Italy: Berlusconi under seige from mounting protests
22 February 2004
Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schröder met in Rome to pledge themselves to a campaign against the European working class- to reaffirm the decisions taken three years ago to make Europe competitive with its North American and East Asian rivals by slashing the social gains of the working class and weakening its unions.
But they did not invite the "bad fairy" to the christening of their new alliance - Silvio Berlusconi. A sulking Silvio replied to this calculated snub by denouncing the triumvirate for an attempted takeover of the European Union. Doubtless he felt badly down by his dear friend Tony Blair. After all hasn't he been doing his level best to carry out the agreed neoliberal onslaught on Italy's workers?
Trying certainly but "there's the rub". Trying but not succeeding. Berlusconi was forced to stay at home and deal with the escalating laboUr unrest, his fractious coalition partners and his own collapsing popularity.
Over the last week or so, doctors, judges, steelworkers, bus drivers - have been venting their rage against Berlusconi. A one-day strike of some 150,000 doctors and other medical workers forced the cancellation of nearly 700,000 non-emergency operations and appointments on 9 February.
They were striking because the government has not renewed their contract and is trying to replace the national health-care system with a strictly regional one- a carve up that will facilitate the marketisation, then privatisation steps towards the US model that Europe's bosses are trying to impose in order to cut health care costs and boost profit rates. They will repeat the strike action for two more days on 8-9 March, and hold a mass demonstration in Rome on 2 April.
The strike was just the latest in a lengthening list of workers' action, including walkouts by Alitalia employees who will strike on 5 March against Alitalia's three-year Rescue Plan. This is meant to "rescue" profits by sacrificing 2,700 of its workforce. Trade unions have grounded hundreds of flights in a series of strikes since the plan was unveiled in October.
There is continuing wildcat action by public-transport workers against years of salary freezes and threats of more job cuts. In Genoa Termi steelworkers clashed with police over some 900- 1000 expected layoffs. Also angry magistrates demonstrated about a proposed "reform" of the justice-system by the criminal premier, and have called a strike for next month.
Berlusconi denounced the protests. "Many are political strikes, promoted by leftist unionism," he said during one of his increasingly rare television interviews.
Berlusconi swept into office in 2001, touting a "contract with Italians" that promised lower taxes, higher pension benefits and a long list of new public-works projects to mop up unemployment. Now his empty promises are coming back to bite him.
His coalition allies - a disparate mix of "post"-fascists, former Christian Democrats and the racist and regionalist Northern League - are biting at each other and Berlusconi. They are so many rats looking for the right moment to jump from a sinking ship. .This has been intensified by campaigning for European and partial local by-elections due on June 12 and 13. Berlusconi launched his election campaign with the usual a gaffe- an open justification of tax dodging. He stated
"If you ask for 50 percent or more, then the demand is not fair and I consider myself morally justified to do everything I can to avoid paying them." A communist parliamentarian tartly commented: "If high taxes on big salaries morally justify tax evasion, then low wages justify stealing."
He pledged to slash taxes ahead of Italy's 2006 general elections. The media magnate, Italy's richest and the world's 46th most-wealthy person, has accused opposition politicians of corruption. He has always refused to come clean on how he accumulated his own fortune.
His candidacy comes days after his arch rival, the European commission president and former prime minister Romano Prodi, launched a campaign to re- stitch together the Ulivo Coalition .
On the left of the parliamentary spectrum which Prodi is trying to unite stands Rifondazione Comunista. But coming hot on the heals of the Democratic Left's refusal to oppose the vote in parliament renewing support for the occupation of Iraq, RC chairperson Fausto Bertinottii is once again playing hard to get. He is talking left once again. On 6 February speaking at Terni, the steel plant threatened with closure Rifondazione Comunista leader Bertinotti, said
"The opposition has the obligation of facing the social conflicts of varied nature, addressing the societal evils, and turning them into political energy to be used to topple the Berlusconi government". This, according to Bertinotti, is the first step toward something bigger. "The left - added Bertinotti - has to make the transformation of this capitalist society its top priority".
All good rhetoric as usual. But what is urgently needed is a strategy to unite the various disparate antigovernment actions into a general strike to drive Berlusconi from power. This not cross class election coalitions is the way to do it.
