(The following article was orginally published in the September 13 issue of the Belgian revolutionary-socialist weekly La Gauche. The translation is by Intercontinental Press.]
The situation in Italy after the formation of Mariano Rumor's second government can be summed up as follows: Up until the beginning of July, Italy had a government in crisis; since the beginning of July, it has had a crisis of government. A government has been found for the country, but the governmental crisis has not abated. The new all-Christian Democrat cabinet formed by Rumor was in fact presented as a transitional regime.
Although all the ministers belong to the this cabinet same party, must govern in the spirit of the old center-left coalition (which included Socialists, Christian Democrats, and
Republicans) until the situation is "clarified" in the fall. Only then will it be possible-at least so the Socialists of the PSI (Partito Socialista Italianothe Italian Socialist party led by Pietro Nenni] and the majority of Christian Democrats hope-to begin working out a new center-left formula.
The leaders of the old PSI have pledged their support to a one-party cabinet. They decided that their parliamentary group would vote for the government. Elsewhere in this resolution they assigned "an essential role to the PSI and the Christian Democracy for 906
El Frontón Prison, August 20.
RUMOR: "It's only the beginning ..."
a policy of democratic renewal." Thus, they confirmed that they intend to form a new center-left coalition as rapidly as possible. The first part of the resolution (a vote of confidence for the Rumor government) was fought, however, by the "left wing" of the PSI led by Lombardi.
All of this failed to resolve the crisis in the least. It only brought the crisis into a new phase.
Rumor talks about "continuing" the center-left policy, when it is precisely the continuation of this policy that is being challenged within the ranks of the old majority itself (right-wing split-
In my opinion, the answer is this: the formation of this government is a stopgap effort by the bourgeoisie to fill the power vacuum produced by the continual rise of revolutionary tensions in the country.
The solution furtively eyed by a section of the bourgeoisie and part of the PSI-to incorporate the Communist party little by little into governmental circles, starting at the local and provincial levels — seems in fact premature and was blocked by vehement resistance in the ranks of the majority itself.
Another alternative would have been to swing to the right in search of an authoritarian solution. A military coup was prepared in 1964 (the SIFAR scandal) and there is again talk of such a possibility (the army high command has reacted violently to allusions to preparations of this sort, denying the allegations and terming them "slander"). Such a solution seems difficult to impose in a country where the working class is highly combative and where the CP and the unions are very powerful. But this eventuality cannot be entirely excluded.
There was, moreover, another authoritarian solution besides the military one-staging elections in a climate of carefully prepared panic, enabling energetic rightist figures to step forward as "saviors" of the country.
But this possibility likewise had to be rejected, since the conditions for such an operation are not yet ripe. First, the United Socialist party must consolidate its organization, and the rightwing of the Christian
Democracy must strengthen its positions within the ranks of its own party.
This was it, so far as possible temporary solutions went.
Both in the period following the fall of the first Rumor government and during the formation of the second, the Communist party was conspicuously quiet. L'Unità, the party daily, centered its attacks mainly on the anti-Communism of the right-wing United Socialist party. This orientation can naturally be interpreted as indicating a favorable inclination toward the development of a broadly "democratic" government. At best, it can be interpreted as the expression of profound embarrassment.
In a notable article in the last issue of the factional organ of the CP left wing, Il Manifesto, * Lucio Magri, one of the leaders of this faction, wrote that the Italian workers movement stood at a crossroads. The question was whether the left wing should prepare for a test of strength on the order of the French May revolution, but in a coordinated way this time, or should regard a head-on confrontation as an adventure and do everything possibleto avert it.
Magri wrote, for the opportunistic leaders of his own party, that "the very idea of a crisis more readily evokes the fear of fascism than the possibility of revolution."
It is a long time since the European workers movement faced such a dilemma. How it is resolved will depend primarily on the ability of the revolutionary left currents to organize themselves for the confrontations that are inevitable during the fall.
The "lightning strike" at the FIAT factory in Turin and the riots in Caserta gave an early kickoff to the hot autumn to be expected in Italy.
The explosion in Caserta came in the wake of the events in Battipaglia and Turin. Touched off by a minor incident, the relegation of a local soccer club to a lower division, the eruption in Caserta had an unusual aspect to it. Hundreds of "tifosi" (sports fans] demonstrated to shouts of "Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh!" using molotov cocktails instead of their traditional noisemakers.
The lightning strike of 800 workers in shops 32 and 33 in the FIAT-Mirafiori plant was touched off last week by the management's laying off 2,500 workers whose jobs were eliminated by technological advances.
While the Turin conflict died down temporarily at the beginning of the week, the slowdown strike at the Pirelli factories in Milan is continuing and the workers in the Montedison factories, who have been on strike since July 22,
* Lucio
Magri. "Crisis, Movement, Alternative," Il Manifesto, Nos. 2-3 (July- August 1969). A few months ago, Magri published a notable book - Reflections on the May Events.
have occupied the city hall in Orbetello, near Crosseto.
New contract negotiations in the metals industry, affecting more than 1,300,000 workers, opened this Monday [September 8]. The old contract expires December 31. Contrary to the usual practice, strikes will not be suspended for the period of negotiations. Moreover, to enable the rank and file to play a role in the negotiations, united plant committees will be formed.
This development demonstrates the big trade-union federations' recognition of the combativity of a workers movement which, struggling to break out of the shackles of bureaucratic domination, found its own formulas of independent organization in rank-and-file committees.
For several months the Italian political scene has been haunted by a daily accumulating potential for social explosions. Facing the hot fall looming up, the bourgeoisie is condemned to holding to a wait-and-see position. It found a temporary expedient in the all-Christian Democrat Rumor government.
However, more than ever the bourgeoisie's ability to mend its fences will depend on the revolutionary strategy of the opposing side.
It is illusory to think that a solution to the crisis can be found in progressively, "peacefully," shifting the "centerleft" all the way over to the left. The center-left was introduced in 1962 in an attempt to rationalize the Italian capitalist system and find a new equilibrium.
The urgent social and political problems of today and the resulting crisis of the system indicate that the phase that opened in 1962 with the center-left experiment has irremediably come to a close.
Pesticide Bloom on the Grape
At a hearing conducted in Washington September 29 by the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Migratory Labor, Cesar Chavez, the forty-two-year-old director of the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee, said that own-
CESAR CHAVEZ
ers of vineyards in California were using pesticides in increasing quantities.
Thousands of workers, mostly Mexican-Americans, were becoming ill, he said, after breathing and touching the
California's ultrareactionary rich farmers have refused to discuss the issue with union leaders.
"They see this as an extension of the collective bargaining process, which they are not prepared to accept."
The union submitted a laboratory report on a sample of grapes taken from a
Washington chain grocery store which showed residues of aldrin 180 times above the "acceptable" level of human tolerance.
On September 30, Anthony A. Bianco Jr., of Fresno, California, told the Senate subcommittee he did not know how the poison could have gotten on the grapes bearing his label.
"The aldrin scare is no more than another effort to whip me into submission," he said.
In its difficult battle to act as bargaining agent for the field workers, the union has called for a nationwide boycott of California grapes.
Consumers have responded well in many cities. They will no doubt appreciate the tip-off on pesticide contamination.