Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 13:42:40 +0000 (GMT)
From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Nestor=20McNab?= <nestor_mcnab-AT-yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: AUT: COBAS and Italy's general strike


As we're on the subject of COBAS and the situation in
Italy, here is a translation I did of the
CUB/COBAS/SLAI-COBAS call for the general strike which
some of you may have seen on a-infos today.

********************************************************************



Subject: (en) Italy: Joint call for general strike by base unions (it) 

         
 
[Translator's Introduction: The following is a translation of the joint
statement issued on behalf of 3 base unions, or grassroots unions, calling for
a general strike. Readers should note that a general strike for the same day
has also been called by the 3 biggest unions in Italy, the CGIL, CISL and UIL,
or as the base union movement calls them "the conciliatory unions"). This is
the first full-day general strike to be called by all the unions in Italy for
20 years, if attendance at the recent CGIL demonstration in Rome (over 2
million) is anything to go by. The notes to a previous COBAS statement issued
on A-Infos may be helpful - http://www.ainfos.ca/en/ainfos08723.html - NMcN]



G E N E R A L    S T R I K E
For 8 hours, Tuesday 16th April
Against the Berlusconi Government, liberalism and conciliation

S I T - I N
Friday 12th April in Parma
Against the policies of Confindustria


CUB, Confederazione Cobas, Slai-Cobas have decided to issue a call to workers
from all categories for a GENERAL STRIKE for the entire working day of Tuesday
16th April with NATIONAL DEMONSTRATIONS IN ROME, MILAN AND PALERMO against the
anti-social policies of the Government, against conciliation and against war.

Furthermore, in conjunction with the Confindustria assembly on Friday 12th
April, the base unions are organizing a Sit-in in Parma to protest the bosses'
proposals.

Initiatives against the changes to Article 18 are not enough unless at the same
time we take a stand against all the anti-social policies of the government and
against the war, and unless we abandon the policy of conciliation which has
been and still is the lifeblood of liberalist policies.

The declarations and initiatives of struggle of the Cgil-Cisl-Uil against the
government regarding changes to Art.18 of the Workers' Statute risk being
somewhat unconvincing unless they abandon the hopeless policy of conciliation,
which in the past two months has permitted the signing of useless contracts
suchas those for workers in the fields of construction, the chemical industry,
textiles, gas, bank workers and above all the scandalous general agreement on
Civil Service and School workers of the 4th February.

The Government crisis today has its roots in the policy of encouraging
precarious labour and labour rights, which derives from the policy of
conciliation engaged in by the Cgil-Cisl-Uil with previous governments and the
bosses, and which are being put forward once more in an amplified form through
the so-called White Book which aims at a generalization of flexibility and
individual work contracts.

We have seen before how unions and politicians, short on consensus, stimulate
and take advantage of social conflict simply in order to boost their own roles,
which the present government is attempting not to annul, but to re-dimension.

It is therefore indispensable that workers continue to support the strikes and
demonstrations of the base unions, who propose drastic alternative objectives
to the anti-social policies of the government, who have opposed for some time
now the rise of precarious labour, war, the dismantling of the public education
system, of social security and health services, the ongoing theft on the part
of Confindustria (with the consensus of the Cgil-Cisl-Uil) of the TFR
[Trattamento di fine rapporto - severance pay] in favour of pension funds, the
anti-immigrant Bossi-Fini Bill, privatizations and the union policy of
conciliation. We demand European pay levels, social incomes for all those
without and a general reduction in working hours.

The liberalist policies are not only supported by the Berlusconi Govern,ment
and by Confinustria. They demand the response of credible alternatives which
can have a lasting effect on the part of organizations which are not
compromised by such policies.

Neither must we forget the same Cgil, which is today indicating the possibility
of a surge forward but in reality is preparing itself for a return to the
agreement table.

However, just as the labour movement becomes more radical and more widespread
and we are on the eve of a general strike, as punctual as clockwork, and
surprising no-one, we have the murder of Prof. Biagi, a murder which has
already produced a crazed campaign on the part of the media and the government,
who have accused the COBAS and base unions of collusion with terrorists, an
accusation extended even towards the Cgil.

The service rendered to the Berlusconi government by the Biagi murder is
formidable, as is the threat to the workers' movement to step down its actions.
But the workers will not be intimidated and will continue to take to the
streets and to mobilize.

The movement of base unions believes that only by keeping the necessary
non-collaboration determination and clarity of objectives, through the general
strike and the organization of alternative demonstrations to those of the
Cgil-Cisl-Uil and to which we invite the unemployed, immigrants, students and
the whole anti-liberalist movement, is it possible to win this great battle
against the Berlusconi government and Confindustria for the withdrawal of the
changes to Art.18 and the White Book, of the dismantling of pensions and the
theft of severance pay, of the Moratti counter-reformation of the education
system and of the counter-reformation of tax law.


Confederazione COBAS
Confederazione Unitaria di Base
Slai-Cobas

****************************************************************



====In solidarity,


Nestor


http://www.geocities.com/nestor_mcnab/

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