The Two Bosses
Now that the GDP (gross domestic product, the statistical index of a country's wealth) has gone below zero (in Italy, -0.5% in the first quarter of 2005) and industrial productivity has fallen by 2.2% (according to the figures for March 2005), we are starting to see a new bombardment in the media telling us that we have fallen into an economic recession, that the country is in the midst of a crisis and that severe measures must be taken to remedy the situation.
This "all pulling together" that the State and the employers' federation, Confindustria, gravely inform us is essential holds only danger for the workers' movement in Italy.
After four years of centre-right government, with a never-ending series of provisions which have served only to benefit capitalist profit and to diminish the workers' wages and social protections, we are now presented (near the end of this government's term in office) with a strange SOS to save the country. And surprise, surprise... as always, the costs of the crisis are likely to fall on the shoulders of the working classes.
The solutions which have been put forth bear all the hallmarks of those in command:
tax cuts for businesses will only produce more profits - not one extra job will be created;
tax cuts for citizens will only result in spending cuts in social services which means that the workers will have to pay more for national and local services out of their own pockets;
the wage increases which the State and Confindustria are intending to grant to workers in the public and private sectors (on average an extra 97.75 Euro per month for the public sector) are well below those rates of planned inflation so dear to the system of "social partnership" and "post-partnership";
together with these inadequate wage proposals, the State is generously intending to donate to workers of the public sector the financing for pension funds, as if these were not already financed by the workers' social insurance contributions;
in industry, the workers' demands have been met by Confindustria with a block on company bargaining and with the absorbing of productivity pay into the costs of maintaining production and so... jobs; they offer redundancy packets (FIAT), but profits still continue to grow...
Faced with this attack, the CISL's inter-classism (the "Pact for Italy", now THAT was a smart move!) is starting to wobble, and the Montezemolo-CGIL choir which we saw last month is starting to hit the wrong notes, too (*); the biggest-ever operation to take money from the pockets of the workers has already begun: lower wages, more pension funds; lower wages, more productivity!!
Yet again, strikes have been called in various sectors, yet again Italian workers will demonstrate their generosity in struggle, but this time it is absolutely essential that we clearly establish the unity of interests, the unity of struggle, the unity of the workers. We must establish class autonomy by holding out on our wage demands and winning back the freedom to strike and our union freedoms. We must ensure it is a struggle that includes the demand for workers on temporary contracts of various sorts to be taken on with permanent contracts, in the public and private sectors, will lead nowhere in order to heal the unbearable division of workers into two camps: first-class workers and workers with no rights.
We must not forget the struggles in 2004 in the transport sector, in FIAT and in education...
It is time, too, for those unions who want to support the autonomy of the workers and the development of the workers' strength in the organized grassroots of the workplace and in the community to make an effort towards unity. In this way we can announce to the world that our struggle will be a long one, much longer than the life of this Berlusconi government and going well beyond any fleeting joy there may be should the centre-left coalition win.
Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici
14th May 2005
* CISL, Italy's second-biggest union federation; Montezemolo, leader of the Confindustria; CGIL, Italy's largest union federation.