Italy was thrown into political turmoil in February as the coalition government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi collapsed, having lost an important foreign policy vote in the Italian senate.
The crisis emerged when two government senators, including Turigliatto – a member of the left reformist Rifundazione Communista (RC) – refused to vote for Prodi’s foreign policy which included maintaining Italian troops in Afghanistan.
The vote came only four days after a massive 200,000 strong demonstration in Vicenza in northern Italy against plans to expand the US airbase in the town.
The Italian ruling class favours a Prodi-led government at this stage rather than a return to the hated Berlusconi. They feel that a coalition headed by Prodi and made up of workers’ and ex-workers’ parties can implement its anti-worker, neo-liberal agenda more effectively.
After forming the new coalition, Prodi announced a non-negotiable 12 point programme - his "Twelve Commandments" - which proposes a serious programme of attacks on workers’ wages, pensions and public services. This comes just months after the Italian budget which included cuts worth E35 billion alongside tax increases for the working class.
This anti-working class cocktail has provoked anger amongst workers who, while having no illusions that a Prodi government would be a worker-friendly government, did nonetheless hope that it would be better than Berlusconi’s rightwing coalition. If implemented, the programme would significantly hit workers’ wages while also meaning increased health charges and taxes and cuts in education and other public services. It is in this context that workers – 80% of whom are opposed to the war in Iraq – are angered that money is being wasted on maintaining troops in Afghanistan and assisting US Imperialism in its bloody occupation of Iraq.
The signing up to Prodi’s programme by the RC leadership has provoked crisis in the ranks of the party. The secretary of the RC in Vicenza claimed that 700 members were ready to leave the party over the leadership’s support for the expansion of the US airbase.
The RC leadership claim that by participating in the government they are preventing Prodi from moving further to the right. However, the opposite is the case – by participating in the government they are providing a left cover for Prodi whilst diminishing their support among the working class. The complicity of the RC leadership in Prodi’s attacks is also opening the door to the return of Berlusconi who in the absence of a lead from the RC was able to organise a demonstration of between one and two million people against the budget in December. As a result of supporting pro-imperialist and neo-liberal policies, the party is increasingly seen as just another establishment party.
The Socialist Party in Ireland and our sister party in Italy – Lotto per il Socialismo – has continuously argued that the RC should leave the government (It should never have joined a capitalist government in the first place!) and along with the trade unions organise effective action – including general strike action – to defeat Prodi’s anti-worker agenda. In this they should also provide a political expression to the enormous anti-war mood among Italian workers.
By adopting this approach they could give a lead to the millions of workers who, while hating Berlusconi, are also deeply angered by Prodi’s attacks. By taking a principled stand and voting against all anti-worker, pro-imperialist policies and by organising on the ground, in the factories and universities, among the youth and the working class, a mass anti-capitalist party could be built which would put a socialist alternative on the agenda.
