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PARTISAN REVIEW
advanced technology, the
cassa integrazione
which subsidizes layoffs
that exacerbate inflation, and the "mismanagement of the country"
by both government and industry. Nevertheless, the "right to work"
that is cent ral in the current negotiations will be difficult to grant to
the two and one-half million a lready unemployed, to those in danger
of losing their jobs, and to the young who are about to enter the
labor market. "What a mi take to think that work can fall from
heaven like manna," stated Eugenio Scalfari, editor of
La Repubblica,
"without changing conditions that make it so scarce . What a mistake
to suppose that development of the economy, of income, of invest–
ments, and thus of jobs, can exist while industry is in the red and is
losing its competitive power to foreign firms, while public finances
are weak, the lira is falling, and savings are down." (3/26/82)
Scalfari's ed itorial was written before the schi sms within the
labor federation surfaced, before the "agreement" to shorten the
announced general strike from eight hours to two hours, and thus
before the leader of the UIL had been whistled off the platform for
having consented to such a weak show of strength. Still, Scalfari
knew that the workers were not only being guided by their past
union experiences, and by the succes es (and occasional failures) of
previous negotiations influenced by preemptive strikes; he also knew
that they were being coached by the
Lega Communista Revoluzionaria
(LCR) which hopes to topple the Spadolini government (supported
by both Christian Democrats and Socialists) in favor of a coalition
between Socialists and Communists. Denouncing labor's "moderate"
demand as cooptation, the LCR attacks I talian capital ism, its
investment and labor strategies, its wi llingness to keep wage increases
below sixteen percent, its concern with closing unprofitable oper–
ations, etc. They want the strikes which traditionally are called
before contract negotiations begin to be thoroughly disruptive, and
the old slogans of maximalist versus minimalist practices are often
trotted out.
These slogans, though roughly corresponding to Communist
and Socialist stands, are replayed in other context. Hence, the
celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Filippo Turati's death at
Milan's La Scala was dominated by the Communists who refused to
give Bettino Craxi, the leader of the Socialists, a role in the cere–
monies. So the latter presided at the commemoration at Canzo,
Turati's place of birth outside Milan, on March 29, and stre sed the
fact that Turati had been the founder of the
Socialist
party, and that
he had believed in "revolution through reform" - Craxi's own "road
