Labour Commission
Reggio Emilia, 28 August 2011
at the Casa Bettola, Via Martiri della Bettola
6 September General Strike - the indignant fight back
The general strike called for 6th September 2011 by the CGIL and most of the grassroots unions comes at a crucial time for the fate of the working class in Italy, to a backdrop of an increasingly violent crisis throughout the continent which is hitting the living conditions of Europe's proletariat.
The strike is a response which has been made necessary by the extreme social injustice which this summer's double budget - imposed by the Berlusconi government together with the employers' federation Confindustria and the market trade unions - is spreading through the country, hitting wages, rights and union protections, and attacking the dignity of hundreds and thousands of workers - full-time, casual, unemployed and migrant - leaving no apparent means of escape.
After the demonstrations in the autumn and winter of 2010 with the extreme forms of resistance by migrants and casual workers, and after the strikes last spring, the movement of workers and all those grassroots associations who have been fighting against the crisis for over 2 years is once again raising its head in order to fight back and resist, to bring protest back to the streets of towns and cities all over Italy, giving a voice to the indignation which has been growing throughout the country for months.
The increasing social injustice and the difficult living conditions of proletarians in Italy seem to have finally made an impact on the monolithic, reluctant CGIL leadership, forcing it into action in net contrast with its more recent tendency to return to partnership policies leading up to the scandalous acceptance of the 28th June Agreement with the government, bosses and other main unions and its joint statement on 4th August with the Confindustria and bankers.
Another ray of hope can be seen in those grassroots unions who have called a general strike and joined together in a nationwide coordination.
The violence of this attack is forcing the opposition union forces and those social movements who give voice to the increasingly strong and uncontainable unease in the country to mobilize and cooperate.
Ensuring that 6th September does not remain simply another day of protest in an autumn of struggles against the budget and the bosses' crisis will depend on the strength to resist and the ability to manifest dissent and indignation on the part of the more combative social and trade-union organizations, those who have nothing to lose, those who have no cosy leadership role or privileges to defend.
The combative sectors of the CGIL and the grassroots unions will need to continue their work in other demonstrations and struggles, and join together to ensure that it is not the working class who pays for the crisis of capital.
The struggle of Italy's workers is the struggle of all European workers. The convergence of combative syndicalism (which tends towards a libertarian praxis) is the hope for reorganizing the response of Italian and European proletarians.
The FdCA calls on all anarchist and libertarian union activists, all grassroots organizations in the workplace and throughout society to participate in the strike on 6th September and demand the withdrawal of the budget, to build unity and class resistance against the crisis, against the repression of union activists, to build a libertarian alternative based on solidarity.
Labour Commission
Federazione dei Comunisti AnarchiciReggio Emilia, 28 August 2011