Against Bosses, the Bourgeois State and Regime Unionism

Below we’re publishing the flyer that the ICP distributed at a strike march on Saturday, January 18 in Prato. It was also translated into English.

The rally, called by the SI Cobas, was successful, with about 2 thousand demonstrators, mostly workers, participating. The citizens of Prato had certainly not seen such a workers’ parade for years. And never on the initiative of a rank and file trade union.

This must have worried the petite-bourgeoisie, the bosses and the local authorities. Equally, it certainly gave energy and courage to the workers who had joined SI Cobas and to those who still did not have the courage to join the fight, for fear of company retaliation, in this important textile district.

Another positive fact was the adherence of almost of the fighting unions, albeit mostly with limited representation. In addition to SI Cobas members, who made up the majority of the march, there were members of the CGIL opposition, with factory groups such as the GKN of Florence and the Piaggio of Pontedera, the Cobas Confederation as well as smaller groups from the CUB and the USB. The ADL Cobas, acting with SI Cobas, was the only other able to form a significant part of the strike march. The Coordination of Workers for Class Unity (CLA) was also present, with a banner, about twenty marchers and distributed a flyer.

In short, it was a small example of the united action of fighting trade unionism, the slogan that our party acts within the trade union movement and to which the CLA Coordination is inspired by. But there is still a long way to go for it to assert itself, and it needs such episodes of struggle to multiply and not remain occasional. At the same time, the activity of the Coordination must continue in the awareness of how far and uphill the road taken is the right one. The shortcuts are political and trade union opportunism.

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The fines for “roadblocks” placed on the Superlativa Laundry workers and student supporters in Prato, for a picket cleared by force by the police. Both the fines and police actions are part of a repressive framework aimed at preventing the return to the struggle of the working class.

Hundreds of expulsion orders, injunctions and legal complaints have now been handed out. In the last few days alone, in Genoa alone, 19 injunctions with fines of €5,000 each have been imposed for “On‑the‑Job Violence” and in Desenzano sul Garda (Brescia), for “extortion”, again for striking and organizing pickets.

When SI Cobas organizes in a workplace, company repression begins with the threats, discrimination and dismissals. If this doesn’t work, the company is rescued by the State. The police and carabinieri are sent in to clear picket lines, with clubs and gas if necessary. This has happened dozens of times. If even this does not stop the struggle, the courts take over. The legal system, using methods which the bourgeois political regime has developed to protect companies against workers struggles. These measures have been historically continuous, alternating between democratic to fascist and back to democratic regimes. The most recent measures being these so‑called “security decrees”.

The police, courts and government are all cogs of the bourgeois State machine whose aim is to keep the working class oppressed and exploited.

Today, repression by employers is focused on SI Cobas because it is the union which has successfully organized workers’ struggle in recent years. The bosses try to prevent the struggles of the SI Cobas and its methods of unionism, from contagiously affecting the rest of the working class. The working class currently remains largely passive, a victim of individualism, resignation, distrust in collective action. This distrust, caused by decades of class collaborationist unionism by Cgil, Cisl and Uil, which led workers from defeat to defeat, losing many of the conquests made in the three decades after the Second World War.

Repression is also increasingly affecting the other grassroots trade unions and as well as the opposition in Cgil – with disciplinary measures and dismissals against their members and supporters. Often militant unionists find themselves isolated, in jobs where the threat of company retaliation and the intrigues of class collaborationist unions on the other, prevents real solidarity to develop and therefore calls for a fight in their defence.

In order to break the power of companies, bourgeois State and regime trade unionism, it is necessary to pursue unity of action by militant unions.

Today’s action in Prato, where a majority of the local grassroots union federations as well as the Cgil opposition, various Rsu and factory collectives and the Workers’ Coordination for the Unity of the Class have unified to support today’s demonstration. The latter organization was set up specifically with the aim of coordinating the efforts of all those who want to fight for unity of action within the Base Unions.

We need to fight so today’s protest is not unique. Such shows of unity in action need to become the goal which the rank and file unions as well as the Cgil opposition. Such actions should be constantly and increasingly unified.

Only the formation of a United Class Union Front will we be able to offer workers a credible and strong alternative to the regime trade unions (Cgil, CISL, UIL, UGL). Such a front will also be able to fight the dominant trade union opportunism within rank and file unions.

Mixed fronts between unions and parties need to be rejected. Despite proclamations in favour of unity of action by workers, they can only generate more and more economic fronts divided between parties. Each front in competition with each other. Each with its share of union bodies or currents under its control. They are therefore organizations which divide rather than unify an establishment of a constant and organic unity of class unionist action.

Fight today for unity of action of militant unionism. It’s objective being building a United Class Union Front, with its goal being the formation of a single Class Union. By doing this, the working class can be brought back into the struggle with the most favorable conditions of strength. This is the only material basis that will allow a sufficiently active part of it to return to its revolutionary positions, linking it to the authentic communist party willing to lead it to the conquest of political power.