On page 6 of the last TICP (no.63) we published the text of a leaflet entitled ‘Capitalism Needs War – only the revolutionary struggle of the working class can oppose it’ which our comrades in Italy distributed at demonstrations held on Saturday March 15 in Rome, in Piazza Barberini, and in Genoa, in Piazza de Ferrari. We are identifying the locations of these demonstrations because they were to counter other demonstrations, held elsewhere in both cities—and elsewhere in Italy—on the same day.

The main one, as we noted, took place in Rome in Piazza del Popolo, and the whole array of the bourgeois left adhered to it, supporting the European Union and, either explicitly or poorly disguised, supporting the rearmament plan which was launched a few days earlier by the EU political leadership.

Although the so-called European rearmament plan is still a declaration of intent and will face various obstacles on the road to its implementation, such as the contrast between the European and the global national capitalisms and, what is of interest to us, the opposition of the working class, it is nonetheless an extremely significant development, because it indicates that the European bourgeoisie has taken the plunge and is moving towards the open abandonment of the pacifist fiction, by launching a policy that openly recognizes the possibility of war and which, over time, will increasingly become preparation for it.

We are interested in the conduct of the workers’ organizations with regard to the demonstrations on Saturday 15 March, because only the working class will be able to prevent imperialist war, or stop it if it starts, as happened in 1917 in Russia and at the end of the following year with the collapse of the internal front in Germany, due to strikes and the mutiny in the fleet.

The CGIL

A clear sign of the historical importance of the announced European rearmament plan is what happened in the largest regime union in Italy, the CGIL. After initially hinting that it would join the demonstration in Piazza del Popolo and then procrastinating for a few days, the leadership finally decided to confirm its participation, making the decision at a meeting on March 7 and publicly announcing it on March 9.

This conduct provoked widespread internal opposition, and an energy not seen in the CGIL for years, not even during congresses. Opposing the decision were not only the two small minority groups – ’Le radici del sindacato’ (The Roots of the Union) and ’Le giornate di marzo’ (The March Days) – but also the “Work and Society” group, which is aligned with the majority, several factory unions, the Filt in Pisa and above all, the national secretariat of the Fiom Cgil (the metal-workers union), which issued an internal statement dissociating itself from the confederal leadership’s decision to join the pro-rearmament demonstration, and stating that it hadn’t helped to organize the union’s participation in it.

In Genoa, the provincial Fiom General Assembly unanimously approved a motion stating: “We consider the CGIL’s participation in the March 15 demonstration, which objectively supports the strengthening of Europe as a power (...) to be unacceptable. For us, it is necessary to reiterate, even more than before, the slogans inscribed on our banners when we went on strike 24 hours after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine: ’For the unity of all workers, against all wars of imperialism.’”

This internal opposition has given rise to two opposing interpretations of the situation within Italy’s largest regime union. One is that it shows that it is possible and necessary to fight within the CGIL in order to change its nature from that of a regime union to a class union.

Our party’s reading of the situation is opposed to that: the fact that, despite such weighty internal opposition, the CGIL leadership still wanted to participate in the Piazza del Popolo demonstration confirms that it must be obeying orders from higher up in the bourgeoisie, even at the cost of harming the union itself by deepening its divisions. With which we conclude that the union is no longer conquerable to a class leadership and is irreversibly part of the regime. Therefore, in Italy, the class union can only be reborn outside and against the regime unions (CGIL, CISL, UIL, UGL).

What supports our reading of the facts relating to this turning point in the trade union movement in Italy is the way in which the decision was taken. As written on March 11 in Progetto Lavoro, the magazine of the alternative wing of the CGIL, Le radici del sindacato (Trade Union Roots), this happened at a “meeting on Friday 7, in which the general secretaries of the categories and regions, together with the national secretariat, took this decision. A circle that was informal and statutorily non-existent”.

Perhaps the most interesting criticism that emerged from within the CGIL is that the leadership of Italy’s largest “social” organization, with its 5 million members, instead of promoting its own independent street initiative with its own content felt it had to tag along behind a deeply divisive demonstration promoted by others.

Landini disguised his subordination to the ruling class and its march to imperialist war by making fine distinctions between open support for the European rearmament project and what the demonstration’s promoters believe. Distinctions symbolized by the instruction to take to the streets with pacifist rainbow flags instead of the union’s banners.

Supported by most of the bourgeois press which had been preparing for it for weeks; by the parties of the ruling left; by the apparatus of the regime unions—since even the CISL and UIL joined in—not to mention being financed by the City of Rome, the demonstration in Piazza del Popolo was attended by roughly 30,000 people. The piazza chosen, much smaller than Piazza San Giovanni, the traditional destination for large trade union demonstrations, guaranteed that it would be filled, and the regime press could celebrate its success and pump up the propaganda for rearmament even more, with Repubblica declaring that there were 50,000 demonstrators. In any case, the rainbow flags of the CGIL would be drowned in the blue ones of the European Union.

Conflictual Trade Unionism

In response to the demonstration in Piazza del Popolo, demonstrations against rearmament and war were organized in Rome and other cities. The demonstration in Rome, which went from Piazza Barberini to Piazza Esquilino, was attended by 2,500 people. Considering that it was essentially a local demonstration organized in just a few days, the attendance was good. And even though it was promoted by associations and political groups, there was substantial participation by the USB, to a lesser extent by the CUB and the Confederazione Cobas, and also by the alternative wing of the CGIL, “Le radici del sindacato” (The Roots of the Union), with a banner and a group of militants and union leaders. This was the only faction, from among those within the CGIL opposed to participation in the pro-rearmament demonstration, which did not limit itself to denouncing it and which acted accordingly, taking to the streets alongside the grassroots unions.

One of the last times this happened was 13 years ago, on 22 June 2012, with the participation in the general strike of grassroots unionism and protests against Maurizio Landini, then general secretary of the FIOM, who that very day was attending the national assembly of Confindustria in Bergamo. In September, following on from this, the only representative of the minority wing was removed from the FIOM national secretariat. The CGIL leadership does not tolerate openings towards grassroots unionism.

Landini has a track record that earns him a place of honor among the “agents of the bourgeoisie within the proletariat”. Firstly he blocked a strong workers’ struggle against Marchionne’s plan at FIAT, squandering the strength that was demonstrably available in the large demonstration on October 16, 2010, with 100,000 workers on the march. Since then, the CGIL has not been remotely capable of bringing so many workers onto the streets. In this he was helped by the leaders of the internal left wing, who lent him credence and who from the stage of that demonstration applauded, along with him, the speech of the then CGIL general secretary Guglielmo Epifani. In doing so, Landini made a fundamental contribution to subduing the grassroots unionism in the FIAT factories—another great service rendered to the industrialists—which for more than 15 years had fought for and practised building a class-based union force within them.

With the left eliminated from the FIOM secretariat in 2012, Landini got to sign, in 2016, what is considered the metalworkers’ worst ever national collective contract, which involved the FIOM caving in and accepting the two separate and previously unsigned FIM and UILM contracts. For such great work he has been acknowledged, and rightly so, in his present role as general secretary of Italy’s largest regime union. Today, by joining the pro-rearmament demonstration, and modestly covering his shame with the rainbow flag, it cannot be said that he hasn’t showed that it is he who is responsible and grateful for it!

One of the leaders of the alternative wing of the CGIL “Le radici del sindacato” (The Union’s Roots) wrote that it is necessary to “develop a defeatist and anti-militarist mass movement”. This task can only be undertaken by the forces of militant unionism and only if they—grassroots unions and class-based union currents within the CGIL—act in a unified manner. The demonstration in Piazza Barberini was a small step in the right direction but to achieve this unity, union activists must fight against the opportunist leaders of militant unionism who oppose such an approach, namely, those in the grassroots unions which subordinate unity of action to competition with other unions, and those in the class currents within the CGIL which prioritize maintaining their roles or mere viability within the regime union.