Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube

Big metal workers’ strike against the government and the employers

By Diego Dalai Thursday, March 15, 2012 50,000 workers and students mobilized on Friday, March 9, in Rome against the Mario Monti government’s labor reform. This big workers’ mobilization took place in the context of a strike by the big Italian metal workers’ branch, organized in the metal workers’ federation (FIOM), the country’s biggest union. […]

Left Voice

March 30, 2012
Facebook Twitter Share

By Diego Dalai

Thursday, March 15, 2012

50,000 workers and students mobilized on Friday, March 9, in Rome against the Mario Monti government’s labor reform. This big workers’ mobilization took place in the context of a strike by the big Italian metal workers’ branch, organized in the metal workers’ federation (FIOM), the country’s biggest union. The labor reform that the big employers (FIAT, among others, that wants to close factories, leaving hundreds in the street) are promoting, is an attempt to get rid of the famous Article 18, an historic achievement of the proletariat, that guarantees stable work. Monti, who was not chosen in elections and has no political commitments, is exclusively dedicated to “adjusting” the economy. This “technocratic” government is a result of the enormous financial and economic crisis that the country is going through and the resistance by the masses to the austerity plans of Berlusconi, who found himself forced to resign after the big October 2011 mobilizations, and the enormous loss of prestige, that weighed heavily on his corrupt government. Monti has been implementing cuts of more than 50 billion euros, that Berlusconi got approved before leaving, and now he is trying to advance further with this extremely tough labor reform. Because of that, the metal workers’ strike, that had a lot of support throughout Italy, and the tens of thousands who mobilized, have become very significant in the struggle against the government and the big employers, who want to impose austerity on the workers, in order to increase their own profits.

Facebook Twitter Share

Left Voice

Militant journalism, revolutionary politics.

Archive

The Unknown Paths of the Late Marx

An interview with Marcello Musto about the last decade of Marx's life.

Marcello Musto

February 27, 2022

The Critical Left in Cuba

Frank García Hernández discusses the political and economic situation in Cuba and the path out of the current crisis.

Frank García Hernández

February 27, 2022

Nancy Fraser and Counterhegemony

A presentation from the Fourth International Marxist Feminist Conference.

Josefina L. Martínez

February 27, 2022

Who is Anasse Kazib?

Meet the Trotskyist railway worker running for president of France.

Left Voice

February 27, 2022

MOST RECENT

A group of protesters, in the front of whom are a line of protesters wearing red vests. In the front right corner, a white sign reds "vive la retraite," with a skeleton wearing a red hat in the middle of the sign on a black background with a text bubble on its left that reads, "oiv a bosse, c'est pas pour en crever!"

“French March”: The Right to Revolutionary Optimism

Evoking memories of '68, the students enter the fight against Macron. In our chaotic world, the future can only be built in the streets.

Eduardo Castillo

March 26, 2023

Joe Biden Is Deporting Russians Who Escaped Putin’s Draft — Let Them All In!

The United States is deporting Russians who sought asylum following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This is a heinous attack against war resisters and shows that the proxy war in Ukraine is about capitalist rivalry first and foremost.

Sam Carliner

March 26, 2023

On Monday, Germany Will Experience a “Mega-Strike”

On March 27, German railway workers and public sector employees will shut down the whole country. All trains are being canceled. Airports, freeways, hospitals, and daycare centers will all be affected.

Nathaniel Flakin

March 25, 2023

France: On the Frontlines of the War Against Austerity

The French masses have raised the banner of class struggle in what is becoming the first major battle against austerity after the pandemic. Working people across the world should pay attention.

James Dennis Hoff

March 25, 2023