Country report from Italy

GENERAL AND POLITICAL SITUATION

The Italian situation is suffering the debt Europe and the institutional political apparatus is proceeding with the austerity politics imposed by Troika. The present governemnt in power -the Renzi government- is the consecutive third one that hadn't been elected by people after Monti and Letta ones. As the previous executives, also the Renzi leadership has been made by a strategic alliance between the right-center and the left-center parties, that is the Partito Democratico (Democratic Party) of Matteo Renzi, and the Nuovo Centro Destra (New right-center). (1)

Renzi's leadership has based its power in a populist rhetoric, presenting itslef as the “new” against the “old” politics. Behind the face, Renzi is keeping continuity with the policies of cut to the welfare state, privatizations and rebalancing of the public debt, as the previous governments. The most important reform that is going to be approved in the next few months, is the so called "Jobs Act", that is a deep neoliberist reform of the labour system. However, the results of the last European elections, with the 40% of the votes to thr Democratic Party confirmed the credibility of the Renzi Goverment.

The Only opposition to the government that has gained people's trust, is the Beppe Grillo's party, the Movimento 5 Stelle (5 stars Movement), even if they can't put into effect a realt contrast. Grillo's opposition is an ambiguous position with elements both from the right and left social movements, and at the same time, he stands with the NO TAV struggle (massive and popular's movement against the building of high-speed train in Val Susa – Piemonte – in the north of Italy) and get alliance with Farage (Uk Conservative right elected in the last europeans elections) in the European Parliament.

However The 5 Star Movement, has registred a relevant decrease at the last European electoral turn.

STRUGGLES AND MOVEMENTS

In general, the struggles situation of the social movements are in a big difficulty in this last year, with many struggles experience but localized or “specific”, without the force to connected and generalized the fight.

The most importants movements are the NoTav movements, center of the ecological and territorial movements, the Logistics (the good's freights sector) center strike, with an incredible migrants composition of a new working class that have blocked this work sector for weeks, and the movements against evictions and for the right to housing.

In this movements there's also a problem of a specific egemony of some political area (specially the autonomous area) that do a sectarian politics that is'nt useful to open and connects this fragmented situations.

The traditional and concertative Trade unions (CGIL, CISL, UIL), are totally subjected to the economic and political powers and they have been inneffective for long time. Also the conflictual and alternative Trade unions are very weak and work only in little and localized labour struggles. At last we have a good movement's of women in solidarity with the spanish women against the law's attack on the free abortion of the Rajoy's governement and for a real right to abortion in Italy. OUR PROJECT: COMMUNIA NETWORK After the end of Sinistra Critica project, we start one year ago to build a new one, named Communia Network, that want to be an open process of reconstruction of a revolutionnary organisation.

With a new website (www.communianet.org) and an agile structure composed by “nodes” (collectives, individuals militants, social space, ecc.) we want to create a new relation between the political level and the social level, in the movements and more in general in many social sectors. We want to experience a hybrid forms of organization to start from below the reconstruction of a usefull political tool for a new working class, heterogeneous and radically different from that of 40 years ago. A project the want to connected in a new and strongness way the complex levels of the class: the women, gender and LGBTIQ issue, the new world of labour, the ambiental fights, the education sector and the students movements and also the counterculture tendences and the level of the “imaginary” in politics. An our exemplary experience build in this year to explain better our work can be Ri-Maflow, an occupy and self-organized factory by the workers, that with mutual aid between workers and citizens, and a “conflictual self-management” try to build a new wadge and a new alternative organization of the work in an ecological conversion.

The our campaings for this new politc year will be the struggle against Expo2015 (the Universal Exposition in Milan that will begin May 1, 2015) to stop debt, cement and precarity, and a economic and political campaign of solidarity with Ri-Maflow to buy some new machines for a new production. Last but not least, in our national meeting in September 20-21, 2014 in Rome, where we discussed on this struggle projects, we call many feminist, gender, LGBTIQ and queer collectives to write a “New queer and feminist manifesto”, to develop our role in this movements. Preserve our heretical and heterodox marxist tradition we want to be a little “unfaithfuls” to be more usefull and strong, more strategic and to make possible a new real revolutionnary hypothesis. To quote Daniel Bensaid on “Una lenta impazienza” (the italian version of “An impatient life”) “Transmit? What? And how? The heirs decide inheritance. They sift it, and infidelity are more loyal than the bigotry of memory.” (1)Nuovo Centro Destra is born from the split of the PDL Party of Silvio Berlusconi and it is led by his ex righ-hand man, Angelino Alfano