give rise to a budget which introduces a sharp rise in Italy's already high military spending (+11%), taking resources away from social solidarity and the collective good.

From this point of view, this centre-left government is doing even better and even more than the last. On the one hand it is holding to Italy's agreements with US imperialism (e.g. the construction of American F35 jets at Cameri Airport in Novara, the enlargement of the US base in Vicenza, etc.) in the hopes of picking up a few crumbs from the master, while on the other hand it is looking at the "mare nostrum" of the Mediterranean with renewed interest, and indeed is favouring intervention in "humanitarian missions" in this area.

But in a system which is ever hungrier for energy, it is the Middle East where the energy vultures are carrying on their toughest battles, with cannon fire, white phosphorus and who knows what other forms of diabolical technologically-advanced forms of dealing out death and destruction.

And this land of saints, poets and navigators is there with the rest of the other sharks, some bigger, some smaller but all equally hungry, all trying to get their share of oil, gas and reconstruction work.

The goal of this game is not hard to make out: become as strong as possible at home to get as much as possible abroad.

Standing against this neo-liberal drift at home and the imperialist drift abroad, anarchist communists are working within the opposition movements, in the workplace and in the community, rejecting electoralism and the partnership mentality for the defence of wages in all its forms, for the widening of collective rights from housing to healthcare to a clean environment, for the promotion of an anti-authoritarian and anti-clericalist awareness, always present in the struggle against wars and Italian missions abroad (Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, etc.), demanding the closure of military bases and the elimination of military spending.

Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici

17th March 2007

1. "DICO" is an abbreviation of "DIritti e doveri delle persone stabilmente COnviventi", the "Rights and Duties for Stably Cohabiting Persons" as set out in a Bill yet to be passed by the Italian parliament. If passed, the bill will give cohabiting partners (of any sex) inheritance and alimony rights. It would also permit surviving partners to decide on things like on funeral arrangements and organ donations. No "marriage" ceremony is foreseen and the system falls well short of other countries' civil unions.

2. TFR (Trattamento di fine rapporto) is a system of deferred wages paid to employees on leaving their employment. Current plans are seeking to divert these funds into pension funds. Certain categories of workers have no choice in the matter while others have 6 months to declare their approval or otherwise for this, with funds being automatically diverted if they express no preference. See "The 2007 Budget" (http://www.fdca.it/fdcaen/labour/budget2007.htm)

3. Cooperatives with close ties to the leftist parties (ex-PCI, DS, PRC) and unions (CGIL).