April 2011 - Centre for Civil Society - University of KwaZulu-Natal

absence of any mass movement and by just a handful of votes. In two
difficult years of life, the second government led by Romano Prodi, which
the PRC (Party of Communist Refoundation) took part in worsening the
already bad Italian welfare system, supported the military missions
abroad, allowed the USA to double its military base in Vicenza (despite the
strong opposition of the majority of the population), and carried out
policies decidedly in favour of the bosses, putting off carrying out the
promises it had made to workers of a ‘second phase’ which never came.
The disappointment that this caused amongst voters on the left was
disastrous. In the following elections (April 2008), Berlusconi returned to
power. The PD was roundly defeated. The two Left parties, PRC and PdCI
(Italian Communists), disappeared from parliament. Abstentionism
amongst workers and youth increased. Amongst the poorest sections of the
population and in regions of the North, there was the beginning of a
transfer of votes from the Left to the Lega Nord. Above all, the elections
highlighted social passivity, workers’ isolation, the alienation of young
people from politics and the crisis of the Left organisations.
The role of the trade unions
In all of these events the role played by the trade unions has been crucial.
In the post-war period the three big trade union federations (CGIL, CISL,
UIL) were the main link between political power and the working class.
Closely linked for years with the Left and centre parties, and with millions
of members, they exerted a fundamental influence on governments. In the
‘hot autumn’ of 1969 they were enormously strengthened and a process of
trade union unification was begun. This only happened concretely amongst
metal workers while the other three sectors of workers only went as far as
a pact for united action.
As the struggles ebbed and the first economic crisis took place (middle of
the 1970s) this union bloc was used by the bureaucracy to direct workers
towards economic sacrifices and wage freezes. In brief, the compromise
between trade unions and government was the following: CGIL, CISL, UIL
would try to keep the workers in line and subjected to the demands of
capital, while in return they would be involved, together with
Confindustria, in decisions concerning social issues.
The end of the ‘first republic’ (following corruption scandals) and the
beginning of Berlusconi’s reign destroyed this unwritten pact. The
personality and populism of the new prime minister was not suited to long
negotiations and mediation with ‘social partners’. Furthermore, the
weakening of the workers’ movement in the previous period meant that
the government could ignore symbolic and ever rare general strikes.
This change put an end to unity of action between CGIL, CISL and UIL.
While the latter two went down the road of increasingly worse
compromises with the government and the bosses, in return for a few
crumbs to feed the bureaucratic apparatus, the CGIL is proving incapable
of deciding whether to go the same way as the other two or to try to
represent, in what are certainly difficult conditions, the growing social
unrest. The CGIL’s national congress which took place last year, did not
resolve this dilemma and the discussion was mainly focused around
internal organisational issues in an attempt to maintain a bureaucratic
balance and isolate the FIOM (metal workers’ union, an autonomous
category within the CGIL).
A political alternative based on struggle
In fact, today the FIOM is the only exception to a rather dismal trade union
panorama. Depicted by the media as extremist and unrealistic, the FIOM is