MASS GENERAL STRIKE - APRIL 16
FOR A RESUMPTION OF CONFLICTUAL SYNDICALISM

The movement of struggle and protest which has been generated in the  workplace over the past autumn and winter has reached a crucial moment  - the general strike on 16th April against the social policies of the government and Confindustria.

After the general strike of 15th February which was called by all the different grassroots (base) unions and which recorded widespread support in the Rome demonstration, and after the demonstration on 23rd March called by the CGIL, the date of 16th April is the target of 2 different, contradictory approaches which have, however, the powerful, common factor of opposition to the changes to Article 18 of the Workers' Statute.

On the one hand, the CGIL-CISL-UIL are being forced there by the attack on the part of the government and the bosses and also by the fact that the policy of conciliation has been lost to them, together with the institutional legitimacy built over the '90s.

On the other hand, the movement of base unions has arrived at this point following on the successes of 15th February and is at last united through a common platform which is combative to say the least:

• the extension of Art.18 even to those companies with fewer than 15 employees
• the reduction of work hours to 35 hours per week, with pay parity
• new contractual rigidity in order to reduce the necessity for precarious (temporary, unprotected) and flexible labour
• the defence and extension of social welfare
• the reversal of all privatizations
• wage adjustment to keep in line with real inflation, with a sliding scale
• a European minimum wage
• withdrawal of the anti-immigration Bossi-Fini Bill.

The millions of workers who came onto the streets as a result of the CGIL call are an objective body for attack and resistance in their capacity to mobilize. This does not necessarily mean, however, that there are the beginnings of a process within CGIL to radicalize what is, by this stage, a permanently institutionalized organization, whose leaders are capable only of thinking and acting in terms of conciliation, having unlearned the practices of conflictual unionism and real agreement.

In this situation, the movement of base unions need not fear the numbers that CGIL can call onto the streets - if it is united as it was on 15th February, it can be the catalyst of a radicalization of struggles and of a resumption of conflictual unionism, category by category, region by region, above all when millions of workers are sacrificed on the altar of renewed conciliation between the government, the unions and the bosses along the lines of Minister Maroni's White Book.

It is for this reason that on the occasion of the mobilizations and demonstrations set for 16th April, it is necessary for the workers' movement to be as united as possible. It is essential that the concepts of base unionism be put forward and spread among the greatest number of workers possible.

It is necessary that the policy of conciliation be abandoned and that a practice of agreement from below is re-introduced. We must support the platform which, together with the demands on the defence of Art.18, in effect relaunches the autonomy of the movement of struggle to defend and spread those unavailable rights: the right to work, to health, to a wage, to education and to full citizenship for all.

The Federation of Anarchist Communists invites all its members and all libertarians to participate in a united manner in the demonstrations on 16th April.

FEDERAZIONE dei COMUNISTI ANARCHICI
Council of Delegates

Pordenone 7th April 2002