LIhe following is a report on the development of the Italian political and social crisis given to the congress this month of the Gruppi dei Comunisti Rivoluzionari (GCR -- Revolutionary Communist Groups -- the Italian Section of the Fourth International). Livio Maitan is the national secretary of the GCR. The translation is by Intercontinental Press.]
for the broader political analysis, let me begin by repeating a passage from the outline for precongress discussion which summarized our evaluation of the situation as of the first days of December:
"The exceptional depth of the Italian crisis is therefore produced by the accumulation and combination of international tensions, by the profound decrepitude of the system in Italy together with the irruption of social tensions and conflicts at many levels, and the breakdown of the traditional bureaucratic restraints.
"In other words, we are facing a situation in which various lower social strata and groups are being driven by. overpowering pressures to break out of the old patterns, to overturn the old taboos, to break all restraints and move
'freely' in accordance with the logic of their most direct interests and most immediate aspirations. From this, the tendency arises for the spread of spontaneous mobilizations, inasmuch as no political force is in control of them, functioning as a general catalyst. In this lies the strength of the movement which is tending to broaden and deepen (consider for example both the ferment among the extension of the highworkers and the school students' movement in recent weeks).
"However, this spontaneous character also sets a limit to the movement. Because in the absence of a unifying and coordinating force capable of projecting an overall strategy and thus of proposing a way out through a decisive political conflict, all the driving forces remain disparate. Centrifugal forces tend to prevail. And at times of generalized struggle (general strikes in cities or regions, etc.), the various movements fall under sway of the bureaucratic apparatuses the and thus do not get beyond the level of protest or pressure."
In the two and one-half months that have passed since this draft document was drawn up, the situation has developed essentially along these lines. A whole series of pressures, tensions, and explosions have continued to develop on various leveis. However, this trend has not acquired a general political expression. The apparatuses of the traditional parties are unable to give this unrest a political expression because the solution they seek conflicts with the logic of the developing movements. On the other hand, the revolutionary left cannot give a comprehensive political form to the struggle because of its limited forces, its lack of coordination, and its fragmentation. In reality, if there has been no leap toward a prerevolutionary or revolutionary situation in Italy, it is principally owing to the absence of unifying political direction. To come to the more specific developments of recent weeks alongside the new waves of strikes student mobilizations, the tendencies in the bourgeoisie that we stressed in our January meeting have taken sharper form. The bourgeois leadership is continuing to founder in the midst of insoluble difficulties. In lact, it nas not emerged from the crisis into which it was precipitated last fall. However, the bloc of the ruling classes, to the extent that we can speak today of a ruling-class front, is working on two levels. It is developing both a reformist and a repressive alternative.
Our class enemies cannot permit the present situation to continue indefinitely. They cannot allow explosive material to continue to accumulate. They cannot let a situation develop where, to a greater or lesser degree, the battles around renewal of the NATO
pact and the struggles over new contracts in the major industries would interlock with all the other problems still unsettled. Therefore, the maneuver of the ruling classes is to defuse certain issues. They already tried to accomplish this with the agreement on pensions ana, partially, with the agreenent on job classifications for the state enterprises. And it is quite probable -- despite the indications in recent days -- that in the not too distant future, in any case before the big new contract disputes begin, an agreement will be reached on job classifications in private industry. Ihere is some room for concessions in this area. Above all, a compelling political necessity exists for the conservative classes to make these attempts. The pension agreement obviously has not solved the central problems. (It clearly could not incorporate the transitional demand for real workers management of the pension funds.) However, from a quantitative standpoint it involved not insignificant gains. Other examples of such attempts can be found at more local levels or in certain industries. We need only think of the Pirelli agreement and the Milan streetcar operators' agreement. Both of these agreements were considered quite positive, at least in some aspects, even by the rank-and-file committees. Both were evidently granted to prevent continuation of tense situations which were dangerous both for the employers and the tradeunion apparatuses.
We must indeed study the question of the room available for concessions from an economic standpoint but we must also, and above all, consider this question from the political point of view. On the purely economic level, there obviously are variables.
In general for concesperiod, the economic margin sions is not great. Ihis is true above all because of the ever more decisive importance of international competition. Significant concessions would inevitably endanger the government's whole economic oolicy. But from the political standpoint think the ruling class has no alternative but to give concessions. More specifically this means that, to the extent that it has been able to stay on its feet ana continue to stagger along, the preariously existing center-left government has managed to make certain economic concessions. ¡hese concessions at least reduce the explosiveness in some sectors of the working class and restore a certain authority to the unions. Ihis means, finally, that while in the abstract the margin for concessions is not great, extremely strong political pressure exists for exploiting the available margin to the fullest. The same pressure exists in the educational system, where the government intends to put forth considerable effort.
What results can these new reformist maneuvers produce? It is not certain, it is not entirely certain, that in a situation like the present one, concessions can demobilize or slow the movement. in the case of the students, who are a completely special political and social force and have attained a high level of consciousness, it is clear that all these reformist maneuvers have little chance of success -- at least insofar as the present tendencies continue. But, in a context of social conflicts and enormous political tension, achieving certain practical demands would not automatically produce a relaxation in working-class strata or a reabsorption of combativity. On the contrary, such a victory could spire the workers with more self-confidence, with a greater faith in the rewards of struggle, in the new methods of struggle that have developed. Thus, even considering that reformist-type maneuvers are unavoidable - at least as long as a center-left government exists -- these maneuvers are contained by the narrow limits of the present context.
There is, therefore, a second fundamental tendency which we have already occasion to speak of. Ihis tendency springs from an ever more widespread awareness in various sectors of the ruling class that it would be extremely dangerous, if not intolerable, for the disintegration that developed in the political contingents apparatuses in 1968 to continue six months or a year more. Calls for action compensate for the "default of the state" have become a frequent theme in the rightwing press. The incidents in Viareggio offered a good pretext for launching a campaign of this type. In recent days, there have been clearer and more concrete indications — for example, during the demonstration against Nixon in Rome -- that certain groups and forces, probably linked to sections of the police, intena to push a more aggressive policy or even provoke some grave incident in order to justify an escalation of repression. Next, we should consider the various attempts to use goon squads in many cities. Naples was the most sensational example. We should take account of demonstrations like those of certain parents in some Milan schools or like the so-called fathers' demonstration in Rome organized by the daily Il Tempo. The scope attained by this demonstration was by no means inconsiderable. Thus, there is a whole campaign of action
. to organize the right. But perhaps it is still excessive to speak of fascist-type movements. Old structures or instruments of a fascist type have of course been used, for the lack of anything better. However, in order to properly call a movement fascist, it would have to have the support at least of some petty-bourgeois sectors.
On the level of organizing goon quaas, nowever, certain advances have ›een achieved. And this is an important element to take into consideration. In this phase, the promoters of these tendencies do not propose to win political Leadersh a eat to venet a pessure deter- Leadership but to exercise pressures, to mined orientation to the repressive forces. The campaign to win a social base, especial- Ly among the petty bourgeoisie, is under way. This operation consists of appealing to those sectors which are hurt or at least seriously disturbed by the continuation of the present situation. It seeks to incite them to protest and rebellion at the lack of prospects for a solution to the crisis in progress. Ihis is shown already, in my opinion, in the changed attitude of certain sectors of the petty bourgeoisie toward the student movement. Ihe attitude of these sectors today is quite a bit less or six months lavorable than it was a year ago. Ihere are dangers here. Let us not forget that for almost a year the rightwing forces were unable to organize a single demonstration but today they can organize street demonstrations and confront the student movement.
In certain circumstances they can even use groups of students.
Unquestionably, the right may make mistakes.
It, for example, it chose to force a general test of strength today, it would probably be defeated, since the student movement may revive and the fighting potential of the working class is intact. But, obviously, we cannot base our outlook on the assumption that our enemy may fumble.
As for the much discussed possibility that a way out of the crisis may be sought by bringing the Communist party into the government, it seems to me that this would be difficult to achieve today. This is not to say that there are not elements in the bourgeoisie that favor this idea, and sections of the Communist party well disposed toward it. It is probable in fact that both the bourgeois and Communist forces favoring such a maneuver will grow stronger as the situation heats up. But the objective obstacles remain considerable. If the Communist leaders want to keep firm ties with the masses -- which in the last analysis is the basis of their strength -- they would have to win greater concessions than the bourgeoisie is able to make. The obstacle represented by the problem of the NATO pact would also have to be removed. And the bourgeoisie is less willing than ever to give any ground on this question. Moreover, it is clear that if the tendency toward stagnation or passivity of were the mass movement, the operation of bringing the CP into the government might be attempted or carried out. But, as we have seen, this is not the situation now and a development is not foreseeable in the immediate future.
Let me say a few words here on the balance sheet of the struggles in 1968, on which I think we all agree. What has occurred has been of enormous importance. And if our analyses are critical or qualified, there must be no mistake about one thing
- we start from the established fact of the enormous portent of the events of last year and the early months of 1969. In brief, the developments among workingclass social forces have produced broad changes in the panorama of Italian political life. They have reversed all the tendencies toward stagnation and passivtheories familiar to us Ithat is, theowhich were the basis of the ries writing off the workers as a revolutionary force -- I.P.l. The tendency for the bureaucratic leaderships to lose control is now a general trend and is a constant in the Italian situation. We have always been the ones who maintained that such a situation would inevitably develop at a certain point. It would be ridiculous for us today
-- perhaps as a result of the grave difficulties our movement has experienced in this period -- to close our eyes to this situation or try to minimize it now that it has appeared. The fact remains, however, that the tendencies involved have not assumed a generalized focus, or where this has occurred, the focus was again provided by the big bureaucratic apparatuses. Thus, while the logic which set these various forces in motion is the same, the forces have not been able to develop and achieve hegemony, except on the local level and in specific industries.
In regard to the student movement, I think we must reaffirm the basic analysis we developed in our March conference last year. Our conception is that the student movement is a political and social phenomenon produced by the specific reality of this phase in the history of the advanced capitalist countries. (We will discuss the character of the student movement in other parts of the world today in a later conference when we examine the documents for the world congress of the the fourth International.) In other words.
student struggle is not a narrowly political development caused by the maturing of vanguard nuclei, but a profound social phenomenon in countries that have attained a certain level of industrial and technological advancement. On the basis of this remise, we must assume that while the novement may have its ups and downs, ano even suffer severe defeats, it is destined to remain a constant factor. We must asthen, that it can revive impetuously sume, after falling to a low point. Ihis premise also implies that the student movement necessarily follows the logic of political movement, that it develops in accordance with its own fundamental dynamic. This dynamic may be parallel or convergent with that of the workers movement, depending on the circumstances, but nonetheless it represents a logic peculiar to a mass movement.
Here we must introduce a distinction, if we want to avoid repeated confusion. Functioning as a mass movement having its own dynamic, the student movement critically disrupts the equilibrium of the system, thus aiding the struggle of the working class through action convergent with it. Ihe student vanguard groups, however, are another matter. These groups, arriving at an overall vanguard view of the struggle against capitalism, participate with workers' groups, or with political groups more generally, in specific actions aimed at the factories. They consider this an essential task. For a movement like ours in the present phase, this work is in fact a fundamental task. But it would be an error in basic assessment to maintain that the student movement as such must center its activity around groups intervening in the working class. This would be too restricted a view of the student movement - if, in fact, such a concept were not simply the product of a conviction that the mass student movement had run out of steam and that there was nothing else to do for student revolutionists who wanted to continue to struggle. Such a tendency was, perhaps, predominant in Rome until the most recent days when it was seen that the movement could again develop its potential -- if on a more limited scale.
Actually here we run up against the essential contradiction of the student movement. It cannot develop and achieve its goal of completely changing the overall university and scholastic structures without exceeding the bounds of capitalist society. But the students cannot break out of these limitations without a general social crisis that would overturn the system as a whole. Thus the movement develops, mounts, but then runs into the obstacle represented by the fact that it is not paralleled by an overal revolutionary crisis. so it halts, begins to retreat, and seeks other
If we fail to understand this logic, we will not understand the real drama of the student movement -- which rather may look like a farce insofar as it is reflected in the attitudes of individual personalities, whose limitations and distortions are only too apparent.
Therefore, we must clearly distinguish the two levels I have indicated. We must stress that the student movement has to be conceived fundamentally as a mass movement, as the expression of objective social contradictions. And we must furthermore realize that if worker fractions can carry on factory activity in a radically different atmosphere today, it is because of the appearance of the mass student movement, which has mobilized tens of thousands of university and highschool students in the streets of Italy. It is because of this movement, which has clashed with repression and drawn the hostility of the ruling class.
All this means that we must not only uphold the idea of a mass student movement but also fight to get the student movement organized as a political movement and on a national scale. The arguments we heard at the Central Committee meeting in October - that we should not try to build a national organization be-
Leading cause, in the given situation, groups with an incorrect line (they spoke more specifically about Turin) would probably be dominant in it -- were absurd. sectarian, and shortsightedly tactical arguments. They revealed a lack of confidence in the dynamic of the movement. If you have confidence in this dynamic, you will understand that this movement which has had such a great impact even in the form, primarily, of spontaneous ex-
"random" character and plosions of a limited duration -- would have an incomparably greater impact if it moved as a cohesive and organized force, no matter what leaderships arose temporarily. Moreover, many international experiences fully confirm this need for organization both positively and negatively. The first of these is the experience of the French May when, despite its substantial weakness and contradictory character, UNEF
[Union Nationale des Etudiants Français -- National Union of French Students] was able to act as a catalyst at critical moments.
As for the objectives of the student movement, we should stress that while this movement has an anticapitalist logic, it nonetheless faces certain dangers. The student movement has an anticapitalist logic because, except in an overali revolutionary context, it cannot solve the fundamental problems of the universities and the educational system in general, which are linked to the underlying problems of the society as a whole. The dangers confronting the movement are juxtaposed -- ending up in petty reformism or falling into verbal revolutionism pure and simple, into a stultifying repetition that all problems can be solved only with the overthrow of capitalism. We do not deny in the least that it is also necessary to develop general propaganda aimed at layers of the student movement, but the problem is to find the proper guidelines for the mass movement as such. On this level, the only possible slogans are transitional ones. In Italy, this approach is expressed primarily in the formula of "student power" -- used with certain meanings. In other countries, the formula used is that of "the red university." Used in France and elsewhere, this slogan has also begun to circulate more recently in Italy as well. It means that in view of the political development of broad layers of students, the universities and all the schools can become fortresses of the revolutionary movement and the anticapitalist movement in general. It means that all educational institutions can become positions of strength which must be fully exploited in the present well. In other words, these situation as positions must constitute conquests for the movement as such. This would be similar to what happened in certain phases of the history of the workers movement when conquests of permanent value were won about the in orative teressed be id the degenerative processes they have that is, undergone. In the worst variant, in case major social conflict fails to these conquests will mean the creemerge, ation of valuable positions of strength for the overall anticapitalist movement. In the most favorable variant, if the sitvation matures, centers of dual power will begin to develop.
This must be the basic line. No other is objectively possible. Obviously this is no panacea. Every conquest will have to be continually reinforced and renewed. On the other hand, we must fight against conceptions that underestimate or outrightly reject limited demands and objectives. Movements acquire confidence, develop, and consolidate precisely on the basis of the results they obtain. One of the reasons that the student movement has taken a downturn, leading it from the mobilization of tens of thousands of people to activating groups of a few hundred persons in various centers, must be sought in the movement's incapacity to assume a basic line like the one I described and, similarly, in its constant vacillation between a correct propaganda line, but correct only in the abstract, and narrow reformism in practice. Let me add that, in the day-to-day situation, given the specific characteristics of the student movement, the danger that limited gains may serve to emasculate the movement or reintegrate it is extremely small. The greater danger, on the other hand, is that the student movement will degenerate into maximalist agitation, that it will come alive only on certain special occasions and through taking tactical advantage of the enemy's mistakes during repressions.
All this helps us also to understand many developments in sections of the working class, developments that in the last analysis are at the root of certain profound crises that all the vanguard movements experienced over the past year. Io characterize the main tendencies in the politicalized mass student movement, we must say that there is no doubt that ultraleft tendencies, in the Leninist sense of the word, have predominated. The roots of these tendencies are easily identifiable. Ihe social nature of the student movement inevitably produces such currents, which a conscious political leadership must combat.
The fundamental criticism we make of certain comrades who have left our organization is certainly not that they involved themselves deeply in the student movement - such a criticism would be ab-
Yasuda Hall at Tokyo University, where students fought off police for two days before being overwhelmed last January 19, is still closed. Barricades that were first set up more than a year ago are still in place. Despite the police occupation, three out of ten of the university's faculties are still on strike. Entrance examinations for the year have been canceled by the government.
Meanwhile, the tactics of the consurd on the face of it. Our criticism is that they completely submerged themselves in the movement, that they capitulated politically to the tendencies predominating Irom time to time, and thus acted without a line and without a clearly defined perspective.
Ultraleft tendencies will be a constant factor in the period we find ourselves in. We are living in an objectively revolutionary phase. Enormous explosive forces are at work and ever broader strata realize the necessity of overthrowing capitalist society. ‹But on the other nana, great bureaucratic apparatuses exist which will serve as powerful brakes. In such a situation, it is natuthe path of ral for some forces to take ultraleftism. Another historical period in which the phenomenon of ultraleftism appeared, although on a smaller scale than today, was the period immediately the first world war. There following were great revolutionary opportunities in Europe and the Social Democratic parties played the same stabilizing role that today not only the Social Democratic but also the Communist parties play. At that time, the Communist parties themselves were attacked by waves of extremism. It was at that time precisely that Lenin wrote "Left-Wing" Communism, An Infantile Disorder, which may be recommended for rereading. Far from being outmoded, its arguments have an acute timeliness. For example, the polemics against the unions come to mind. Today, too, people are dismissing the unions on basis of wholly subjectivist criteria, the without considering whether or not they objectively represent an indispensable function in the workers movement. The result is that there is an abundance of literature filled with absurd formulations, which, far from harming the apparatuses, benefit them. Moreover, anyone with experience in fraction work knows how often the most ultraleft groups indulge in the narrowest trade unionism when they are confronted with the reality in the factories.
[To be continued.]
tinuing struggle are being fought out among the student organizations. Minsei, the group led by the Japan Communist party, "is calling for full-scale resumption of classes, " according to the March 15-17 Christian Science Monitor. "The Minsei's hated rivals," the Monitor correspondent added,. the Sampa Rengo correspondent added, " -- the extreme Marxists who belong
: to the Sampa Rengo
(three-factions) group -- insist upon a longer student strike until the university bows to every student demand."
BARRICADES STILL UP AT TOKYO UNIVERSITY BARRICADES STILL UP AT TOKYO UNIVERSITY
NEW FACTS UNCOVERED IN MONDIANE ASSASSINATION
The bomb that killed Dr. Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane, the president of FRE- LIMO [Frente de Libertação de Moçambique -- Mozambique Liberation Front], was sent
"European country 14.
in a package from a was reported in Dar es Salaam March 14. The daily Standard in the Tanzanian capital city summarized a report pubthe FRELIMO bulletin lished March 13 in Mozambique Revolution which described the circumstances of Mondlane's death.
According to this report, Mondlane received the bomb, disguised as a book, in his mail at the FRELIMO office on Nkrumah Street. He picked up the package at 10 a.m. on February 3 and went to the
Seven members of the Albanian ethnic minority were sentenced to prison terms of three to six years March 22 in Skoplje, the capital city of the Yugoslav republic of Macedonia. According to reports in Belgrade, the defendants were accused of "maliciously inciting national
Msasani beach house of Miss Betty King, a director of the Tanzania Gem Exporting Company. There, he opened the package and the bomb exploded, killing him.
The Standard said that the FRELIMO bulletin disclosed that an attempt was also made on the life of Dr. Marcelino Dos Santos, a member of the political department and the Central Committee of FRELIMO.
A few days after Mondlane's death, Dos Santos received a book mailed from Europe. He sent the package to the Tanzanian Criminal Investigation Department, whose operatives found and defused a bomb contained in the book.
hatred and intolerance among the people."
About a million ethnic Albanians re included in the Macedonian 1eanbais he Macedonian republic, which borders Albania. Unlike other nationalities in Yugoslavia, the Albanians have no autonomous republic of their own.
Page
In this issue
PHOTO: March 9 Demonstration in Brussels Against the Vietnam War and NATO
Against the Vietnam War and NAT
Pressure Mounts for the U.S. to Get Out of Vietnam
People's Tribunals Set Up in East Pakistan -- by Les Evans
DRAWING: Ayub Khan
More Prison Terms Decreed for Opponents of Greek Junta
The "Rendezvous of March" in Paris -- by Jean Ravel
Students in Tanzania Demand Expulsion of American Lecturers
Text of Grigorenko-Yakhimovich Appeal on Czechoslovakia
Students Seize Government Buildings in Rural Colombia
Ioward a New Confrontation in France
Greek Resistance Leader Denied Permission to speak in U.s.
Territories
Israeli Socialists Demand Withdrawal from Occupied
DRAWING: Moshe Dayan
Paul Boutelle Wages Socialist Campaign in New York
PHOTO: Paul Boutelle
Jesús Lara's Resignation from the Bolivian Communist Party
New Unrest in Spanish Universities
Barricades Still Up at Iokyo University
New Facts Uncovered in Mondlane Assassination
Yugoslav Court Sentences Seven for "Inciting National Hatred" Document:
The Political Situation in Italy -- by Livio Maitan
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