This spring, Italians will go to the polls to vote for a new
parliament. In the run up so far, the outlook has been grim to say the
least. In recent times the Italian political landscape has seen a steady
shift to the right, incorporating the entire political mainstream. To
this end, it makes sense to speak of the right as consisting of not just
its traditional representations – in its most vulgar form the racist
and xenophobic coupling of the Northern League (Lega Nord)/Brothers of
Italy (Fratelli d’Italia) and the more moderate Forza Italia,
Berlusconi’s party – but also the now only nominally ‘centre-left’
Democratic Party (Partito Democratico), as well as the ‘populist’ 5 Star
Movement (Movimento 5 Stelle).
The ruling Democratic Party’s record in government is an
impressive display of disregard for working people. The most prominent
of its policies in recent years was the infamous Jobs Act (the Italian
forerunner of the Loi Travail in France), responsible for a huge
expansion in precarious contracts and acute undermining of protections
against dismissal. Other policies have included the raising of the
pension age to 67, a school reform that increased employee precarity and
introduced compulsory unpaid work experience for high school students
of up to 400 hours, and severe spending cuts to public healthcare.
This blitz of harmful policies was not limited to the domestic sphere. This year the PD government passed a law restricting the ability of NGOs to carry out rescue operations in the Mediterranean. At the same time it made an agreement with the Libyan army with the aim of stopping refugees from reaching Italian shores, thus handing over the fates of thousands of people fleeing war and hunger to an authority which is responsible for torture on a wide scale, for the establishment of what can only be described as concentration camps, and for an environment in which a new market in human slaves is allowed to exist.
This blitz of harmful policies was not limited to the domestic sphere. This year the PD government passed a law restricting the ability of NGOs to carry out rescue operations in the Mediterranean. At the same time it made an agreement with the Libyan army with the aim of stopping refugees from reaching Italian shores, thus handing over the fates of thousands of people fleeing war and hunger to an authority which is responsible for torture on a wide scale, for the establishment of what can only be described as concentration camps, and for an environment in which a new market in human slaves is allowed to exist.
The 5 Star Movement is the benefactor of a surge in right-wing
populism, equipped with slogans against the ‘elites’ and ‘the system’
but taking a decisively right-wing position on most issues, making it
almost indistinguishable from the Northern League. It has voted with the
right on the issue of civil partnerships, on the proposals to grant
citizenship to the children of settled migrants born on Italian soil,
and it has even voted against a bill which proposed the outlawing of
fascist apologism. The 5 Star Movement is part of the EFDD group in the
European Parliament along with UKIP and Germany’s AfD, it speaks
admirably of Trump and Rajoy, and it has described the rescue boats in
the Mediterranean as “taxis in the service of people smugglers.” It has
no qualms about spouting racist and xenophobic rhetoric, exploiting for
self-serving ends the fears of a population that has steadily been
impoverished after many years of austerity.
A few months ago an attempt to construct a left electoral list began. Many activists and individuals dedicated time and energy to this project, because they believed in the importance of presenting a left alternative, especially given the bleak prospects for these upcoming elections. And yet, despite the hard work of thousands of people across the country, this project was doomed to fail. It was doomed to fail because right from the start it had been in the sights of a part of the old guard of the Democratic Party: (exclusively) men who had been important exponents of and even prominent ministers in the governments responsible for all the legislation outlined above but who, in the face of declining PD support, had left the party only last year following the defeat of the referendum on constitutional reform called by the then Prime Minister Renzi, seeking to carve out their own support base in forming the Movimento Democratico e Progressista (MDP). The involvement of these politicians was the death-knell for this nascent electoral project. Without consulting the activists who had worked hard to give it life, the MDP signed an agreement on an alliance with their former party. When the alliance was made public in mid-November, outrage ensued, and eventually the organisers of this short-lived, supposedly left alternative were forced to announce that it had failed. Thus, we were once again left with the prospect of an election in which there would be no anti-austerity, anti-sexist and anti-racist manifesto, let alone an anti-capitalist one that speaks to the needs of the masses of the population.
It was at this point, therefore, that we decided that we could not stand by and watch as an election campaign solely dominated by right-wing, hate-filled rhetoric played out. We know a desire for something better exists in our society. It expressed itself in the efforts put into that first attempt to construct an alternative election choice, but it is far broader and deeper than that. It expresses itself daily in the protests of the excluded and the exploited, protests brought forward by Italians and migrants together with the common aim of making life better for everyone. All over Italy people are resisting the effects of austerity, sexism, exploitation and racism through struggle. It is to give expression to these struggle, to amplify the agency of the popular masses and to enable communities to exercise control over decisions that affect them that we decided to stand in the next elections.
We are a group of activists who, over two years ago, occupied the buildings of what used to be a forensic psychiatric unit in the centre of Naples. In only a few months we transformed a place of confinement and suffering into a centre for the community, a new Casa del Popolo (house of the people) like those founded by socialists and communists that used to exist in every town across Italy. We have fought battles – and some we have won – against unregulated labour and exploitation in the workplace, and we have opened a medical clinic to meet the needs created by successive healthcare spending cuts. We opened a legal clinic for migrants, as well as one for workers, helping people to understand their rights and giving them the tools to organise against exploitation. We have travelled all over Italy supporting the struggles of communities in defence of our environment and in protest against the destruction of our natural resources in the name of an infrastructure that serves only the needs of capital (for example, the struggle against the high-speed train-line in Val Susa, the gas pipeline in Puglia, the military satellite systems in Sicily and the drilling for fossil fuels in Basilicata). Every day, in our occupied space that we liberated from disuse, local communities can now participate in sports, recreational, cultural and political activities.
We created an inclusive space in which people from all different backgrounds have been able to listen to each other and create a discussion on the problems that exist in our society. We took our common anger and disillusion, produced by years of crisis and austerity, and together we transformed it into a will to change things. We have put our values into practice by fostering integration and solidarity where others have sought to sow hatred and division. And together we proven our strength through the practise of popular control. We acted as observers during the local elections to combat corruption, and as monitors in the refugee reception centres to make sure that the rights of refugees are respected. We also put pressure on the government advisory services and the labour inspectorate to ensure that they carry out their jobs. Through popular control we realised the potential that lies in our collective agency and exercised our capacity for self-governance.
On the 18th November we held a national assembly to launch our proposal for the elections. Taking as a starting point the values of anti-racism, anti-sexism and anti-capitalism, we sought to begin our campaign by uniting the people, organisations and communities across the country that are already engaged in the struggle to promote these values, and who, by simply coming together, make up a considerable force. From the moment we made our announcement we have been flooded with expressions of support. More than 100,000 people have watched our video, many thousands have written to us to express a desire to take part, and despite only three days’ notice, 800 people came to the assembly in Rome. Representatives from a whole range of political organisations, political parties (including Rifondazione Comunista), trade unions, labour organisations, civil society groups and student organisations were present; all with the same desire to dispense with the concession and capitulation that consigned past efforts to failure, and to build a movement which takes the needs of the people as its lead.
During this meeting the foundations of a common political programme began to emerge. Firstly, the necessity of respecting the fundamental principles of our constitution, continuously violated by successive governments, was prioritised. The protection of labour is a central element of the Italian constitution. We assert the right of all to a stable job with dignified pay. We also assert the necessity of social solidarity and for state intervention to remove the causes of inequality. We assert the necessity of state provided universal free healthcare and education. We assert the need to abolish gender inequality, to provide protection for our environment, and to provide protection and solidarity to those who have fled war and hunger. At the core of our programme, therefore, is the call for a system of welfare that is universal, indiscriminate and effective in meeting the needs of the people.
The framework that underpins our political programme is the practice of popular control. Popular control is the way the people – and by this we mean communities at the grassroots level – can begin to exercise power over the institutions and mechanisms of government. Each time a community reclaims the right to be involved in the decisions that affect it, each time a community is able to claim the (few) rights that are still due to it by law, this is popular control. We believe that popular control is an important step towards promoting activism and a commitment to solidarity within the community. It means removing the barriers to political participation and resisting the hollowing out of our democracy. It means breaking down the social divisions that keep the exploited and excluded from uniting and fighting together against the powers that oppress them. We believe that these steps can provide us with the tools we need to take up the power which is rightfully ours: the power to control the production and distribution of wealth and the power to realise democracy in its true sense.
In other words, our objective is to promote a politics based on popular power.
As such, we view the elections as merely the beginning. We are keen to obtain the best result, we hope to even win a seat in the next parliament. But our real aim is to start a process that can give back to our communities a confidence in their capacity to effect change, as well as to shift the terms of an electoral campaign which is shaping up to be the most reactionary of the last twenty years. In doing so, we oppose opportunistic electioneering by initiating a project focused on the long term. By weaving together all the local organisations, workers organisations, communities and individuals who feel the pain of injustice, and are willing to fight it, we aim to create a lasting movement.
A few months ago an attempt to construct a left electoral list began. Many activists and individuals dedicated time and energy to this project, because they believed in the importance of presenting a left alternative, especially given the bleak prospects for these upcoming elections. And yet, despite the hard work of thousands of people across the country, this project was doomed to fail. It was doomed to fail because right from the start it had been in the sights of a part of the old guard of the Democratic Party: (exclusively) men who had been important exponents of and even prominent ministers in the governments responsible for all the legislation outlined above but who, in the face of declining PD support, had left the party only last year following the defeat of the referendum on constitutional reform called by the then Prime Minister Renzi, seeking to carve out their own support base in forming the Movimento Democratico e Progressista (MDP). The involvement of these politicians was the death-knell for this nascent electoral project. Without consulting the activists who had worked hard to give it life, the MDP signed an agreement on an alliance with their former party. When the alliance was made public in mid-November, outrage ensued, and eventually the organisers of this short-lived, supposedly left alternative were forced to announce that it had failed. Thus, we were once again left with the prospect of an election in which there would be no anti-austerity, anti-sexist and anti-racist manifesto, let alone an anti-capitalist one that speaks to the needs of the masses of the population.
It was at this point, therefore, that we decided that we could not stand by and watch as an election campaign solely dominated by right-wing, hate-filled rhetoric played out. We know a desire for something better exists in our society. It expressed itself in the efforts put into that first attempt to construct an alternative election choice, but it is far broader and deeper than that. It expresses itself daily in the protests of the excluded and the exploited, protests brought forward by Italians and migrants together with the common aim of making life better for everyone. All over Italy people are resisting the effects of austerity, sexism, exploitation and racism through struggle. It is to give expression to these struggle, to amplify the agency of the popular masses and to enable communities to exercise control over decisions that affect them that we decided to stand in the next elections.
We are a group of activists who, over two years ago, occupied the buildings of what used to be a forensic psychiatric unit in the centre of Naples. In only a few months we transformed a place of confinement and suffering into a centre for the community, a new Casa del Popolo (house of the people) like those founded by socialists and communists that used to exist in every town across Italy. We have fought battles – and some we have won – against unregulated labour and exploitation in the workplace, and we have opened a medical clinic to meet the needs created by successive healthcare spending cuts. We opened a legal clinic for migrants, as well as one for workers, helping people to understand their rights and giving them the tools to organise against exploitation. We have travelled all over Italy supporting the struggles of communities in defence of our environment and in protest against the destruction of our natural resources in the name of an infrastructure that serves only the needs of capital (for example, the struggle against the high-speed train-line in Val Susa, the gas pipeline in Puglia, the military satellite systems in Sicily and the drilling for fossil fuels in Basilicata). Every day, in our occupied space that we liberated from disuse, local communities can now participate in sports, recreational, cultural and political activities.
We created an inclusive space in which people from all different backgrounds have been able to listen to each other and create a discussion on the problems that exist in our society. We took our common anger and disillusion, produced by years of crisis and austerity, and together we transformed it into a will to change things. We have put our values into practice by fostering integration and solidarity where others have sought to sow hatred and division. And together we proven our strength through the practise of popular control. We acted as observers during the local elections to combat corruption, and as monitors in the refugee reception centres to make sure that the rights of refugees are respected. We also put pressure on the government advisory services and the labour inspectorate to ensure that they carry out their jobs. Through popular control we realised the potential that lies in our collective agency and exercised our capacity for self-governance.
On the 18th November we held a national assembly to launch our proposal for the elections. Taking as a starting point the values of anti-racism, anti-sexism and anti-capitalism, we sought to begin our campaign by uniting the people, organisations and communities across the country that are already engaged in the struggle to promote these values, and who, by simply coming together, make up a considerable force. From the moment we made our announcement we have been flooded with expressions of support. More than 100,000 people have watched our video, many thousands have written to us to express a desire to take part, and despite only three days’ notice, 800 people came to the assembly in Rome. Representatives from a whole range of political organisations, political parties (including Rifondazione Comunista), trade unions, labour organisations, civil society groups and student organisations were present; all with the same desire to dispense with the concession and capitulation that consigned past efforts to failure, and to build a movement which takes the needs of the people as its lead.
During this meeting the foundations of a common political programme began to emerge. Firstly, the necessity of respecting the fundamental principles of our constitution, continuously violated by successive governments, was prioritised. The protection of labour is a central element of the Italian constitution. We assert the right of all to a stable job with dignified pay. We also assert the necessity of social solidarity and for state intervention to remove the causes of inequality. We assert the necessity of state provided universal free healthcare and education. We assert the need to abolish gender inequality, to provide protection for our environment, and to provide protection and solidarity to those who have fled war and hunger. At the core of our programme, therefore, is the call for a system of welfare that is universal, indiscriminate and effective in meeting the needs of the people.
The framework that underpins our political programme is the practice of popular control. Popular control is the way the people – and by this we mean communities at the grassroots level – can begin to exercise power over the institutions and mechanisms of government. Each time a community reclaims the right to be involved in the decisions that affect it, each time a community is able to claim the (few) rights that are still due to it by law, this is popular control. We believe that popular control is an important step towards promoting activism and a commitment to solidarity within the community. It means removing the barriers to political participation and resisting the hollowing out of our democracy. It means breaking down the social divisions that keep the exploited and excluded from uniting and fighting together against the powers that oppress them. We believe that these steps can provide us with the tools we need to take up the power which is rightfully ours: the power to control the production and distribution of wealth and the power to realise democracy in its true sense.
In other words, our objective is to promote a politics based on popular power.
As such, we view the elections as merely the beginning. We are keen to obtain the best result, we hope to even win a seat in the next parliament. But our real aim is to start a process that can give back to our communities a confidence in their capacity to effect change, as well as to shift the terms of an electoral campaign which is shaping up to be the most reactionary of the last twenty years. In doing so, we oppose opportunistic electioneering by initiating a project focused on the long term. By weaving together all the local organisations, workers organisations, communities and individuals who feel the pain of injustice, and are willing to fight it, we aim to create a lasting movement.
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