Increased health charges provoke
BRITAIN • ITALY
Wing a decision of parliament! Such a thing has not been tested in the courts, and it would be a huge escalation of the use of the law if it went that way since it would outlaw most strikes in the public sector — they would be against the government and therefore "political". The TGWU leaders have tried to avoid this by arguing that the general strike in Italy strike is really against the employers.
In addition,
TGWU officials are telling dockers that if the strike is legal on that count, they must not break the law in any other way. There must be no solidarity action from non-Scheme ports, and they
THE GENERAL STRIKE in Italy on May 10 once again must not attempt to prevent scab cargo confirmed the readiness of broad layers of the working being diverted through non-Scheme ports, since this would constitute illegal seconclass to fight. At the same time, it confirmed that dary action.
mobilizations from below can force the trade-union bureaucrats to take a bit more notice of the wishes of
Growth in unofficial action and self-organization
On the London Underground things are no better. The National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) — another union regarded as being on the left - immediately complied with a High Court ruling and called off an all-out strike due to start on Monday, May
8. This was another ruling that broke new legal ground, in that the ballot paper itself had been illegal because it was too detailed and therefore confusing! The battle for the strike is now in the courts.
Previous Tory anti-union laws, in the early 1970s, were defeated because they were massively defied and discredited. There is no alternative to such action now. Those responsible for weakening the movement argue that it is now too weak to take on the government or the courts. But there are still
8,500,000 workers affiliated to the single national union federation, the TUC, despite an overall decline in union membership.
Although a lot of damage has been done to shop-floor organizations, it is absurd to argue that a trade-union movement with eight-and-a-half million members does not have the power to take on the courts.
If mass struggles emerge out of the present situation, however, there will be the bases to confront the new realists in both the unions and the Labour Party.
Workers are increasingly turning to unofficial action and self-organization to defend their interests, but ultimately these problems will have to be tackled at the level of the leaderships as well. *
International Viewpoint #164 • May 29, 1989 activists. LIVIO MAITAN
HE NEW wave of strikes and demonstrations leading up to the May 10 strike was sparked off by decisions adopted on March 23 by the five-party government of Christian Democrat Ciriaco De Mita.
In an attempt to reduce an ever-increasing budgetary deficit, the government took a series of measures of which the most spectacular and most unpopular was the imposition of appreciably higher patient contributions for analyses, x-rays, specialist consultations, hospitalization and even medicines.
### Workers occupied trade-union offices
On April 1, when these measures came into effect, there were incidents in the hospitals with patients and visitors noisily voicing their discontent. But even on the eve of the announcement of the government's measures, strikes and marches were organized independently of the trade-union leaderships.
The most significant episode was the spontaneous three-hour strike by metalworkers at Ansaldo and Breda Fucine in Seso S. Giovanni, a well-known workers' stronghold in the suburbs of Milan. The town's streets were filled with 1,500 workers, and 300 of them "occupied" the local offices of three trade-union federations to demand mobilizations against the increased health charges.
Similar demonstrations took place in other factories in Lombardia, Genoa and Ancona, among others. Demonstrations continued in the days that followed, with work-stoppages in some factories. Some of the smaller union and sector leaderships also began to move.
April 10 saw a two-hour strike by metal and textile workers. In the same period there were around 50 local strikes and hundreds of workers' assemblies. Even at Fiat in Turin, where the situation is still difficult, a strike was called and massively supported. The same day, demonstrations against the charges linked up with pensioners' demonstrations.
According to the Communist Party (PCI) daily, around 300 demonstrations were held involving a million people: 30,000 in Mestre, near Venice; 15,000 in Brescia and Genoa; 20,000 in Bologna; 10,000 in Trieste and Bari.
In Milan, 100,000 paraded through the streets on April 12, and 80,000 marched in Florence on April 18.
The workers' response provoked waverings and differences inside the government (with some ministers leaping to criticize the measures that they themselves had voted for!) Subsequently, it was decided to reduce the increased charges and a new scale was fixed. But this was only a "relaxation", to use the word employed by the biggest bourgeois newspaper.
The mobilizations continued and the union leaderships stood firm on their call for a general strike, announced on April 21. This was in spite of heavy pressure from the government and explicit opposition to the strike call by the secretary of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) and exprime minister, Bettino Craxi.
Civil servants and railworkers join the action
In addition, on April 5 there was a strike by 250,000 state employees, and on April 28 a 24-hour strike completely paralyzed the railways.
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