[The following interview appeared in the January 31 issue of the French Trotskyist newsweekly Rouge.]
The events of the last few months in Italy-such as the referendum on divorce; the increase in unemployment, particularly the partial unemployment of tens of thousands of auto workers; the "restoration of order" in the schools; the civil-disobedience movement against increases in fees for social services-have demonstrated a clear political evolution on the part of the main far-left groups in Italy, above all Lotta Continua [The Struggle Continues] and the PD UP-Manifesto. 1 Weinterviewed Comrade Edgardo Pellegrini about these developments. He is a member of the Political Bureau of the Gruppi Comunisti Rivoluzionari [Revolutionary Communist Groups], the Italian section of the Fourth International.
Question. What is the situation in the Italian far left six years after the "hot autumn"?
Answer. There are three main groups today, each of which has its own national daily newspaper and several thousand members. Lotta Continua, the largest of the groups, has its main strength among the least skilled workers, which they portray as the "vector of the revolution." The PDUP has a number of trade union dele gates, and even an occasional union cadre of national stature. Avanguardia Operaia [Workers Vanguard] has its main strength in the Milan area, where it has a strong influence in a certain number of unions. These three groups have made a clear turn toward tail-ending the union bureaucracy. This is all the more serious now that the PCI2 and the Christian Democrats are launching a campaign to denounce their militants, particularly in the CISL3 (the Christian trade union).
1. Partito d'Unita Proletaria —Party of Proletarian Unity.
Q. What is left of the Maoist current
A There are only two groups that strictly speaking could still be called "Maoist": the PCIML, 4 which made a "third-period" turn and is branching out into terrorist activities, and Avanguardia Comunista [Communist Vanguard], which despite its Mao-Stalinist positions has a relatively correct analysis of the present crisis.
And then there is Autonomia Operaia (Workers Autonomy ), a phenomenon that is worth analyzing. It is made up of rankand-file groups with no national coordination and has around it many vanguard worker-militants we can work with. Autonomia Operaia is actually the result of the breakup of Potere Operaio (Workers Power) plus a left-wing split-off from Lotta Continua.
I should also mention the rise of militarist groups, the best-known of which are the Red Brigades and the Armed Political Nucleus.
Q. How has the far left responded to the situation at Fiat
A We believed, in contrast to other groups, that the crisis was not only structural but also conjunctural, and that therefore the big companies would also be hit by unemployment. So we were not surprised to see what happened at Fiat and Alfa-Romeo. What should be pointed out is that the situation varies a good deal, depending on the plant. Some have completely laid off their work force, others continue production, sometimes even with overtime. This poses a problem for uniting all workers in struggle. The call for a reduction of the workweek, for a slower pace on the assembly line, and for a re fusal to work overtime should therefore be put forward under this perspective.
Because of their analysis of the crisis, which led them to believe that the smalland medium-sized companies would be hardest hit, and because of their tail-ending of the union bureaucracy, the other groups have not yet been able to put forward very effective demands.
Nonetheless, at Alfa-Romeo an amendment on the question of demands against layoffs put forward by the trade-union "left wing" won 40 percent of the vote at a union congress.
Q. What is the GCR doing to bring together the broadest sectors of the workers vanguard in the struggle for jobs?
A. We do not think it is enough to merely denounce the mistaken ideas of Lotta Continua or il Manifesto. On the contrary, we are trying to push the centrist groups toward correct axes of struggle around the sliding scale of wages and the reduction of the workweek. We can reach agreement on specific points with these groups. An important gain was made at Alfa-Romeo, for example. The second sort of agreements possible today are those around the question of tradeunion democracy. Bureaucratic repression has really run wild against anything with a "leftist" tinge.
These agreements can provide the basis for a trade-union tendency. But this cannot be either a formation of far-left militants or something indistinguishable from the so-called trade-union left wing, a "leftwing" that is really no different from the bureaucratic apparatus. At the CGIL5 trade-union congress of university professors, for example, there was a possibility of forming a revolutionary tendency. However, Lotta Continua, Avanguardia Operaia, and the PD UP made rightist concessions on demands, which enabled them to gain access to the leadership. What we are trying to build at the moment are strategically determined regroupments around clear bases, the embryos of a
Had Applied for Emigration to future revolutionary tendency that is not just the sum total of centrist currents tailending the bureaucracy.
U.S.
Notes
2. Partito Comunista Italiano- Italian Communist party.
3. Confederazione Italiana Sindicati Liberi- Italian Confederation of Free Trade Unions.
4. Partito Comunista d'Italia Marxista- Leninista - Italian Communist party Marxist-Leninist.
5. Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro- General Confederation of Labor.