Background

Tht CRISIS
IN TTALY

With 18 million workers in-
ved, Italy saw on Feb. 5,
@ largest 24-hour strike
the end of the war. Call-
by the three trade union
itres it backed demands for
r State pensions.
strike, following on the
strikes of last fall and
@ governmental crisis, fur-
er reflects the rising peo-
"s movement in the country
is analyzed by the
of the Italian Com-
Party, Luigi Longo, in
following article.

Armed police prepare to
battle strikers. One of the de-
mands of the workers is the

disarming of the police.

x

Mass unity for radical change

ly is restless. Even it’s new
@ Minister Mariano Rumor
§ forced to admit that “fea-
s of sharp social tension are
ing in the country.”

cording to a recent article
gi Longo, leader of the
n Communist Party, the
e of Italy at the end of
was one of crisis of “all
Id authoritarian structures
failed to conform to the
nds of the working peo-

pointed out that against
background the demand is
Oming irrepressible, and this
oved by the mass strikes
p past months, for guaran-
id right to work, for housing,
‘an up-to-date medical service
ifor pensions for the old that
not be insulting and force
to live in miserable con-

ng tendencies for radi-
Changes — seen among the
g people, the youth, all
who demand that an end
to the regime of exploi-
of oppression, suppres-
nh of basic rights and free-
all those who demand
an end be put to the re-
of corruption created and
ed only in the interest
Small group of exploiters.
Beginning with the 12 million
Workers who went on strike last
November 14 under the leader-
) of the Italian General Con-
federation of Labor and Italian
OMfederation of Trade Unions
an increase in pensions and
ms in the pension system,
‘Movement grew to general
s in Italy’s main regions
landing an end to “wage
”
“Other forms of strikes also
took place. On November 20
Plactically all the workers came
manding abolition of the
penalty on the Greek pa-
Panagoulis. There were
Student strikes in support
Orm of the education sys-

lilitant and united charac-

ter of the actions of the work-
ers and the youth. With rare
and insignificant exceptions all
the strikes were convened
jointly by the Italian General
Confederation of Labor, Italian
Confederation of Trade Unions
and the Italian Union of Labor.
The Communists, members of
the Socialist Party of Proleta-
rian Unity, Socialists, Christian
Democrats, Catholics and non-
party workers — all of them
fought together and continue to
fight for a radical change in eco-
nomic policy, for the right to
work for all Italians, for better
living conditions, for more ex-
tensive and progressive rights,
for democratic freedoms.

One of the demands which is
spreading today concerns the
rights of workers and students
to hold meetings at enterprises
and educational establishments.

In these actions demands for
higher wages and other econo-
mic demands merge with more
far-reaching demands aimed at
structural transformations, as
for instance, the transfer to the
workers of the management of
social maintenance organiza-
tions.

Demands for disarming the
police are ringing out. After the
police killed two Sicilian farm-
hands during a street demon-
stration in Avola, the demand
for disarming the police was
everywhere advanced not only
by the Communists and the
members of the Socialist Party
of Proletarian Unity but by the
three main trade union centres
and some representatives of the
Socialist Party, 43 deputies of
the Christian Democratic Party,
regional meetings of Sicily, Sar-
dinia and the Friuli-Venezia Giu-
lia region. In Avola where these
two farm laborers were killed
in the struggle to improve liv-
ing conditions, the youth fede-
rations of the Communist Party,
the Socialist Party of Proleta-
rian Unity, Socialist and Chris-
tian Democratic parties, or-
ganized a mighty national de-
monstration in which the young
people undertook to organize a
struggle all over the country for

disarming the police.

Against the background of
this tense situation, Longo
points out, developed the gov-
ernment crisis in the last weeks
of 1968, This crisis he says has
now been overcome, at least for
a time: a new Left centrist gov-
ernment has been formed which
includes Socialists and Repub-
licans headed by Christian De-
mocrats.

This cannot be said about the
sharp social and political crisis
that is continuing in the coun-
try. On the contrary, the new
government, under pressure of
the masses, was forced to make
a number of concessions (to
raise pensions and extend the
number of students receiving
stipends). However, the way out
proposed for overcoming the
government crisis in no way
shows that the policy of the
ruling parties is towards radi-
cally solving the serious prob-
lems that agitate Italy.

This was stressed by the op-
position deputies that gathered
in Rome at a representative as-
sembly of Left forces striving
for unity, to assert the need
for new, more profound trans-
formations and further develop-
ment of the united struggle of
the working people so that these
transformations are carried out
in the interests of the broad
masses.

This evoked fierce attacks on
our Party by bourgeois conser-
vative leaders who accused us
of departing from the principles
of parliamentary struggle. Our
answer was simple: we had
never interpreted the Italian
road to socialism as the road of
pure parliamentary struggle. In
our interpretation and in our
practical activities this road
means mass struggle of the
people, struggle which precisely
thanks to its character would in-
deed be capable of overcoming
inertness and arbitrariness of
the most backward and conser-
vative sections ruling the life of
Italian society.

“We want this struggle to be
waged in democratic forms.”
Longo said. But the CPI has: al-

ways said, that if the enemy
dares to use violence, erroneou-
sly supposing he will succeed
in suppressing the movement
for democratic and socialist re-
novation of Italian society, we
shall be prepared to give him
decisive battle and destroy him
in that case too.

He said that the communists
hold that the road of unity and
mass struggle is the most ef-
fective road of creating possibili-
ties for the realization of the
radical alternative proposed by
us to the bankrupt and fruitless
Left-centrist policy. The masses
can only reply to the attempt
to continue the old policy with
firm opposition, and constant
and consistent struggle.

According to Longo the road
of joint struggle is the main
road that can lead Italy out of
the deep crisis that is shaking
the country today. The point at
issue is a sharp and serious
crisis. It can and must however,
become the beginning of chan-
ges in social and political rela-
tions, must bring forth a sys-
tem that would more faithfully
reflect the real correlation of
forces and the demands and as-
pirations of the country.

Longo then writes: “Some
Italian political observers ask
us: In view of the bankruptcy
of the.‘Left centre’ policy, your
strategy is therefore a strategy
of seeking an alternative to the
present government? To _ this
we reply that we do not wish
and do not intend to limit our
activities only to presenting our
alternative. The situation inside
the country and in the world,
and the urgent need to solve
vital problems do not permit us
to wait passively for the matur-
ing of a qualitative leap from a
Left centrist policy to a new
Left majority. The situation im-
pels us to take concrete action
even though we are in the op-
position, it forces us to raise
problems more sharply, to fight
against pseudo-decisions which
are only a deception, to achieve
in parliament and through or-
ganized mass struggle of the

working people such solutions.

of problems which would really
conform to the demands and as-
pirations of the workers and
students — from the creation
of better living conditions to re-
forms in pension, public health
and educational systems; from
the winning of broader demo-
cratic rights, extensive freedoms
at enterprises, educational insti-
tutions and in the life of the
country, to the disarming of
police when the question con-
cerns their interference in de-
monstrations and strikes. To the
struggle for a profound change
in Italy’s entire foreign policy,
for a peace policy that would
remove NATO troops from Italy
and withdraw Italy from NATO
and protect the Italians from
the danger of being drawn into
new armed conflicts and turn
Italy into a real factor of peace
in the Mediterranean and Eu-
rope.

“Our task is to be equal to
this struggle and this process
of transforming Italy’s econo-
mic, political and social struc-
tures. We must strive to link
ever more closely into a single
whole the mass struggle of the
people and the struggle in par-
liament, in all the existing elec-
tive institutions as well as in
those that may arise in the
course of the struggle, or in
those whose creation we our-
selves favor and struggle for.

“The question of the develop-
ment of this struggle will be in
the forefront of the work of
the 12th congress of the Italian
Communist Party as it already
is at the pre-congress meetings
and conferences in the primary
Party organizations, sections
and federations. These meetings
are being held in a political at-
mosphere characterized by great
tension, strength and unity in
the struggle of the working
masses and the youth. In other
words, they are being held in
an atmosphere which is chang-
ing extremely rapidly, in an at-
mosphere where the Communists
are playing an ever more impor-
tant role in the struggle for
peace, democracy, progress and
sacialisms 924 - <v.yett 2A4

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