On October 14, Italy was paralysed by a 24-hour general strike involving 10 million workers. In this article, reprinted from International Viewpoint, LIVIO MAITAN explains the background to the protest.
Italy faces its most severe crisis since the second world war. The political situation has taken a sharp turn for the worse since the election last April. These revealed both the exhaustion of the four-party government — comprising the Christian Democrats (DC), Italian Socialist Party (PSI), the Italian Social Democratic Party (PDSI) and the Italian Liberal Party (PLI) — and the absence of any credible alternative.
This situation marked the election of the new president by parliament and the laborious efforts to form a new government. The new president — Christian Democrat Oscar Luigi Scalfaro — was elected only after a long series of attempts in which a range of apparently more qualified candidates had fallen. The new government under PSI leader Guiliano Amato was finally ratified for lack of anything better and under cover of supposed changes in the procedure for handing out ministries and with the inclusion of "experts" who are meant to show the government's increased independence of the parties.
The crisis has been made worse by the eruption of corruption scandals involving politicians and by a number of spectacular attacks by organised crime. Almost all the parties are implicated in the scandals, including the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS — formed by the majority of the former Communist Party). However, the main culprits have been the two main parties of the coalition government, the DC and PSI. Also involved are business people, managers and bankers as well as a wide range of speculators and wheeler-dealers.
The mafia's recent exploits, in particular a series of terrorist assassinations, have strikingly underlined the fact that whole regions of the country are still outside the control of the central government. In these regions an "illegal" — but far from marginal — capitalist accumulation is taking place, while a symbiosis is being created between criminal undertakings and official institutions at every level.
The political crisis takes place against a background of persisting economic stagnation. As elsewhere, the expected recovery has failed to arrive, and a further plunge by industry into recession is possible. Furthermore, the entire international press has noticed Italy's massive public debt, which has reached more than 100% of gross national product and the budget deficit, which is more than 11% of GNP.
To deal with this, the government and the most influential Â鶹´«Ã½ of business have taken or are contemplating drastic measures including x collection), attacks on social gains such as pensions and sickness benefits, a wage policy which implies a wage freeze and the reorganisation of wage indexation so that it no longer compensates for inflation.
On the political level, they are promoting institutional reforms and changes to electoral laws to do away with proportional representation, to allow coalitions with only a relative majority to form a comfortable absolute majority in parliament. The aim of all these operations is to increase the power of the executive at both central and local level.
Meanwhile, the present coalition has increasingly resorted to government by decree and delegation, which have reduced parliament's decision-making powers (without wholly abolishing them). On September 9 Amato went so far as to demand that parliament grant him special powers for three years to tackle the economy.
It is evident that such schemes cannot go forward or come to fruition without the connivance of the bulk of the political and union organisations that claim to defend the interests of the working class.
Let us pass briefly over the PSI, which supports a government led by one of its members. The same attitude is shared in essentials by those Socialists who have come together to challenge — for the first time in years — the autocratic style of the party's secretary and former prime minister Craxi.
However, the PDS is also paving the way for those who wish to install a reactionary regime. In fact, this party to a great extent accepts the proposed institution and electoral reforms, for example, the direct election of mayors — who would thus be freed from any control by local councils — or the abandonment of proportional representation in its present form. On economic issues it criticises some of the government's decisions and proposals but has abstained from the fight to reverse them. In deed the party's right wing has even come out in favour of open support for Amato, in a perspective of participation in government.
All the trends came together at the start of August. On the last day of July — when most enterprises were closed or on the verge of closing for the holidays — the three union confederations signed a common declaration with the government. In this, the union side swallowed a whole series of government decisions, including the final abolition of wage indexation, the acceptance of wage controls and the abandonment of the traditional negotiating practices at enterprise level.
The first reaction of PDS leader Occhetto was to criticise the attitude of the union leaders. However, the PDS rapidly toned down its criticisms and condemned the attitude of the opposition inside the unions, which was demanding the cancellation of the agreement and a decision-making consultation of the workers. The PDS supported to the hilt CGIL [Italian General Confederation of Labour] general secretary Bruno Trentin, who to avoid a government crisis.
The July 31 affair marks an important turning point in the evolution of the union movement. Trentin signed even though his union leadership had come out against the agreement. This blatant violation of elementary democratic norms net with a fierce reaction from the minority Essere sindacato ("Being a unionist") tendency, which demanded a consultation of the rank and file with the power to accept or reject the agreement. This position was shared by many local and sectoral union bodies, and, after the holidays, by workers' assemblies in many enterprises. The CGIL majority was also split.
After the signature, Trentin resigned. However, this was a manoeuvre to force acceptance of the fait accompli. The CGIL's Steering Committee, while continuing to put forward criticisms of the document, signalled at the start of September its decision to sign, rejected any notion of withdrawing from the agreement and appealed to Trentin to reconsider his resignation. Having got what he wanted, he duly did. The PDS leaders, meanwhile, assured Trentin and his bureaucratic majority of their support.
Essere sindacato rejected the Steering Committee decision, announced that its representatives would be withdrawing from leadership positions and launched a grassroots campaign against the government's measures, for the cancellation of the CGIL's signature and for wage demands at enterprise level. According to this grouping, the way Trentin had ridden roughshod over internal democracy justified their own repudiation of discipline from above.
Many of the most militant workers have resigned from the CGIL, and some enterprise and other organisations have decided to cease dues payments to the confederation centre.
In the somber panorama of today's workers movement, Essere sindacato is one point of support for organising workers' resistance and creating the conditions for a counterattack.
Another is the Party of Communist Refoundation (PRC), whose militants are involved in Essere sindacato. In recent months the PRC has been the only serious left opposition force. It is true that, apart from its participation in Essere sindacato, in independent union groupings and in the Cobas (rank and file workers committees) and its influence in some big workplaces — in particular Alfa Romeo in Milan — the PRC has not yet established stable social links despite its electoral strength. It continues, furthermore, to pay a price for a medium- and long-term strategy and an internal regime that do not permit it to use all the militant energies available.
Nonetheless, in the present battles the PRC has shown itself to be a class struggle force which is also able to wage a firm struggle in parliament against the government. Furthermore, on September 12 it organised a national demonstration against government policies, the capitulation of the union bureaucracy and for the defence of living standards and a general strike.
The success surpassed all expectations: around 100,000 people took part amid a militant atmosphere and a strong involvement of youth.