Italy: No to Rearmament, Corporatism, and the Fascistization of the State!
Participation in the demonstration in Rome against the “DDL on Security” by a group of young people from Per la Democrazia Popolare. One thousand leaflet were distributed. Below is the text.
We hereby share an unofficial translation of a leaflet published by Per la Democrazia Popolare.
NO TO REARMAMENT, CORPORATISM, AND THE FASCISTIZATION OF THE STATE THROUGH THE SECURITY BILL 1660, THE LAW ON TRADE UNION REPRESENTATION, AND THE JUNE REFERENDUM!
LET’S OPPOSE THE FARCE OF THE “WIDE FIELD” AND THE OPPORTUNIST FORCES!
The increasingly deepening contradiction between imperialist countries and oppressed peoples, as well as the final crisis of imperialism, accentuates at all levels the tendency towards inter-imperialist war, the aggressions of various powers (the U.S., European countries, and Russia) against Ukraine, and the genocide of the Palestinian people by Zionist Nazism. In this context, European imperialist countries, led by the U.S., are implementing a policy of rearmament and the reintroduction of military service, mandatory steps towards a war economy; meanwhile, on the political front, as a reflection of this situation, we observe the rise of fascist forces even at the electoral level. Italy stands at the forefront of this process, also considering the need to compress consumption and social services for the popular masses in order to divert resources towards rents, parasitic monopolies, and the war industry.
Therefore, we have several legislative interventions aimed at providing the appropriate fascist superstructure to consolidate this situation: the Premierato, Differentiated Autonomy, the Law on Trade Union Representation, and the DDL 1660 [Translator’s note: Law Project]. If all these interventions were to be completed, and some of them are already a reality, the transformation of Meloni’s government into an open fascist regime and dictatorship would be complete. The Security Bill 1660 contributes to building a legislative framework where democratic social and trade union protest is equated with a criminal act: resistances, even passive ones, in CPRs [Translator’s note: detention centers for migrants] and prisons are punished with additional years of imprisonment, the occupation of properties and resistance to evictions and aggressions against popular struggles are criminalized under the label of “resistance to a public official.” This framework can no longer be considered that of a bourgeois democratic country. In fact, strikes are practically prohibited, punished under the label of “roadblock crime,” and allowed only in a harmless form for a few hours.
All of this creates a barracks-like atmosphere in factories, while efforts are made to ensure social peace in workplaces with the collaboration of confederal and reactionary unions, through corporate processes that unite social parties and the State. Hence the need for a law on trade union representation that fully implements the interconfederal agreement between employers and the CGIL-CISL-UIL unions from January 10, 2014, and that, if possible, articulates and further tightens it in a liberticidal sense. On the other hand, the CGIL itself, with its popular initiative law proposal called the Charter of Universal Labor Rights, had put forward additional proposals that worsen trade union representation. It is no secret that the June referendums have a direct lineage with this Charter and aim to give a boost to the current government to issue the law on trade union representation.
Substantially, the 4 questions of the referendum proposed by the CGIL are just smoke and mirrors for the workers. The first question is irrelevant, as it addresses an issue already resolved by the Constitutional Court and shifts the problem from the Fornero Law to the Jobs Act. Furthermore, it should be noted that the CGIL has never opposed these legislative interventions, except in a farcical manner. The second question opens the door for judges to establish compensation of less than six months for dismissals in companies with fewer than 16 employees. The third question extends the duration of temporary contracts from 12 to 24 months, further delaying the possibility for these workers to access a permanent contract. The fourth question would create a legislative vacuum regarding contracts, leaving the government free to enact a law that worsens the situation. In summary, the law on representation that CGIL-CISL-UIL, along with employer associations, wants the Meloni government to issue is a component of the process of corporatization in workplaces and society, which is inseparably linked to fascistization and is essential for the imperialist and militaristic expansion of that marginal yet overbearing Italian imperialism.
The CGIL and the vile reactionary bloc of the “wide field” represented by the PD and M5S are carrying out an operation to contaminate just battles such as the DDL 1660 or the struggle to support the Palestinian people, calling for diluted demonstrations that equate Israel and the Palestinian Resistance: all this to show their willingness to carry out the same reactionary maneuvers that the Meloni government is currently implementing. The national demonstration for Palestine called by the Democratic Party, the support of this bloc for the demonstration on May 31 in Rome against the DDL 1660, and the confederal referendum are part of this design. We call on the most progressive forces to oppose, sabotage, and create difficulties for these initiatives of the “wide field” and the associations that refer to it.
Today, significant sectors of students are mobilizing against Valditara’s fascist school project and for the establishment of a democratic mass education system; large sectors of women are mobilizing to denounce the barbaric patriarchal behavior of feminicides, the tip of an iceberg that reveals the persistent oppression of women in our society; on the Islands and in Southern Italy, the masses are mobilizing against environmental devastation, military servitude, and the expropriation of land from farmers and shepherds by rents and monopolies; on the other hand, the most conscious sectors of toilers and the working class sense the confederal deception and are not providing any support for the June referendum, despite the loud noise from the opportunist left.
All of this forms the mass base of a front against fascistization and corporatism, which goes beyond decades of inconclusive movement practices and seeks to resume the interrupted thread by proposing a People’s War of New Resistance. For Popular Democracy proposes the construction of collectives for the unity of Maoists and sincere antifascist democrats, focusing on the work to build a Maoist cadre Party and to form a united front for the struggle against fascism, the colonial oppression of the South and the Islands, against the corporatization of trade unions in the workplace, and in support of the struggles of oppressed peoples and the ongoing people’s wars in Peru, the Philippines, and India. Let us study, organize, and unite to form the proletarian Party that will lead this New Resistance struggle! It is right to rebel!
