Che fare n.87 novembre 2019 - maggio 2020

Against the Conte Government

Even if it took place in the closed rooms of Rome's power, the political turnaround that led the Conte-Di Maio-Salvini government to the Conte-Di Maio-Zingaretti government is not a phoney change. From a sovereignist government to an Europeanist government. What are the consequences on the life and living conditions of Italian and immigrant workers and their families?

The promise of the Conte-2 government

The Conte-2 government (supported by the Democratic Party, the 5-Star and Free-and-Equal) asserts that its action intends to promote an economical progress, environmentally sustainable. For the Government, this development will concern all social classes of Italian society, for the bosses, for who lives on the work of others and for those who, on the other side, can live only with their work, often precarious, hard and in any case always stressful.

The Conte-2 government declares that its promise will be realized thanks to the concertation of a new economic policy with the other countries of the European Union, in the sign of a new Europeanism, more observant to the "environmental and social needs" of the entire continent, also of the Mediterranean countries. To make this new course possible, it would be enough the spin-off of investments for technological innovation from the calculation of the public deficit and the imposition of economic sanctions on countries that (like Orban's Hungary) refuse to participate in the "distribution of migrants" who land in Italy or in other European countries. The nomination of a Europeanist convinced as Gualtieri in the role of minister of the economy in Rome and of Gentiloni, another convinced pro-European, in the role of commissioner to the economy in Brussels would be the proof that this "change of direction" will not remain on paper . The program launched by the new president of the European commission, the German Ursula von der Leyen, and the statements of the outgoing president (Draghi) and the incoming one (Lagarde) of the ECB seem to confirm it.

All right then? Is it the beginning of an economic growth that will respect the environment?A phase that actually offers less dark horizons for those who live from their own sweat and is forced to pull the belt every day?

It is not so! We can understand it  if we reflect on the actual consequences of the measures that the Conte-2 government intends to adopt and if we don't believe at the slogans of its ministers.

The (high) price of some (not discounted) concessions

Of course, it is possible that this government will be able to avoid the increase in VAT and to adopt economic measures (such as cutting the tax "fiscal wedge") that would give an immediate economic benefit to various groups of workers: however, this will be like a "poisoned fishhook".
These possible measures, in fact, are one of the pieces of a more general policy dependent on an increasingly tense and difficult international situation. Something like this also happened with the Conte-1 government.
The yellow-green sovereignist government had conceded "Quota 100" reform in view of a policy that wanted to "blow up Europe", and to do obtain for the Italian capitalist system a role of squalid "luxury" follower in the service of US imperialism led by Trump and to push workers into the criminal hands of Washington and the Pentagon. 
This plan by Salvini-Bannon-Trump has, for the moment, come out of the rooms of powers, especially for the intervention of the great Europeanist capitalist powers (Italian and European). It has not been stopped (unfortunately) by the workers' autonomous struggle.
The policy of the Conte-2 wants to chain the Italian proletarians on the equally criminal European cart. The great financiers and the great Italian, German, French, Dutch and Spanish industrialists, etc. who are behind the Conte-2 government and who have the EU in their hands know that each of them, individually, cannot continue to participate as a protagonist, as has happened so far, in the division of profits extracted from the exploitation of the world proletariat.
They know that their privileged position on the world market is undermined by the aggressive policy of Trump and US companies and by the advance of China, animated by companies that are more and more modern and competitive with Western standards. They know that the European bourgeoisie can defend the competitiveness of their companies, their investments on other continents and their historical positions, only by building a unitary European capitalist power against the US and China. To do this, they also know that just monetary unification it's not enough, an operation already done with the birth of the euro, but some other things are also needed: the fiscal unification, the introduction of the most advanced technologies based on energy saving on robotics and artificial intelligence, the construction of a unified military apparatus to be ready to defend European capitalist interests where necessary, even by force.
The "social equity" measures that the Conte-2 government and the EU want to introduce must convince European and immigrant workers to actively support this European program.
Today on the economic side, giving full availability to submit to the rhythms, flexibility, layoffs, stressful working conditions required by the new "green and intelligent" technologies that will be introduced in the industry, starting from the restructuring of the mechanical industry under the electric and autonomous driving coverage.
Tomorrow, when the robbery interests of the euro bosses will demand it, even on the military front, fighting on the battlefields against proletarians from other countries and other continents.

Against sovereignism. For a proletarian and class opposition to the Conte-2 government
Some workers, in particular those who are happy to the exit of the Lega from the government, could ask us: "But your radical criticism of the Conte-2 government and your invitation to fight against it does not risk to favor Salvini's return? "
No, absolutely no. A political battle against the Conte-2 government and the support it has in Brussels in the name of the real class interests of workers (of all workers, Italian and immigrant) would be the best antidote against a similar, and not impossible, eventuality . Only a battle based on these political lines could, in fact, favor a positive erosion of the important support that the Salvinian perspective has between large proletarian and youthful strata.
To prepare for this policy it is necessary that, even starting from tiny nuclei of young people and workers, there is a reasoning about the real anti-proletarian nature of the Conte-2 government. Without remaining passive and waiting for the so-called "proof of facts", the criminal objective of the government must be denounced immediately. Even if the contrasts or the effective capacity of the government can limit its duration in time.
Even if so many workers think otherwise, it is necessary that, for example, to immediately denounce the fact that this government has declared its intention to maintain (limiting only the most excessive aspects) the central body of the racist legislation of the previous executive with the "security decrees" voted compactly also by the Cinquestelle Movement of Di Maio. Law that has already been used not only against immigrant proletarians, but also against some mobilizations of "very Italian" workers who have been fighting against the arrogance of their company management.

Che fare n.87 novembre 2019 - maggio 2020

ORGANIZZAZIONE COMUNISTA INTERNAZIONALISTA