working class for having successfully blocked their project.
Q. How did the trade-union activists react to the policies of the CGIL, UIL, and CISI leaderships? (2)
7, 1983).
IV correspondent Andre Duret spoke to Rocco Papandrea, member of the 'go forward, to of these mobilisation was their antifactory council at Fiat-Mirafiori, and a leader of the Lega Comunista Rivoluzionaria, about the workers' reaction to this
What do you think of the agreement that was made on January 23 government, the unions, and the employers, of the big strikes and demonstrations in early January?
In order to assess this agreement, you have to put it in a more general context. It cannot be judged in the abstract. If the mobilisations had not had the scope they did, the contents of this accord would not stand out in such flagrant contradiction to the workers wishes. (1)
It should be remembered that during autumn 1982 the trade unions consulted *the workers in the factories on their nine-point platform. In this there was already the proposal to reduce the automatic cost-of-living increases by 10 per cent. In return, be 'benefits' for the workers in the field
At the time, the trade-union leaders to put forward a different platform because it was very difficult to mount a places, despite the trade-union leaders' manoeuvres, this platform was widely
After this consultation the government went on the offensive - a total of 2,850 billion lire worth of tax relief was cancelled the grounds that wages had risen faster than inflation. This claim is clearly false. What's more the present sliding scale, given the way it is calculated, only covers 70 per cent of buying power.
The government also adopted a series of measures such as raising the price of petrol, imposing new taxes, reducing the rate of reimbursement for medical care. The trade unions did not act. However, a strike movement started, 10
In the factories, for example at FIAT, the desire to prepare and launch a general strike, was explicit. This frightened the trade-union leaders, as well as the Communist Party and Socialist Party tops.
After that, to agree to a reduction of 20 per cent in the automatic cost-of-living rises was a bit much! Even better, according to the employers' interpretation of the agreement - which is not without some technical foundation - the reduction could be 35 per cent. The giveback in taxes is largely phoney.
This measure only provides for tax relief on wages up to 9,000,000 lire gross per annum, which is about 500,000 lire net per month - £227 sterling. dustrial workers have a net monthly in-
Besides these measures the trade-union leaders have accepted points never discussed before; a freezing of contracts for two years; fixed-term employment contracts; a limited time for the payment of 'technical unemployment' (cassa integrazione - workers continue to draw their pay although there is no work). After a time the payment would be reduced.
A substantial change in the organisation of the labour market is also proposed. The employers will be able to take on 50 per cent of their workforce directly without going through the employment office (Ufficio di Colocamento). office gives one list to the employers which they are obliged to accept. proposed change would be an effective way of repressing trade-union militants.
an employer could workers from the Ufficio di Colocamento, and choose twenty others
After twelve days trial he can union militants proposed by the employment office. Formally the employers have to abide by the rule of 50/50. But in fact they will have a free hand to attack trade-union organisation in the factory. In addition, this measure will bring the whole weight of the reserve army of labour to bear on working conditions and salaries. That is the pressure of competition for
One of the most striking aspects The despised Fanwas incapable of immeasures by decree. This the government, which is the worst enemy of the workers,
The Confindustria (the employers federation) understand very well the risk of a major governmental crisis that could arise if the negotiations fail. And it also fears the cumulative effect of a political crisis in the present social and economic climate in Italy.
The trade-union leadership, from its has the same analysis. Thus, it is not by chance that there has been a convergence between the bureauand the employers representatives on this agreement. In effect it concretises the main orientation of the trade-union leadership, which is indeed going against the workers' interests.
In the consultation on the nine points, as in the mobilisations over the last two
La dramatic contradiction emerged. A broad layer of workers in the union have demonstrated their opposition to the line of the bureaucracy. These are the militants who initiate and lead the mobilisations. But this vanguard layer has not found any spokesperson in the leadership structures of the trade union. On situation now is worse ership bodies are not expressed because, given the depth of the social and economic crisis, this would very quickly lead to the formation of contending currents. The leadership structures stand opposed to the development of struggles. At the best, like this time, a sector tries to 1. See International Viewpoint No 20, Decem
GIL: Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro, main union confederation with a Communist majority.
UIL: Unione Italiana del Lavoro - federation with Socialist majority.
CISL: Confederazione Italiana Sindacale dei Lavorati - federation in which the leadership is linked to Christian Democracy.
spoken much of the strength of the broad opposition, that would become channel what struggles arise. But these officials supported the agreement, and did not try to express the workers point of view within the negotiations.
Certain officials have gone so far as to say to the federation leaders have made an error. But they did not organise any opposition. This is a traditional feature of the 'trade-union left', which prefers pressure on the tops to organising a class-struggle current within paying a heavy price for this capitulation, which is presented as a clever, non-sectarian way of modifying the course followed
This lack of an organised opposition is
After episodes like the one we have just been through, it could lead to the following scenario: for some militant workers distrust of the leadership could become distrust of the union itself. This attitude could develop even more easily if the political currents to the left of the Communist Party (PCI) do not offer a more credible alternative policy.
Q. Wasn't the leadership of the PCI caught off guard by the wave of struggles? How did it try to co-opt it?
A. In fact the PCI leadership was taken by surprise by the mobilisations. It didn't expect them. What's more the activists at the base of the PCI played a significant role in the development of the struggle. The PCI leadership did not oppose the movement head-on.
The PCI leaders' first thought was to use these mobilisations politically to strengthen its position and put the Socialist Party (PSI) in difficulties. They wanted to take the opportunity to whisper in the ear of the bourgeoisie: •We have an important role to play, you cannot ignore us. We are the only ones capable of channeling a workers' upsurge, and making the workers accept an agreement.?
In articles signed by members of the Party leadership, proposals very similar to those in the agreement were quite readily advanced. However, given the pressure from the base, the PCI leadership did everything it could to give the impression that this agreement was imposed upon them.
It is necessary to understand that the fundamental orientation of the Berlinguer leadership is in favour of austerity, an austerity that the workers should also support. It thinks that austerity is necessary. This is the reason that they so admire Mitterrand's policies in France. Thus, while the Communist Party tried to profit from an unexpected workers' upsurge, it could only oppose a struggle that put into question the austerity policy. The problem for the PCI was that such a struggle could provoke a political crisis whose dynamic would be relatively unpredictable.
The Communist Party leaders have consistently emphasised the positive aspects of the agreement, while trying not to appear directly responsible for it in the eyes of the workers. They have also enemy and the risk of a confrontation, so as to be able to present the agreement as a reasonable compromise. At the moment, they aren't being bashful about lying outright, claiming that in fact the workers' buying power has been fended. Their campaign of prevarication in the press is impressive.
The CP leaders make a big case that the CGIL and PCI leaderships have dif-
In fact, both consulted continually in fixing the terms of the
It has never occured to a PCI or CGIL leader of the likes of Lama or Trentin to say it is up to the workers
For them it is obvious that decision making is the prerogative of the higher levels of the Party and trade union.
Q. What was the attitude of the PUP and Democrazia Proletaria?
A. Sections of the PdUP said they were opposed to the agreement, and they are opposing it in the consultations that are taking place now to ratify the agree-
Nonetheless, the bulk of the cadres of the PUP and its leadership are not at all interested in organising a trade-union opposition. It is true that they would find it hard to build such an opposition, since their fundamental policies converge with those of the PCI!
As for DP, regrettably, during the preceding months - when it was obvious that the question of the sliding scale would be at the centre of the class confrontation — it started a series of political operations on other fields. not prepare the mobilisation. did get involved in the mobilisation. But its political line consisted essentially of counterposing its particular organisational interests to a united-front policy. Such a policy, however, was needed to build a a point of reference for a whole layer of workers. Democrazia Proletaria is opposed to the agreement, and is fighting against its ratification in the present round of consultations.
Q What have the factory assemblies said about the agreement?
A. In many factories, Italsider and Ansaldo in Genoa, Alfa Romeo in Milan, Aeritalia in Turin, the factory council at Fiat Rivalata in Turin, as well as many factories in the Brescia region, workers have rejected the agreement. But this cannot amount to more than an expres sion of a negative judgement by large sections of the working class about the agreement. Both the policy followed by
Italian cops attack workers (DR) the union leaderships and the lack of a structured opposition will prevent any reversal of the results of the negotiations.
The leadership of the PCI, after claiming they were forced into the agreement, now finds itself compelled to do all it can to obtain ratification of the agreement. This is the task that the CP has set for its militants in the work. place. This is not the least contradictory aspect of the CP's line.
A wave of struggle has been broken. As renewal of the wage agreements has been put off for two years, it will be more difficult to get things moving again. It is possible that there is a growing number of workers who realise that pressure on the leaderships is not sufficient, that it is necessary to organise an opposition. But - at a different level - this could also lead to an increased hesitation 3. This orientation was encouraged by the fact that for a period the pressure from the base was such that the union leaderships had to take account of it, and certain sections of the leadership expressed this through more or less alternative proposals.
11
about going back into struggle. It is pos- to answer is the following: how is such sible that the 'social pact' will be broken at the level of the factory.
However, it is difficult to imagine that the 1978 scenario will be rapidly repeated, where the mobilisation of the whole metalworkers sector threw into question the Social pact of the EUR. (4)
Given the internal contradictions of Christian Democracy, its system of alliances, and the social instability there is always the possibility of political crisis opening-up. This is an ever-present a dizzying rise to the heights possible in a trade union?
is not too lack of organised control by over the union leadership.
question is evidently infiltration in the rank and file structures, engage in negotiations and sign agreements as they please, when the effects are disastrous for the workers and the trade union itself.
In January 1978, during a meeting of the national leaderships of the three federations at the Palace of the EUR in Rome, the trade. union leaders openly declared themselves for austerity and social peace. 5. Scricciolo had extensive links with SolidarLOSE. He organised Walesa's trip to Italy.
factor in the situation.
Any political crisis could lead a reshuffling of the
Sharp class battles cards, and a relaunch of social struggles.
Q. Isn't the problem of trade-union in Denmark democracy raised once again by this agreement as it had been by the way the struggles were conducted? At the same time the leaderships are striving to restrict the jurisdiction of factory coun cils and openly rig the results of member- Gerry FOLEY ship votes, as was so obviously done last
In fact, one of the biggest problems that has been thrown into relief, and remains posed, by the agreement is that of trade-union democracy. place, there is the question of how the terms, of such an agreement were arrived at, then the way in which it was signed. Secondly, within agreement itself there is a reduction of the role of the factory councils in contract bargaining. These councils have for years been a factor favouring a certain trade-union
Some sections of the unions, most openly within the Ull, are favourable to a reduction in trade-union democracy, and to the transformation of the unions into a pliant tool in the hands of the
The existence of terrorist activity has been used to further this aim. union leaders openly stated that the structures that encourage union democ-
HAMBURG — After a six-week-long milithe Danish dockers suspended their strike on February 14. It right-wing government of Poul Schluter that came into office in September and highlighted in a dramatic way the escalating class confrontation in Denmark.
The dockers strike was marked by an extensive use of police and strike-breakers against the workers that would have been unthinkable in Denmark before the deepening of the capitalist economic crisis.
One worker was even killed, run over by a truck at a barricade on the docks in Hirtshals, a town on the northwest tip of mainland Denmark, not far from the major port city of Aalborg, one of the centers of the strike.
Managerial personnel gave a Dutch through a picket line. He ran over a striker, Kaj Aage Nielsen.
issue of Klassekampen, the weekly paper of the Danish section of the Fourth International.
"I never saw anything like it. It was just plain Nazi methods. Over a hundred police in battle dress with plexiglass helmets charged us. They pulled people out of buses and cars and beat them up with clubs. At the same time, they loosed their maddened police dogs on the crowd. People literally ran for their lives, and still they didn't get away clubbed and bitten."
The demonstration had been a peace. ful one, Hansen explained, and its leaders had made it clear that they wanted no confrontation with the cops.
"There were between 400 and 500 of us dockers and about 100 sympathizers from all over the country....
"At first, everything went peacefully. There were only twenty to thirty police...Then, suddenly, all the police forces in the region...converged on us.
"At a command, they all charged us... There was an inferno of screaming, shoutracy make it easier for terrorists to in- day after, on December 30, a ing, weeping, ambulance sirens." filtrate the unions. Giorgio Benvenuto, general secretary of the UIL had the cheek to use the 'Luigi Scricciolo affair' to justify this operation. I don't know if Scricciolo is an agent or not. For several years in Italy the regime has often fantastic accusations against militants. Officially he is accused of having collaborated with the Red Brigades, of being an agent of the Bulgarians, of having betrayed Solidarnosc trade-unionists to the police after the coup. (5)
But, one thing remains certain. Scricciolo did not get his trade-union respon-. sibilities on the basis of militant activity at the base, or through election to a factory council. He has never been elected by a trade-union congress to any level of the leadership. leadership circles of the UIL thanks to his personal relations with Within a few months, he became one of the main leaders of the UIL!
The real question that Benvenuto has
Copenhagen shop stewards meeting passed a resolution saying:
"The Copenhagen workers movement was shocked at the death of a dock worker on a strike barricade....
"His memory will remain part of the of the struggle of the working class to defend our fellow workers and their families against the attacks of the
"Honor the memory of a fighting
Thousands of workers came from the Aalborg region and all over Denmark to in Nielsen's funeral procession.
Within a few days, the driver of the truck that killed Nielsen was released without charges. At roughly the same time, on January 8, in Horsen a docker was jailed on the charge of butting his head against a cop.
launched full-scale attacks on workers demonstrations. An Aalborg dockers' leader, Hans Hansen, described one in an interview in the January 13
Hansen recalled that a worker in his sixties fell down in front of a cop holding a raging dog. Every time he tried to get up, the cop loosened the dog.
The Schluter government did not hesitate to unleash the cops against the workers. But in some cases the workers were able to respond effectively.
On January 21, thousands of workers marched to the docks in Aalborg to support the dockers. "A few cops drew their pistols," Jorn Schmidt reported in the January 27 Klassekampen, time police stepped back." Unfortunately, that ala not last long because the mass blockade was not continued.
In Norresundsby, a force of seventy cops came in from Copenhagen to protect
"The dockers, unemployed, and others rushed to the harbor. In the coming hours, they more and more gained the upper hand. Among other things, they managed to remove the
"In the bitter cold, the workers de-