journal of european integration history revue d'histoire de l ...

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Book reviews – Comptes rendus – Buchbesprechungen
Andrea CIAMPANI – La CISL tra integrazione europea e mondializzazione. Profilo
storico del «sindacato nuovo» dalla Conferenza di Londra al Trattato di Amsterdam,
Edizioni Lavoro, Roma, 2000, 204 p. – ISBN 88-7910-934-0 – 50.000 Lit.
This book, written by Andrea Ciampani (University of Padua) for the fiftieth birthday of the
CISL, the Italian trade union set up by Giulio Pastore in May 1950 two years after the
CGIL's break up, is an example of European scholars' recent but growing interest in the role
played by pressure groups and non-institutional actors in the international system and the
European integration process.
The analysis of the CISL's international profile appears particularly difficult, not only
because it is not supported by a selected bibliography, but mainly because it looks like a
hybrid where European Integration History coexists with other subjects like Economic History
and Industrial Relations.
Via a careful analysis of the documents collected at the International Institute of Social
History in Amsterdam, the author efficaciously investigates the different levels at which the
CISL operates: national, European, and international, in an intricate labyrinth where the
three identities often appear to be overlapping. This complex articulation is not only the
result of the CISL's own history, but also of the Italian post-war history, which has been
strongly influenced by international development as well as by the Cold War.
In the first part of his book Ciampani deals with the CISL's origins, focussing on the historical
debate developed with regard to the various splits which completely changed the history of the
labour movement in Italy and France, ousting the united antifascist trade unions established after
World War II. The author stresses that even though the Marshall Plan was the catalyst of the Italian
CGIL's break up due to its implications with organised labour, internal factors also played an
important role, as did the disputes among the various labour wings with regard to adopting different
programs for Italian reconstruction. Since its birth, the CISL, through Giulio Pastore, its first
Secretary, and Mario Romani, Director of the Ufficio Studi, has developed a pronounced international
profile. It took part in the establishment of the new international labour organisation, the
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), formed by all the Western «free»
labour organisations which had left the Communist oriented World Federation of Trade Unions
in 1949, and it has played an active role in Europe since the creation of the European Coal and
Steel Community (ECSC) in 1952.
In the 1950's the links with the American labour organisations, in particular the American
Federation of Labour (AFL), as well as its efforts to become a reliable interlocutor for the
US programs in Italy, have influenced the identity of the CISL. It tried to establish a «new»
form of trade unionism, free from both the political parties and the State along the lines of
the American model, something that was completely new to the Italian tradition of labour
organisations, strongly tied as they were to political parties.
During the 1960's, in spite of the strong repercussions caused by internal political factors
like the question of the opening to the left, the CISL consolidated its international approach.
In 1965 Bruno Storti, the CISL's Secretary, was appointed President of the ICFTU, a symbol
for the overwhelming role played by European trade unions on the international scene. As a
consequence the CISL promoted a series of international initiatives with the intention of
radically changing its image and becoming a trade union seriously engaged in supporting
the establishment of new democratic organisations all over the world, like in Somalia and
the Middle East.