THE LONG MARCH OF CONFINDUSTRIA

In two years of centre-right government, Confindustria [1] under D'Amato has marched on inexorably, destroying previous systems of industrial and union relations. It got the pact for Italy, saw the birth of Law 30 on the labour market, signed the national contract for industrial workers, managed to ensure the defeat of the vote on the extension of Article 18 and, last but not least, signed the agreement on competitivity with the CGIL-CISL-UIL [2] trio on 19th June. It is curious to note the newly-rediscovered unity betwen the union leaders when it comes to making an agreement which serves to ensure the interests of the bosses, following their total inability to get along when matters regarding the interests of the workers had to be decided. This agreement is not designed to protect workers, it simply worsens their work conditions. In fact, it was in the name of Italy's competitivity that in the past was the cause of the eviction of thousands of workers from their factories, of the closure of productive sites, of thousands of young people with "atypical contracts" becoming no better than slaves, and of 4 people a day dying in their workplaces. What, in effect, is being asked for is for the State to enhance the economic cycle by means of 4 points:

Research

Confindustria and the unions ask the State to finance research without making the bosses pay taxes on profits to be re-invested in research and to finance innovative projects, differentiated from region to region. The tax of 8 °/oo would be used for this purpose. In other words, the public pays and the private sector gets the profits.

Training

Confindustria and the unions agree on the fact that training must such as to guarantee that employers can quickly select the type of workers they need from the market which must provide a wide range of disposable human resources thanks to the work contracts which will be regulated by the Biagi Reform (Law 30). Here, too, the State is asked to give incentives to those companies who provide training on the spot, to transform the 150 hours into professional training aimed at making insertion into the labour market possible. Monitoring of all this is entrusted to the bilateral bodies of the unions and Confindustria (wasn't the CGIL against these bodies...?). And of course, from September on, experimentation of the Moratti Reform in technical and professional training schools will be introduced.

Infrastructure

Confindustria and the unions ask the government to intervene in order to take Italy out of the geo-economic periphery, so massive investment is sought to improve motorway corridors, high speed, the modernization of ports and railways. They ask for the liberalization of tariffs on transport and reductions in charges for energy and telecommunications. They also want tax discounts for private companies who assist the State in this titanic task.

The South

According to Confindustria and the unions, before new aggressive competitors join the EU and with the creation of the Mediterranean Exchange Area in 2010, the government must ensure that during its six-month presidency of the EU, Euro-Italian public funds must be found in order to finance tax incentives for those companies who invest in the South: incentives/premiums for taking on new staff, for training courses, for companies to come out of the "black economy" [Italy's hidden economy], for the construction of infrastructure, for the acquisition of factories, for acess to credit.


Relapses

It is no difficult task to imagine that new contracts will be made from this point of view. Some people are already talking about a revision of the July 1993 agreement and even the Pact for Italy.

It is no difficult task to imagine that the CGIL will once more find the road towards compatibility, which of course means further temporarization, intensification of exploitation and reductions in wages. And what will become of the rights they spoke about on 23 March 2002? 

Lastly, in a globalized system, the efforts made by the unions for the defence of Italy Plc's competitivity will inevitably lapse into corporativism, where the defence of the interests of our bosses and national competitivity means loss of jobs in some other part of the world. It means that the conquest of new slices of the market will not bring about an expansion of the productive base. On the contrary, it will come about through constant and continual reductions in the numbers of workers and an intensification of the exploitation of those workers who are saved from the cuts, as happened in the case of the car industry.

Epifani, Pezzotta and Angeletti [3] are keeping one foot on each side of the fence, while the workers have never cared two hoots about competitivity, knowing full well that it can only earn them exploitation, temporarization, inequality and the distruction of their national work contract.

In the workplaces, anarchist communists will be with the workers.

16th July 2003

FEDERAZIONE dei COMUNISTI ANARCHICI
National Secretariat

Notes:

1. The Italian industrial employers' federation
2. Italy's 3 main unions
3. The leaders of the 3 big unions