MILLIONS ON STRIKE

Fifth General Strike against the Berlusconi government paralyzed Italy. 80% of employees followed the union call

By Damiano Valgolio

[This article originally published in: Junge Welt 12/1/2004 is translated from the German on the World Wide Web, http://www.jungewelt.de/2004/12-01/001.php.]




The Italian unions paralyzed the whole country last Tuesday out of protest against the social- and economic policy of Prime Minister Silvio Berlosconi. Busses stayed in the depot, airplanes remained on the ground and the railroads were halted. Businesses and factories remained closed. According to union figures, 80% of employees followed the call to a four-hour strike. In five of 20 Italian regions and the public service, the general strike was extended to the whole day. While all wheels stood still, protest demonstrations were organized in over 70 cities. Despite pouring rain, “millions of workers” joined in the demonstrations according to Savino Pezzota, chairperson of the CISL union. More than 100,000 joined in the largest demonstration in Mailand.

The general strike of the three large unions (GIL, CISL and UIL) was directed against the budget draft of the Italian government and its tax policy. On Saturday, the cabinet resolved to cut spending next year by 6.5 billion euro. Businessmen and big earners will profit most of all from the tax relief. “The government gives much to a few and nothing at all to most”, said CGIL head Gugliemo Epifani during the demonstration in Mailand. “The government is isolated”. Instead of lowering the top tax rates, tax evasion should be combated, Epifani said. The five million pensioners who must live in Italy from less than 500 euro a month need relief, not the rich. Luigi Angeletti, chairperson of the UIL, calle4d Berlusconi’s austerity policy damaging and counter-productive for solving Italy’s problems: “We will chase them until the government stops acting as though it doesn’t understand us.”

Around 50,000 people demonstrated in Venice. Savino Pezzotta declared during the demonstration in the city of lagoons: “The government deflects the dialogue. Now a new phase of political confrontation begins.” To the reproach that the strike was political, the CISL chairperson replied: “The strike is obviously political. The strike is directed against a policy that is wrong and must be changed.” Instead of austerity measures, the unions urge investments in public service and a redistribution from top to bottom.

Yesterday’s protests were also politically explosive through the participation by Romano Prodi who joined the demonstration procession in Rome. The former president of the EU commission and social democrat will run against Prime Minister Berlusconi in the 2006 parliamentary elections. He is supported by the “Great Democratic Alliance”. Yesterday Prodi describes the strike as the “beginning of the re-conquest of the country”. Italy must be completely reorganized, the Italian challenger declared.

Sondro Bondi, coordinator of the government party Forza Italia, criticizes Prodi for seeking “a country of waste and indebtedness”. The next mass demonstration of the opposition parties against the policy of the Italian government is planned for December 13 in Rome.