italy this time

ZNet Commentary
Halting Italy to halt Berlusconi October 26, 2003
By Adele Oliveri

14 October 1994. Three million people take the streets in Rome during an

eight-hour general strike called by Italy's three major unions (CGIL,
CISL
and UIL) to protest against the pension reform plan and the proposed
1995
Budget law of the then Berlusconi government. Shortly after, Umberto
Bossi's
Northern League pulls out of the ruling coalition, and Berlusconi is
sent
packing.

24 October 2003. Ten million people go on strike all over Italy, over a
million taking the streets in cities across the country, in a four-hour
general strike called by Italy's three major unions to protest against
the
pension reform plan and the proposed 2004 Budget law of the Berlusconi
government.

Is history repeating itself?

Too early to tell, perhaps, but yesterday's protests are bound to give a

considerable blow to an already wobbly government coalition, that is
showing
all the signs of increasing restlessness among its ill-assorted
factions:
the xenophobe Northern League, the reformed fascists Alleanza Nazionale,
the
former Christian Democrats and Berlusconi's Forza Italia.

The proposed pension reform plan is the latest in a long series of
ill-conceived policy measures that appear to have thrown the country in
the
longest stagnation of the past fifty years, according to the definition
provided by the vice Governor of Italy's Central Bank, Pierluigi Ciocca.

With productive activity at a virtual standstill since the first quarter
of
2001, the closure or threatened closure of several car manufacturing
plants
since the second half of 2002, an increase in temporary and "atypical"
jobs
particularly among the young, and soaring prices of basic consumption
goods,
it comes to no surprise that Italians have decided to send the
government a
strong message of their growing displeasure at the way the country's
affairs
are being managed.

The pension reform plan, which has been approved by the Cabinet but has
yet
to be discussed in Parliament, is aimed at increasing from 35 to 40 the
number of years people must work and pay social security contributions
before they are entitled to a full state pension. The reform, which if
approved would be effective as of 2008, would force a large number of
workers close to retirement to work for an additional five years, thus
penalizing those who have already complied with their social security
obligations according to the present system.

This comes at a time when the government is trying to make ends meet by
pursuing that hideous familiar pattern of cuts in social and
environmental
spending accompanied by tax rebates and other gifts for the wealthy and
the
dishonest (in the form of fiscal remission for tax evaders and amnesty
for
infringement of local building regulations), to make up for an increase
in
military spending, in transfers to private schools and universities, and

other neoliberistic measures.

Trade unions have opposed the pension reform ever since it was
announced,
claiming that the Italian pension system is perfectly sustainable and
not in
need of any further reform. Moreover, unions are being very critical of
the
process whereby the whole reform is being pursued, accusing the
government
of refusing to consult with them and other social actors, and preventing

them from providing their own figures concerning the state of the
country's
beleaguered finances.

Adding insult to injury, Berlusconi exploited his quasi-total control of
the
country's national television system to deliver, in violation of the
network's rules, his own personal message to "Italian families" a few
weeks
ago, making an unannounced evening prime-time appearance on all national
TV
channels simultaneously to explain the objectives of his pension reform
and
the reason why the country so desperately needs it. And as if this
wasn't
enough to get the message across, Berlusconi has also pledged to send a
personal letter to 18 million households in the country (clearly paid
with
taxpayers' money) to gather further support for his unpopular measures.

Angered by the Prime Minister's willingness to do without any social
dialogue, trade unions responded to these provocations calling yet the
another general strike in less than a year, emboldened in their resolve
by
the massive flow of complaints that flooded the national TV network
after
Berlusconi's exploit.

(Shortly after Berlusconi's message, a popular Sunday show launched an
opinion poll to be conducted live, asking Italians to indicate the five
things they wish to put a stop to. To the dismay and embarrassment of
the
conductor, Berlusconi and Forza Italia came first. He who lives by the
TV
shall die by the TV...)

So what started off as a strike against an unpopular economic policy,
quickly took the contours of a popular plebiscite against the current
government, particularly after it was announced that the national
networks
would give no live coverage of the event (as it has been happening with
all
major demonstrations since Berlusconi took offices). Trade unions were
quick
to put aside the divisions that had characterized their actions over the

past few months, promising to respond to Berlusconi's "unified networks"

message with an even more powerful "unified piazzas" [unified squares]
message.

And so it was. Yesterday's four-hour general strike brought the
country's
schools, factories, offices, museums, post offices, trains, airplanes
and
public services to a complete halt. Participation rates varied somewhat
from
city to city and from workplace to workplace, but were in most cases
anywhere between 70 and 100 percent.

Although Italy is not new to large scale demonstrations, ranging in the
hundred of thousands or even the millions, the attendance to yesterday's

protests was well above what even the organizers had hoped for, sending
a
clear signal of the growing social discontent that has taken hold of the

country.

The real thermometer of the government's unpopularity was the city of
Milan,
Berlusconi's hometown and the stronghold of the country business
community
and fashion addicted, where about 200 thousand people converged in a
single
march to Piazza Duomo, making this the largest protest across the
country.

While Confindustria, the Italian industrialists' association, downplayed
the
importance of the strike, dubbing it half-hearted success and claiming
that
participation rates did not exceed 30 percent) unions and opposition
leaders
were quick to ride the wave of this unexpected result.

Responding to Roberto Maroni, the Minister of Welfare, who had spoken of
a
"part-time strike" until the day before yesterday, a prominent
representative of the moderate left-wing faction of the opposition
replied:
"It's not the workers' strike that's part-time; it's the government's
contract that is coming to an end", while union leaders warned
Berlusconi
that unless he withdraws his reform plan, a full-time strike might be
just
around the corner.

While Berlusconi has made known he intends to push ahead with the reform

regardless of any social and political opposition, his coalition
partners
appear to have been touched by the magnitude of the protest, stressing
the
need to resume dialogue with the civil society and the "parti sociali",
namely the unions.

Whether Berlusconi will pay heed to the recommendations of his coalition

partners and, most crucially, to the people he claims he represents, is
yet
to be seen. Yet he seems to "fail to heed the lessons of history", as a
very
harsh Financial Times commentary put it yesterday. "Ten years later it
is
d�j�vu : ill thought-out pension reform, a general strike and a
government
on the brink of dissolution. Only Italy's European Union presidency
prevents
its collapse".

Berlusconi's EU presidential term expires at the end of the year. Only
two
more months to go. If Italians keep organizing to keep the pressure up
on
their government, bringing the country to a halt over and over again,
maybe
history will indeed repeat itself.

-- -Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island
http://www.anaphoria.com
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