Last Friday, workers returned to fill the streets in Genoa, Florence, Rome and other cities in numbers not seen in years. This was the best response to the attack on workers by the Minister of Transport and the government: the strike is the fundamental weapon of wage - workers against capitalist exploitation and it is defended by utilizing it!

The success of the strike and demonstrations is also proof that workers are willing to fight when they feel it is for a goal that is important to them as workers. That is why workers should be called to a general strike, not for unrealistic and futile reforms of capitalism, but for precise and concrete goals: substantial wage increases, putting the worst paid categories and qualifications at the center; uniting different contacts in the same categories; massive hiring in public service sectors; abolition of contracting out (starting with the public sector); abolition of anti - strike laws.

Moreover, to be most effective, the strike must be truly general: including all categories, throughout the country and taking place on the same day. It should not be divided by sectors and territories and staggered over time. It must also last longer than a single day. In France, Germany, the United Kingdom, for example, workers in so - called essential services - including those in a sector as vital to the system of capitalist production as transportation - should strike for several consecutive days. In Italy, Laws 146 of 1990 (De Mita government) and 83 of 2000 (D’Alema government) prohibit strikes from lasting more than 24 hours, or even less, in some sectors. The CGIL, CISL and UIL invoked these laws to prevent the strengthening of rank - and - file unionism, and the CGIL has always defended them: the secretary of the CGIL even did so recently. These laws prevent a very large part of the working class from properly fighting and seriously weaken the general strike as a weapon. It is no coincidence that, thanks to these laws, precisely in 1990 the average real wage of the Italian worker began to fall!

The unwillingness of the CISL to participate in a general strike, for the third consecutive time in the last three years, confirms that unity between the CGIL, CISL and UIL against combative unionism is the mainstay of the collaborationist unions. The CGIL leadership has never questioned this anti - worker unity: Landini called those who wanted to do so at the time of the separate metalworkers’ contracts “crazy” and the one in Marchionne’s FCA, and signed the 2016 metalworkers’ contract, the worst in decades but “unitary” all the same! Nor will he question it now, despite the fact that the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) stands by the government and the minister attacking the freedom to strike!

In order to defeat collaborationist trade unionism - responsible for decades of backwardness and the very serious disrepute to which the trade union movement has been reduced among workers - we need to counter the trade union unity between CGIL CISL and UIL with the unitary action of combative unionism, as well as in the contested areas within CGIL with rank - and - file unionism.

Joint opposition to bills which would further endanger the freedom to strike, threatened by the President of the Guarantee Commission and Confindustria (Confederazione Generale dell’Industria Italiana), is a test of this necessary class unity. On Monday, November 27, the rank and file unions jointly proclaimed a national strike of bus and train drivers against this new attack on the freedom to strike. The Minister of Transport had already announced a new decree. The most militant elements in the CGIL must support this strike by committing themselves to the best outcome.

In all bodies of combative trade unionism - sections, currents, coordinations, trade union organizations, etc. - the most conscious workers must fight for them to prove themselves coherent and cohesive with the practical principle of unitary action in the trade union struggle, moving toward a United Trade Union Front from below as the basis for the rebirth of the Class Union that the working class desperately needs!

The strengthening of class unionism relates to the worsening of living conditions brought about by the crisis of the capitalist world economy, but the role of militants, currents, and union leaderships is certainly not a secondary component in this process. Decades of political and trade - union opportunism have prevented any unity of action among combative unions, in the rank and file unions as well as in the militant segments of the CGIL, delaying the rebirth of the class struggle union movement. Only a reborn class - union movement will be able to take on goals that will be increasingly necessary in the face of the precipitating crisis of capitalism, such as the general reduction of working hours for equal wages, full wages for unemployed workers and opposition to every militarist venture of the national bourgeoisies