be achieved today by mobilizing new against the Finance Law, by supporting every way, in the unions and in the workplaces, the demands of the students, by calling in all the workplaces and union halls for a general strike against the Finance Law. This force the PCI to pull its head out of the sand and make the government's contradictions unmanageable.O
1. The journalist Tobagi sinated by the Red Brigades. The assassins here the editor of the PSI paper captured and tried. However, 'Avanti' Intini, protested that the judges had given them too light sentences. He was supported by Craxi.
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International Viewpoint 27 January 1986
ITALY
In the movement, the idea was very widespread that there was a danger of being exploited politically and that that had to be avoided. This notion was pushed by the political organizations themselves in fact -
High-school student upsurge that is, the FGCI and DP used it against each other.
Then, at the Milan demonstration, where the objective, as I said, was occupy a building, DP had its squad block the street keep the demonstration from getting
IN OCTOBER AND November, Italy was swept by massive student demonstrations, primarily of high-school students. "Unprecedented in recent years and probably the most massive demonstrations in the country since the mid-1970s," was the assessment of Bandiera
Rossa, the paper of the Italian section of the Fourth International.
The following interview on this upsurge was given to Gerry Foley in
Basel in late November by Sergio Damia a leader of the Lega Communista Rivoluzionaria (LCR, Revolutionary Communist League, Italian section of the Fourth International).
Question.
Did the youth upsurge come as a surprise in Italy?
Answer.
In recent years, all the media and experts and a lot of the left had been saying that this was a generation that did not want anything more to do with politics, that it was a right-wing generation. In the elections last year, many studies indicated that the youth vote was middle-of-theroad, or right wing.
This generation of youth was described as one without ideals, a cynical generation.
assessment.
We had a different
We had an experience in work with young people solidarity with El in
Salvador, in solidarity with Nicaragua, that gave us a basis for a different judgement, that is that sectors youth were capable of ideals, above all, capable of ideals of solidarity with
Nicaragua.
It was difficult, of course, to consolidate this potential among the youth. It should not be forgotten that this generation of youth has been marked by two big experiences. These were the mobilizations against the missiles, against the new arms race, which were massive, in particular among the students.
But they tended to be politically rather vague. Then, there the mobilization was against the Mafia and the Comorra [a similiar which criminal association], was rather massive, and above all involved large numbers of students.
Q.
How did the recent mobilizations start?
A.
It started last year, although the problem went back even further.
Art School No. 2 in Milan, which has around 1,500 students, no longer had a building. It was shuffled around
6 from one set of delapidated quarters to another, and divided up. The new building that was found was declared uninhabitable by the fire department.
authorities in Milan decided the student body to afternoon sessions in two other schools.
So, the art-school students formed to agitate for a new building. It then managed to organize the high schools in which the artschool students were quartered into a committee representing three schools. To get the support of the general population, a demonstration was organized, and then another one. These demonstrations led to the formation of a still broader committee representing all the high-school students in Milan.
At the end of October, a very large demonstration, very large for Milan, was organized. It involved practically all the high-school students. It is hard to say exactly how many there were, but it must have been 15 to 20 thousand. It was a vast crowd of youngsters of 14 and 15 years of age, full of enthusiasm. The objective of the demonstration was at least symbolically to occupy a building.
What political forces were involved?
A. Our comrades were, of course. There were also a series of comrades who look to us but are not organized by us. There was the Federazione Giovanile Communista Italiana (FGCIFederation of Young Communists of Italy, the CP youth organization)
Democrazia Proletaria (DP), but the latter was very weak. In general, all the political forces were weak in building in question. agreement with the prefect that the building would not be occupied. So, even an organization such as the DP can play a moderating role. And this put them in a poor position in the movement. considerable impact nationally. It was relayed through the channels of the FGCI. Moreover, it got a lot of coverage in the press. The youth attracted a lot of attention.
put forward for a national day of action. In the framework of this, all the individual schools raised their demands - lack of chairs, lack of classrooms, run-down buildings, lack of teachers - all the deficiencies that are the result of the austerity policy.
So, there were demonstrations in a great many cities on November 9.
some cases, the demonstrations included almost all the high-school students. They were very broad. It was a very powerful mobilization, southern regions, where there the memory of the demonstrations against the Mafia and the Comorra.
Q. Who organized these demonstra-
A. It was essentially collectives in the schools, which were organized around "white books," that is, books of complaints about conditions in the school. Then, there were city coordinating groups set up by political forces, usually in response to an appeal from the school groups. They took the initiative in organizing city-wide demonstrations.
The FGCI proposed a national demonstration on November 16. In fact, it blew hot and cold about this, sometimes pushing it, dropping it, picking it up again. But once the idea was launched it took on a momentum of its own, and there was no stopping it.
All the left forces were agreed that the deficiencies in the schools were the result of austerity. And they proposed as the slogan for the demonstrations in Rome and other cities "For overcoming the deficiencies in the schools, against the Finance Law." These demonstrations were not expli-
International Viewpoint 27 January 1986 citly against the government, but the logic was antigovernment.
Q. Was there any doubt about the demonstrations being against the gouernment?
A. All the press and the mass media tended to take the line that this was a generation that only wanted to improve its conditions for studying. They interpreted the mobilization as apolitical. In reality it was not like that. This is a generation that does first of all want to improve its condiions for studying, because it also wants better working conditions later
In particular, the Finance Law was the central demthese young people are rather the logic of the thing. This was apparent both in the multicity demonstration of November 9 and in the national demonstration in Rome on November 16
In both cases, a delegation of young people was received by the minister. On both occasions, the minkept them three hours trying to explain to them the whys and wherefores of the problem and all that the ministry was
Both times, these kids came out of their three-hour meeting with the minister and told the TV reporters nothing concrete, that it was all talk, and that they didn't believe any of the things they were told, that these were promises that had been made several times.
So, the demonstration of November 16 was extremely important. It was presented as apolitical, above parties. But in reality it was not so. It was just that there was a fear among the high-school students that their action might be politically exploited.
Q. Were there any actual rightwing or conservative forces involved
No, and that is an outstanding feature. In past years, in the north of Italy in particular, the right-wing Catholie current, sort of Catholic fundamentalists, had become very
There were big rallies, one of tens of thousands of people in Rimini. This current, Comunione e school elections. But in these demonstrations it was
BaCiATO uN/a
MiNOreNie
Thissed a minor A YOu
A youth protest on the age of consent (DR)
absent; it played no role. It could not support demands that had an antigovernment dynamic.
That presumably is because it the control of the Christian it is in the orbit of the Christian Democrats; it is the most ideological component of the Christian Democratic movement. It was an instrument for regaining influence
But in these demonstrations, it was completely pushed did not participate even formally. It had nothing to propose.
The fascists might have played a role. They have had a certain revival in the high schools, context of a rehabilitation of
Craxi government is carrying out for the sake of gaining votes, including votes in parliament. The fascists could play a role in raising demands, radical demands. were excluded from the demonstra-
While trying to stay the organizers also "no fascists." That was even though the fascists claim to be more government than any-
Q. And also against parties. sters are suspicious and cautious about parties. It's hard to say how things will develop in the future. There is a proposal for a march on Rome from Palermo and Milan. It was originally conceived as a march for jobs, a march for jobs by the students who have waged the struggle for better schools.
Q What is the position of the big political forces?
A. What the government is saying is that these are good kids, they want to study, and when they are forty, their children will have better conditions for studying. That is essentially
As for the left, although the CP has an interest in having a mobilisation against the finance law, it will not take any initiative. Its position is that it is for amendments to the make small changes, the more scandalous aspects. example, proportionately, the increase in university fees is enormous.
The young people are already saying that such improvements are not enough. The whole logic of the finance law is bad. But the CP is playing this card of amendments. On the other hand, we think that concrete actions of a limited scope and character should be supported, because if there are even some small local successes that will help give the movement momentum. We say that the movegovernment cannot come up with any of the problems raised by the youth. At the same time, it cannot out any operations ment. There will be ups and downs. But this experience that the young people have accumulated will remain.
There is another point that it is important to keep in mind. Both the FGCI and the DP have played a braking role in this movement. The FCI cannot go beyond the CP's policy of trying to amend the Finance Law. The DP is very weak and doesn't know what to do.
The unions did aid the demonstrations. The young people went to the union movement to ask for help, to get trains, to get help in organizing the demonstrations. The unions gave it. Although the young people had collected money, they could not have organized a demonstration of a hunwithout the help of the unions. To get fifty trains, a ferry, eighty sleeping cars, they needed the sort of organization that the unions have. So, the unions supported the demonstration in Rome, but they tried to limit the
In this context, a polarization developed immediately as the youth ran up against these braking attempts. The case of the Milan demonstration that I mentioned before is symptomatic. Twenty thousand people started off to occupy a palace. And they were stopped not by the police but by the DP. The police might have tried to stop it. We cannot exclude that. But it would have been better if it had not been the DP defense
This sort of thing even prompts outcries that these forces are acting like spies for the police. In Milan, they informed the prefect of the coordinating tions. So, there is a feeling in the radicalism. The problem is that the people who offer that mainly are the Autonomi. difficult position. Because we have against the braking FGCI and the DP, anc found ourselves on the side of the supported radical proposals in the spirit of dividing the movement, violent confrontation, of breaking the dynamic of mass action.
Q How strong are the Autonomi in the movement?
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International Viewpoint 27 January 1986
A. Their main forces are among the university students. But the rise of the high-school protests gave a new impetus to the university student movement, in particular since the university students have been hard bit by higher fees. Among the university students in Rome and some other cities, the Autonomi have some strength. Sometimes they are the only organized force, in Rome in particular.
Moreover, the Autonomi do not try to present themselves as a party, but as a radical section of the movement. So, the suspicion offered them an opportunity. In fact, they were the only ones in the Novem ber 16 demonstration that had a presence for all practical purposes as party. They had a strong contingent of university students, and even of highschool students, although the latter was marginal. They were the only ones present as a political force.
Q. What was the age of the participants in the movement?
A. Fourteen to sixteen. The great majority were that age. There were university students involved, as I said, but they were a minority. Nonetheless, the year 1968 was a reference point. That is shown by the slogan that was invented by the youth in Milan, I think, "Sessantotto non e stato male, ottantasei sara eccezzionale!" ("1968 wasn't bad; 1986 Students protest in Milan (DR) 8 will be extraordinary!") it was taken up by a large number of the young people.
For these youth, cal reference point, despite the fact that the mass media tried to give the worst possible image of 1968, and the worst of all were the high-school teachers who appeared on TV and started by saying, "I, too, was but I have no confidence in these kids, there's nothing that can of these young is the idea that something exceptional happened in 1968 set their sights by it, while maintaining individuality. That is, are doing something else, something
The media claim that these demonstrations have nothing to do with 1968, because the upsurge twenty years ago was ideological or ideologized, not based on material demands. That is not true, because 1968 started out from material demands, and became ideologized later. Of course, it was combined with other factors, Vietnam among other things, and in Italy with radicalization of the workers movement. It was a different phenomenon. But it was not different in inception.
What is different is that in 1968 -above all, because the movement then was a university student movement - there was a whole network of cadres shaped by previous political experiences the FGCI, a broad network. That does not exist now. That is the real difference.
The number of left cadres among high-school youth is small. We are small. The DP is hardly better off. The FCI has more of a national structure, but is very weak.
Has the movement created formed. They're something like the French Prud'hommes [that is, grievance and welfare bodies] for highschool students. Moreover, there has been a whole change in the climate. The right had been on the advance, as I said. But in the elections that have been held since the movement there has been a complete turnaround. There has been a big increase in the vote for left slates, especially independent slates in the individual schools.
Q. What impact has the movement had on the political climate in the country more generally?
It came in the context of a total paralysis of the workers movement owing to the fact that both the
CP has conciliatory positions toward the government and the DP has been rather confused. Moreover, the trade. union platform, the proposals of the unions, are almost unbelievably con-
These youth demonstrations restored a bit of confidence in the working people, although we cannot say that they played the role of detonator. But have put in leaflets that they should play that role, and our comrades have been working to try to get the movement to adopt a conscious are youth who have appealed for help from the unions, etc. who are working
In any case, the strikes that the unions called on an incredibly conservative program were successful in the last analysis because the workers the finance law. That was because the day before the youth demonstrated against the Finance Law. This gave the strikes the thrust of opposition to the Finance Law, which was by no means the intention either of the CP or the unions.
Q. How strong is the structure of the FGCI. Are its full-timers actually young
A. They generally are rather young, except on the national level. At its last congress, however, the FGCI decided to divide into four separate organizations, that is, a league of high-school students, a leader of university students, a young women's organization, etc. That gave the FGCI a certain advantage in this movement, since it had a separate high-school organization. But nonetheless, it played a very small role.
Was there any difference in demands on the role of the young men and women in this movement?
except that you could say that the young women were in the vanguard. They were represented out of proportion to their numbers in all the leading bodies. One reason for this is that Art-School No. 2 in Milan where the movement started has a predominantly female student body. And the leaders are women, of them capable. So, among the public spokespersons of movement, women tended to predominate.
Q. Were there regional differences?
A. The movement started in the North, but the response was still more massive in the South, perhaps because of the memory of the demonstrations against the Mafia and the Camorra, and perhaps also because the conditions in the schools in the South are much worse.