Last Saturday, October
20th, hundreds of thousands workers and youth marched through the streets of Rome.
A demonstration was
called by the two main daily newspapers of the left wing, Il Manifesto and Liberazione
(the Prc newspaper) to ask the Prodi government to change its policies, which
have been very moderate so far.
The call for a demo
was quickly endorsed by the two parties which still refer to communism – at
least in their name – Communist Refoundation (Rifondazione Comunista, Prc) and
the Party of the Italian Communists (Partito dei Comunisti italiani, Pdci).
The demo attendance
went beyond any and all expectations. A huge stream of people carrying red
flags flooded Rome.
Some bourgeoisie newspapers, like Corriere
della sera even wrote that there were a million people present in San Giovanni Square,
where the demo ended. It was the biggest demo in the last three or four years.
Even if the declared purpose
of the organisers was to influence the government, amongst the demonstrators
there was a general feeling of mistrust towards Prodi and all the bourgeois
ministers and leaders of the "Unione" coalition.
This demo reveals the
growing disappointment of an increasing number of people with the Prodi
government, which, after 18 months in power, was not able to deliver any
promises made to the working class before the elections.
On the contrary, the
two budgets (2007 and the one proposed for the next year) give a lot of
benefits to the bosses. In July, a new agreement on welfare and pensions
between the government, the bosses’ organisation and the unions was signed.
This agreement extends the age for retirement pay, taxes overtime pay and keeps
in force all the counter-reforms put in place by Berlusconi concerning the
casualisation of labour.
The October 20 demo
was a signal from a significant sector of workers and youth that they have had
enough. They can no longer stand a government, where the left wing parties are
involved, moving to the right. They can’t stand the new project of a new bourgeoisie
party, the Democratic party (which we deal with in another article) which is
being created with the aim of annihilating the presence of the communists in Italy.
A certain amount of
pressure was put on the organisers of the demo to cancel it, not only by the bourgeoisie
press, but also by the main leader of Cgil, the biggest trade union, and other
"left" leaders. They say that because the official political platform of the
demo was against some points of the welfare agreement, that it was against the
trade unions and against the government. That’s the degree of democracy that
these union leaders can accept.
This is a part of an
open clash that is deepening between the Cgil leadership and the Fiom (metal
workers union). The Fiom Central committee voted no to the welfare agreement
and Fiom structures and organisations were amongst the organisers of the Rome demo.
So, against everybody
from the "establishment", the demo was a huge success. There was a general
feeling amongst the people present that "we need to be here", to reaffirm that a
party is not made only by MPs or leadership summits behind close doors, but by
ordinary workers and youth and that it is only through struggle that we can
achieve amything. Important sectors of workers in struggle were at the demo.
For example the workers of Vodafone, the big multinational that wants to outsource
more than 900 Italian employees (out if a total of nine thousand).
In all these months
after the 2006 elections the class struggle has not abated in Italy, but has
been waged by only one class, the bourgeoisie.
After a period of
relative "social peace" things are moving again. In a referendum called by the
unions to approve the July welfare agreement, one million out of five million workers
voted "no". This twenty per cent is a relevant figure, given the fact that
no-one organised the "no vote", apart from some left wing trade union
activists, amongst which the FalceMartello
supporters were in the front line. The "No" vote got the majority in the metal
sector and got 65% in the biggest factories, the ones with more than 500
employees.
After the demos the
Prc leaders immediately declared that the government was "stronger" and that
their loyalty to Prodi was not in discussion. The reality is precisely the
opposite. Every day this government is weaker, torn by irreconcilable
contradictions, the classical contradictions of a government of class coalition.
A sizeable sector of the bourgeoisie is preparing a future government without
Prodi, and especially without the left parties. A government that will be dominated
by the new Democratic party and its new leader, Veltroni. The leadership of the
Prc, instead of clinging on to a collapsing wall, should be preparing an
alternative. The first step should be to place itself in opposition to the
present government.
This was one of the
main slogans of the supporters of FalceMartello
at the demo, written on the huge banner carried through the streets of Rome: "For a party of
struggle and opposition". We shouted slogans aimed at breaking all the links
between the bosses’ parties and the workers workers, along with those very
critical of the attitude of the government and of the leaders of the Prc. With
slogans like "Cuts, war and privatisations, if we want all this, Berlusconi was
enough" or "Communist Refoundation we need you in the struggles and not stuck in
your seats". With a contingent over 300 strong, we were one of the most
militant sectors of the demonstration.
It is a good beginning
for the many "deadlines" that we will have in the next period. The main one is
going to be the Prc congress, at the beginning of 2008, where we are resolute
to do all our best to defend and to circulate the ideas of Marxism all over Italy.
