Spring-striking

It doesn't often happen that we get a general strike every week! But, on the 1st we had the school strike by the CIB Unicobas and the Cobas Confederation grassroots unions against the reforms being introduced by the education minister, Moratti. Unfortunately there was no real co-ordination of these strikes. Then, on the 7th we had the railway strike called by the SULT union against the firing of several workers following their appearance on "Report", a current affairs TV programme. This was followed on the 12th by a strike called by only two grassroots unions, the CUB and the anarcho-syndicalist USI-AIT against the government's economic policies and the partnership tactics of the mainstream unions. Next up was the strike on the 26th by the big unions, CGIL, CISL and UIL against the government's pension reform and in support of the tactic of partnership (!). Unfortunately, the enormous goodwill of thousands of workers in supporting these strikes to protest against the government is not matched by a situation within the unions which matches the expectations of the class, something amply demonstrated during the local transport workers' struggles.

Grassroots syndicalism seems to have passed from a state of disarray (already noticeable last autumn) to an even more worrying state of disintegration, at least where co-ordination is concerned. Single, unconnected strong points in certain categories or locations no longer seem enough to support an alternative on a national level. The big confederal unions are trying to create the conditions for a new partnership agreement, perhaps with the help of the renewed Confindustria, the industrial employers' federation. Even the contracts which have already been signed (transport workers, commerce, tourism,
chemical industry) allow no room for doubt regarding the choices of the CGIL, CISL and UIL, and the forthcoming FIOM congress (the metalworkers union which is part of the CGIL) could put an end to the unusual case of the CGIL. It remains for us anarchists to work for self-organization and class autonomy.

il romito

from Alternativa Libertaria Mar.04
News-sheet of the Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici