ITALY'S "CENTER-LEFT" CABINET BREAKS DOWN
After six months and ten days in office, Premier Aldo Morots "center-left" coalition government resigned June 26: ‘following a defeat in parliament over a secondary question -~ state financial. aid for Roman Catholic schools, That the government- should be forced out over such a matter appeared to some observers to be due to a pure "misunderstanding." In reality, it is symptomatic of the deep contradictions lodged from the beginning in this coalition and of the fundamental impasse in which bourgeois democratic parliamentarism finds itself in Italy.
The "center-left" coalition between the Christian Democrats, the Nenni Socialist party. and two small parties of Social Democratic and Republican stripe, was ballyhooed as a great historic event, representing a joint venture between monopoly capital and the labor’ bureaucracy aimed at (1) "modernizing" and "rationalizing" the functioning of monopoly capitalism, the better to meet stiffening competition within the Common Market, and (2) breaking the influence of the Communist party over the majority of the working class through social reforms coupled with long-term economic expansion, It was hoped that this. would weaken, perhaps even split, the CP-led sectors of the trade~union movement,
The project back-fired,. This was due to several factors,
First of all, opposition to forming a "center-left" coali-~ tion was high among conservative bourgeois circles, This led to delay in putting it together and to incapacity to give it an attrac tive appearance before the working class even from the point of. view of pure demagogy.
Secondly, its ultimate formation coincided with a turnin the economic situation in Italy -- the end of. the period of rapid ex~ pension, the outbreak of large-scale inflation, and the beginning of a reduction of private investment coupled with lay-offs in big factories, Financial and economic tension was heightened by the beginning of a flight of capital. [See World Outlook April 10. ]
Due to this specific situation, the Moro cabinet, virtually from its inception, was torn between two conflicting courses -- to go ahead with the long-range "structural" reform program advocated by the Nenni Socialist party (especially budget minister, Giolitti), and to alleviate the immediate financial and economic difficulties of canitalisim by imposing 2 wage freeze on the working class as projected by the Christian Democrats,
Thirdly, the formation of the Moro government coincided with an incipient offensive of the capitalist class against the labor movement instead of a period of considerable concessions, The clear capitalist attitude weakened the right-wing tendencies in the Italian labor movement, and tended to arouse the combativity of the working
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class and to induce a strong polarization of left-wing forces,
One of the immediate consequences was a split in the Nenni Socialist party when it entered the government. [See World Outlook January 24, ] Another effect was-a gain in votes for the Communist party in local elections after the coalition came into. being, and increased difficulties for the right-wing leadership of the .:- Communist party in putting,a brake on working-class struggles, Strike after strike has flared up as the workers seek wage inoreases to keep up with the steady rise in-the cost of living. As a matter of fact, a strike in the printing plants made it difficult to in-. form the public in detail about the downfall of the Moro government,
Thus the government crisis. is clearly an expression of the contradictions which constituted “the underpinning of the "oenterleft" government from the beginning. Since -a coalition government of this type is a necessity for the capitalist politicians, given the present composition of parliament, the crisis is at the same time an expression of the impasse into which Italy!s whole postwar, bourgeois~democratic, parliamentary system has landed -- at a time when the needs of the capitalist economy are sharply antagonistic to the existence of a strong, militant labor movement,
Intensive efforts are being made to patch up the coalition, The only alternative to this within the framework of parliamentary legality is a minority Christian Democratic cabinet (like the one headed by Amintore Fanfani before the Moro-eabinet came in), It would be dependent on support from the Nenni Socialists and an occasional helping hand from members of parliament farther to the. right. This solution, however, is unpalatable to the allies of the . Christian Democrats, If they remain obdurate, dissolution of parliament would become inevitable, However, most bourgeois circles fear an early eleotion since. it could register even greater political polarization in the country, with significant gains for the Commun= ist party on the one hand and the. Liberal party (the strongest rightwing formation) on the other,.
It is significant that for the first time in many years, certain Italian capitalist circles are toying with the idea of a coup dtétat carried out by the carabinieri or the navy and air foroes, This was reported in. the Paris daily Le Figaro [ June 29], a paper that is generally well informed on moods in bourgeois circles.
The: thought of a coup d'état, remote as it may appear, re~ flects growing awareness of the blind alley in which bourgeois democracy stands in Italy as a result of.the balance of class forces, It gives added weight to the analysis and program of action adopted at the recent session of the Central Committee: of the Gruppi Comunisti Rivoluzionari, the Italian section of the Fourth International.
The Italian Trotskyists call on the workers not to limit themselves to merely defending trade-union rights and opposing
attempts to freeze wages but to consider the deepening social and political crisis maturing in the country.
They call on the workers to defend the idea of a socialist Italy, of putting in power a workers and peasants government somposed of representatives of all working-class parties and committed to transcending the limits of capitalism,
In the absence of such a bold approach by the working class, say the Italian Trotskyists, there will be mounting danger that the capitalists themselves will start working for an extra-parliamentary solution of the crisis in a "gaullist" sense.
A "solution" along those lines would require as a preoondi-~— tion the serious defeat and demoralization of the working class, Since this is not now the situation, any attempt by the bourgeoisie at a-ooup dtétat would seem highly premature, for it could provoke an immense reaction among the ftalian proletariat.