On the night of Wednesday 14 September, in Italy, a worker employed in the GLS depot in Piacenza was knocked down and killed by a lorry while on a picket organized by his union, the USB.

Considering the weakness of the labour and trade union movement at the moment, the reaction provoked by the tragedy was a positive one.

Strikes were called not only in the GLS warehouses and in other firms in the logistics sector, but also in some engineering works, even if only for a few hours.

The most important aspect is that the SI Cobas, by far the biggest rank-and-file union in logistics, and the ADL Cobas acted jointly with the USB both in certain strike actions, such as at GLS Riano (Rome), and in the local demonstrations in Bologna, Pavia and Milan, as well as the national demo, which was organized in just three days and was where we distributed the leaflet, published below.

A grievous omission, on the other hand, was the absence from the national demonstration of the CUB and the Confederazione Cobas.

It should be made clear that the united action between SI Cobas and USB resulted from circumstances and was not prompted by a definite agreement between the leaders of the two unions. On the contrary – and its not that surprising given its past conduct – it appears the leadership of the USB didn’t really want any part of it.

However the latter certainly couldn’t oppose it and it had to grin and bear it, not wanting to appear hostile to workers’ unity of action precisely at a time when its necessity had been highlighted in such a dramatic way.

The decision of the SI Cobas to take part in the demonstrations organized by the USB, which meant it had to overcome the contrariness of the USB leadership, and rise above earlier disagreements between the two unions over fundamental points regarding the SDA dispute in Bologna, and then at the GLS at Piacenza, takes on, therefore, a still greater value. It was certainly a calculated decision, conscious that it tallied with organizational objectives, and also, we believe, spurred on by a sincere faith in the importance of the working class acting together. Both commendable qualities.

The unitary action resulted on September 22 in the joint signing by SI Cobas, ADL Cobas and USB of an agreement at the GLS depot in Piacenza. This agreement fully met the demands for which the USB had organized the picket: the permanent employment of temporary workers.

This important event – which has seen the death of a striker in Italy for the first time in many decades – confirms the correctness of our line on worker’s unity of action, discussed here in relation to last year’s struggle in Italy at IKEA, and shows how the natural course of the class struggle is heading in that direction, through creating better conditions in which to defeat opportunism in the rank-and-file trade unions and in which to empty those which are inextricably linked to the regime.

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Last night, during a strike called by the USB Base Union at the GLS Parcels warehouse in Piacenza, a worker who was participating in the picket line was run over and killed by a truck driver who, encouraged by the company, tried to break through the blockade.

Despite the bourgeois press being very careful not to talk about it, similar incidents have occurred a hundred times in a strike filled logistics industry over the last six years. Until today there had been no deaths. This murder shows the tough conditions and struggle in this industry and in others where there have been similar incidents, such as in the meatpacking industry and farm workers.

The strike at GLS is for permanent employment for 13 workers employed under fixed-term contracts. The worker killed had already been hired permanently in 2003, so he was there fighting not only for himself but for his other comrades in worse conditions. He struggled against insecurity for the whole working class, and immigrants to Italy. He, an Egyptian, was father of 5 children.

He was fighting for the whole working class, and who actually killed him was not just the scab, it was the entire bourgeois class, which seeks to break the labor movement that has grown in the logistics sector so it doesn’t spread to the rest of the working class.

It is the entire bourgeoisie - industrial, finance, the repressive machinery of the state and its puppets sitting in government - who want the laws which have increasingly worsened the living conditions of workers. It is the irreversible, historic economic crisis of capitalism, not only Italian but the world, which requires, for the defense of profits, a steady increase in exploitation and repression against the workers.

Workers must learn this lesson. Parties who claim a peaceful and dignified life is possible in capitalism for the working class, parties who preach class collaboration with business and with the State, in the interest of a non-existent common good they call "national economy", these parties disarm the workers in the struggle against the ruling class, which today drives them into poverty and tomorrow will push them to the slaughter in a new world war, which is growing closer day by day. This is in fact the only way that the capitalist system to exit the crisis of overproduction: destroy an excess of goods, including commodity labor power, then re-launch a new insane cycle of accumulation, as happened after World War II.

The class struggle is inevitable and must be fought. It is necessary to oppose the force of the employers with the great strength of united workers. For this the working class needs a basic tool that is lacking today: the class trade union.

CGIL, CISL and UIL are regime unions for the capitalists, organizations which better tie the working class to the blows of the ruling class. Since the second half of the seventies, grassroot Base Unions (Cobas) were created outside and against the regime unions and represent a first step towards a real class union.

But after forty years, this goal has not yet been reached. Division and competition has taken place between the different acronyms because of opportunism by the political leaderships of the Cobas. As well as the enemy class’ sabotage via the regime unions.

Today the sacrifice of this our class brother should not be in vain but is a reminder of the need for a joint response of the base unions to the master class’ aggression!

The unity in action of all workers, both framed in the base unions and mobilized by the regime unions, it is the best weapon to expose the role of the CGIL-CISL-UIL and for maturing the birth of the class union.

But the union can only put a brake to exploitation. Industrial action is a necessary excercise but class struggle can only win in its decisive field, which is the political. For this we need the revolutionary Communist Party, armed with the necessary theory, the program, and historical experience. Only by seizing power can the international working class destroy capitalism, eliminate exploitation and stop war.