Italy stops in fifth general strike against Berlusconi

ON 30 November in Italy there was the fifth general strike against the
Berlusconi government. It stopped the country.

Lazzaro Bortolotti, Lotta per il socialismo, CWI, Italy

The general strike was called by the three confederations – Cgil, Cisl and
Uil – the three biggest trade unions of Italy, and by the Cobas ‘unions of the
base’, who usually call their strikes on a different day.

In 76 cities there were protest demonstrations, involving more than one
million people. According to the unions, of the workplaces affected, on
average nearly 80% of workers took strike action. University and secondary
school students also joined the demonstrations.

The strike was a big success; the vast majority of the public sector was on
strike. All the post offices and universities were closed, most city public
transport did not run. Also, markets and banks were closed. Trenitalia, the
railway company, stopped half of the trains and Alitalia, the airline,
cancelled 160 flights.

A lot of anger had grown amongst workers, pushing the union leaders
together. Although the original Cgil plan of an eight-hour strike was reduced
to four as a concession to the more moderate unions (Cisl and Uil), in the
public sector and in the south, the strike lasted for the full eight hours.

The leader of the Cisl, Pezzotta, spoke at the Venice rally saying that the
recent tax cuts by the government are only in favour of the rich. (Research
commissioned by the government itself said that the bottom 60% of the
population won’t benefit from the cuts!)

Epifani, leader of the Cgil, spoke in front of 200,000 people in Milan,
underlining that the tax cuts of Û6billion are balanced in the "finanziaria"
by cuts in public services, like health care and schools.

The "finanziaria" means the budget – the law relating to the economic
programme for the next year. In it, investment and research will also be cut,
and this is why even the bosses’ union, Confindustria, was against the "finanziaria"
and in favour of the strike!

These measures pushed through by Berlusconi, just days before, probably
increased the strength of the strike. The big question is, what alternative do
the union and left leaders propose for the economy?

Members of Lotta per il socialismo, the Italian branch of the CWI,
participated in the strike and on the demonstrations, arguing for more
prolonged and better-prepared strike action to bring down the government and
for a real alternative to ‘concertazione’ (collaboration), for a socialist
change in society. This is the only change that can guarantee workers’ rights
– rights that under capitalism are always under threat.