NO CHANGE. That was the outcome of the general election in Italy on 2-3 June. The stalemate in Italian political life continues. exactly reflecting that beween the capitalists and the working class.
Much was made of the fact that the vote of the Communist Party (PCD fell by a full 4 per cent to 30.4 per cent. But it still held on to half its gains in the 1976 clection.
What is more, this didn't benefit Italy's ruling party, the Christian Democrats, whose vote also declined slightly. Many of the PCI's lost votes seem to have gone to a militant protest group, the Radical Party (whose share rose from 1.3 to 3.4 per cent). The far leff's vote abo went up from 1.5 to 2,2 per cent. Austerity This stalemate reflects one simple fact: the capitalists" austerity policy, pursued since 1976 with the active collaboration of the PCI, hasn't been uble to inflict any substantial defeat on the IC's not for want of trying on the PCI leaders part. They have made concession after concession as the price for inching closer to their perspective of a government of national unity.
In July 1977 the PCI signed a joint agreement with all the parliamentary parties except the fascists of the MSI and the far left and the Radicais. This accepted the principle of a reduction in labour costs, mobility of labour, But a principle is one thing; to carry it oul quite unother. Working class resistance on the ground culminated in a huge strike through Rome on 2 December 1977.
The PCI used this not to launch a struggle in defence of working class interests, but us a bargaining counter Democrats to show what forces could be let loose if they didn't play ball in the PCI's parliamentary game. At the beginning of 1978 the PCI finally made it into the 'parliamentary mujority supporting the new government headed by Christian Andreetti.
Clarity And the consequences for the working class? They were spelt out with startling clarity by PCI trade union leader Luciano Lama in an interview in the Italian paper La Repubblica (Z8 Запцагу 1978):
*The union is proposing that the workers follow a policy of sacrifices. Not marginal sacrifices, but substantial sacrifices...
"We can no longer force companies to keep on a number of workers in excess of their productive possibilities, nor can we continue to demand that the lay-off fund go on forever paying the surplus workers their wages...
Therefore...we maintain that when it has been ascertained that companies are in a state of crisis, they should have the right to fire.' The union proposes. but the working class disposes. president of the Italian bosses' organisation, Confindustria, deplored the gap between the good Intentions of the PCI and union leaders and their inability to deliver their base.
The resistance of the core sections of the working class has preserved the balk of its by guins. The sliding scale, whereby wages keep done away with.
the bosses.
Christian Democrat leader again.
powers *the Tar left.
used against the FLM union is Uncertain This year's annual report by the something to offer its base.
each ToryRedundancies have been largely fought off despite Lama's promises to But others have suffered: weakly orgasised workers, women, youth (who make up 75 per cent of the unemployed). They have been the first victims of the big price rises and cuts in social spending which are part of musterity. It was their votes which contributed to the PCT's big advance in 1976 — and which it has now lost The other aspect of the PCP's collaboration with the Christiun Democrats has been its hacking for the government's law and order policies. It has voled for the extension of police Reale Law). backed the strengthening of the repressive apparatus, and actively encouraged a witch-hunt against the These strong state measures, justified in the name of 'fighting terrorism', are already being working class. Factory delegates at the Italsider plant in Genon are among the latest 1o be hauled in for alleged connections with the Red Brigades. And the now being sued by the particularly bosses" federatien, Federmeccunica, for "illegal" strikes and picketing.
But the future remains uncertain. There is struggles talk now of a return to the "centre-left" formula with a coalition government between the Christian Democrats and the Socialist Party (PST). But for ull their anti-Communist blaster, the capitalists have to come to some arrangement with the PCE; they have to give it ensured the election of two members - except that the French parliament laid down that ner cent w'as necessary to have anyone clected The meetings addressed by the slate's two main candidates. Arictre were consistently attended. The real interest in an internationalist alternative to the rabid chauvinism of the Communist Party and the pro-imperialist stand of the Socialist Party was also reflected in some of the local votes.
In the big industrial belt around Calais, for instance, where many workers are threatened redundancy, the Trotskyist slate won more than 4 per cent Elsewhere revolutionary candidates, despite a generally successful campaign, lared less well in the vote Tariq Ali, standing in thi Weat London constituency, won 1,635 votes (just under 1 per cent). The Trotskyist slate in Belgium won 0.3 per cent. Figures were not available at would certainly give it something to induce its membership to go easy on the struggle. Bat it also holds out the very real danger that the expectations which such a derelopment would arouse in the masses could bring their militancs to bolling point.
So a more likely solution is perhaps the inclusion of some pro-PCI independents in the temporary compromise pending further manoeuvres.
Prolonging One factor prolonging this crisis is the total inability of the far left to offer any alternative solution. The PDLP, which won 1.4 per cent of the vote and six MPs, spends most of its efforts in trying to get the PCE to "urn left"; while the other far left slate, the 'New United Left' which polled 0.8 per cent and got so MPs), Is mainly marked by its turn away from the labour movemeat towards "aew social layers'.
But the shape of un allernative, though not as set in an organised form, is beginning lo emerge in the widespread discussions taking place at the base of the unions. This b true in the FLM, where the Trotskyists of the GCR have started to win some small influence, and where the leadership has already been forced to lauch a struggle for • 38-hour week and un across-the-board rise.
Through a fight to unity and centralise around such demands, and lo claborate an alternative workers' plun to end the crisis, with the demand that the PC and PSt end their class collaborution and form a goverament based on the trade unions and the mohilisation of the masses, the present agitation in the ranks can pave the way for an organised altemative.
I the time of going to press for the Trotskyist slate in Luxembourg, Bernadette McAliskey's imperialist candidature in the Nort of Ireland won more than 34,000 first preference votes. We will analyse the results of this campaign in next week's issue.
Intercontinental Press THE situation in Nicuragun is the subject of a lengthy article in the lates isse of Intercontinental Press/ Inprecor (Vol. 17, No. 22), which sho cosers developments in Iran, South Africa, Kampuchen, und Japan.
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