ITALY: A LAND FIT FOR DEMOLISHING
The
Italian government and Italian capital are busy demolishing what was born from
anti-fascist resistance and from the social battles of the ‘60s and ‘70s. It
is apparently as a result of their desperation, fully conscious as it may be, to
turn Italy into a mega-corporation under the control of the new right and its
new boss, Baron Berlusconi.
During
the time of the 3 centre-left governments from 1996 to 2001, it was known as the
“modernization” of the country in order to turn Italy into a “normal”
country. They were to be 5 years of crazed “reforms” (sic!) of all of what
was good in the social organization of the country, not to mention the
fundamental labour rights, “reformed” with the connivance of the traditional
unions, Cgil, Cisl and Uil. Today’s centre-right governing coalition is
continuing this job of dismantling and deconstruction but with greater attention
being paid, both to the big picture of progressive privatizations of the public
aspects of social life, and in the processes of the subordination of the Italian
and migrant proletariat to the interests of capital.
IS
YOUR ECONOMY GOING DOWN THE DRAIN? WELL THEN, SPEND, SPEND, SPEND!
This
is the slogan which the government is using in order to affront the present
situation at the limits of recession: growth for 2002 is 0.4% and the forecast
for 2003 is possibly 1.4%; the debt is at 110.3%; wages have increased by 2.3%
while official inflation is at +2.8% (though REAL inflation is at 3.5%). Given
the situation, public-sector pay increases are fixed at just 1.4%; the
government has approved a law on total labour flexibility and is about to pass
another on the freedom to dismiss and on the pension system. This attack on
wages, employment and social security is on a vast scale.
At
the same time it looks on contentedly while the whole country is prey to
devastating de-industrialization. The crisis in the industrial sector (with Fiat
at the head), the food sector (Cirio), and telecommunications (Marconi) is
affecting thousands of workers, with repercussions also in related industries.
The Fiat crisis in particular is affecting the entire country from north to
south, and the agreement between the company and the government of 5th December
provides for unrelenting re-sizing with the initial loss of 8,100 factory jobs
and the future prospect of turning factory workers into nurses, supermarket
check-out staff, security guards and cleaning staff for shopping centres! The
progressive withdrawal of Fiat from a strategic sector such as the automobile
sector can only have extremely worrying effects on industrial employment in
Italy. And its partner, General Motors, does not promise much better, either.
THE
STATE LOOKS AFTER YOU FROM THE CRADLE TO THE GRAVE, … BUT YOU ARE THE ONES WHO
PAY!
Theories
on the “light” State are interpreted just as coherently, if not more so, by
the centre-right government than by the centre-left colleagues. The 2003 Budget
provides for a series of cuts in public spending, particulary savage in the
areas of education (all levels), research, local government agencies (regarding
the health service, social services etc.). On the other hand, it provides for
tax benefits for individual workers who it is thought can help to slow down the
increasing costs of social services or who can obtain these services elsewhere,
on the market. Those things which were entitlements (education, assistance,
health, pensions etc.) become opportunities available at a market price. So we
get the situation where there are cuts in the provision of teachers for the
disabled, whose families then have to turn to private structures in order to
obtain assistance (most of which structures are in the hands of the Catholic
church, naturally. Many of the services provided by local agencies (transport,
assistance to the disabled, the old, migrants etc.) will cost more and may be
farmed out to private (Catholic) agencies ... at market prices, of course. In
the wake of the privatization of public utilities along comes the next step in
the subversive plan, a step which is dear to the hearts of the centre-left too.
It is called subsidiarity, and provides for public institutions to intervene in
social matters only when, wait for it, the private sector is not or cannot
dealing with it! How? By financing the private sector, of course!
The
close connection between this strategy and the law on devolution
which provides for the transfer of powers in the fields of education,
health and local policing to the various regions, definitively destroys the
equality of rights, the very concept of collective interests, the very dimension
of proletarian unity on a national level, by atomizing everything into single
needy individuals and single personal interests rather than at a level of class.
Furthermore,
the insistence with which Italian capitalists demand an end to the days of
collective national work contracts to clear the way for separate company
contracts or individual contracts, rounds off the scene in a country which risks
collapse and the annihilating of social rights and liberties.
THE
CGIL KNOCKS ONCE ... BUT NOT TWICE!
Following
the big general strike of the "base" unions in February 2002, the CGIL
got a bit of a jolt. Its tactics suddenly became more radical, it placed itself
in firm opposition to the government and it came out in defence of Article 18 of
the Workers' Statute (1971) which protects workers from unfair dismissal and
which the government wants to abolish. Not one, but two general strikes made the
workers once more hopeful about the CGIL, after many years of disappointment.
They even sacrificed the unity with the CISL and UIL, who both signed the
"Pact for Italy" with the government, thereby authorizing greater
flexibility in the jobs market, with exceptions on Article 18 in exchange for
tax promises. It is above all the FIOM (CGIL industrial workers) which is
dragging Italy's biggest union along with it, having abandoned the tactic of
partnership in industrial areas. The renewed combativity of the CGIL on a
national level can be traced to a series of political factors, including:
the
refusal of the centre-right government to continue with the practice of
"partnership" or "triangulation"
(government-unions-bosses) in order to substitute it with "social
dialogue" in which the government's opinion is non-negotiable;
the
crisis of the Italian left and in particular the Left Democrats (DS)
following their election defeat in 2001;
the
questioning of the role of confederate unions in Italy as an integral part
of the governance of the country’s socio-economic matters, together
with the bosses and the government.
The
CGIL, therefore, is not shifting its strategic axis towards a more radical,
anti-capitalist approach to syndicalism – it is standing against the present
government in order to regain, to reconquer its central role in co-determining
the country’s socio-economic choices. It should be remembered that this role
of the CGIL (together with the CISL and UIL) played a large part during the
‘90s in the need for the formation and the expansion of grassroots unions in
Italy, not to mention the somewhat hurried accusation of “state union” made
by certain commentators, anarchist and otherwise. It goes without saying that
the CGIL’s potential force is still impressive and goes beyond the power of
its capacity to attract sectors of the social opposition (social centres, the
“disobedient” etc.) with the capability of overshadowing other contributions
to the struggle against the government. CGIL speak with forked tongue, though.
Its massive national opposition to the government is not backed up with coherent
action when it comes to agreeing contracts, and it is here that it re-discovers
its unity with the CISL and UIL, signing agreements like in the days of
“partnership”. Serious as they may be, they are actions which are destined
to remain in the shadows of the the social opposition movement, except for the
base unions.
THE
BASE UNIONS
The
Cobas Confederation, RdB/CUB, CIB Unicobas, SLAI Cobas, S.in.Cobas, and USI are
the most important of the base unions on the basis of the sector, company or
town where they grew from. They operate both in the public and private sectors
and are generally excluded from discussions on the creation of new national
labour contracts, although they have had some excellent results in union
elections in the workplace. Their contribution to the union opposition movement
is more global – they are opposed to the modifications to Art.18, but also to
the decentralized agreements that the CGIL-CISL-UIL trio continue to make. On 18th
October they organized separate marches to those of the CGIL on the occasion of
the General Strike, and won considerable support with their slogan “United on
the day, but separate in our objectives”. A certain inclination for squabbling
as a result of rivalry between the various base unions has meant that they fail
to cooperate on much else than unitary demonstrations, so even though the CGIL
is criticized for its ambiguity, the base unions, on the other hand, do not
offer a solid alternative which would have a wide, unified presence. It should
be said that life is made harder for the base unions by the obstacles to union
representation that are put in their way by the CGIL-CISL-UIL. The base unions,
however, have by now reached the position of being real protagonists in the
union and social struggles in those places where they are strongest. The general
strike for the schools and public sectors called by the RdB/CUB, Cobas
Confederation and CIB Unicobas on 6th December was joined by 25% of
the workers in those sectors and brought 50,000 people onto the streets of Rome.
AGAINST
WAR, AGAINST REPRESSION
Union
struggles are closely intertwined with social struggles. From the struggles of
migrants for rights
to peace demonstrations culminating on 9th November in
Florence to demonstrations against repression, the opposition movement is
growing both in size and in popular participation. The arrests of activists in
both Cosenza and Genoa brought a reply not only from militants, but from the 2
towns themselves. The State is afraid of this growth in struggle and also of the
links between the social and union struggles. Repression is being used as a
weapon of intimidation to frighten and foster insecurity, above all in the South
where discontent is high. The magistracy apparently wishes to pin the movement
down to the days in Genoa in 2001, by forcing it to reconstruct the events and
declare that Giuliani was not killed for reasons of legitimate defence, but was
murdered and that the incidents were provoked by the police and carabinieri. And
this strange game of arrest-release-more arrests-drop charges makes one think
that the magistracy has “gone mad” and that it needs to be reformed: and
that is exactly what the government wants and the centre-left with it!
ANARCHIST
COMMUNISTS
There
are 3 opposition currents to the Berlusconi government and the Confindustria
(industrial employers confederation) which find a meeting point in situations of
largescale mobilizations. One is the so-called “girotondini” movement (led
by film director Nanni Moretti) which view the laws approved by the government
(in favour of Berlusconi’s own interests) as a serious attack on democracy and
legality. The second comes from the struggles for social rights and liberties
which tend to concentrate more directly on the contradictions within
neo-liberalism and the creation of social spaces where a new solidarity can be
organized. The third current is that of the labour struggles which have served
to bring the question of labour back to the centre of social conflict. We
believe that, albeit on different levels, all three serve to create a situation
of widespread opposition to the centre-right government and to the choices of
the bosses. In particular, our role is more important with the social and union
struggles where the presence and in fact the spread of libertarian practices
provide a guarantee of coherence between the objectives and the methods we use
to reach them. In fact, the FdCA favours elements of unity in order to federate
groups and individuals which have common interests and objectives. For this
reason, in the case of war our policy will be the creation of anti-war
committees, characterized by anti-militarism and by the rejection of all
nationalism. The fight for the creation of social spaces for the spread of
an alternative culture, of non-religious solidarity and of self-organization is
one area where anarchist communists are active. But above all, in the struggles
of the workers and in their unions we aim for the spread of radical syndicalism
with a characteristic platform and an unmistakable practice. A platform based on
unshakable rights as regards wages, hours, health and union freedom; a practice
which is unmistakable because it is libertarian, based on the greatest union
democracy. To work towards libertarian, class-struggle radical syndicalism,
we are establishing co-ordinated groups of workers,
irrespective of the union they belong to and we support the unity of all
workers in the workplace and throughout the country.
Donato
Romito for F.d.C.A.
2003