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Press review: Il Manifesto October 18.

Surprise social general strike
Unexpectedly, great, despite the rain. In Rome, more than 300,000 people in the parade. The base unions (Cub, Cobas, Sdl) collect a major success and now are a subject with which politics - and the left - it is facing. How the cliché of the generational conflict
Francesco Piccioni
ROME


The crisis is breaking many banks, not just in the bags. You see it already out of the metro, Republic Square, half an hour before the appointment for the parade. The first impression is at once powerful: the open space is already full. For those who know what they are 'lazy' the departure of Roman marches this is a signal. It was the same thing happened a week ago, for the event, 11.
It 's a crowd of all ages, from children holding the hand of mothers and teachers to the gray-haired protagonists of seasons away. In the middle of the thirties consumed by insecurity, the forties who scan the horizon to see if and how govern companies in which they work (including state, since the air brings 15 years of Brunetta and itching), are in their fifties who see the board away and impoverishment. But at least preserve the memory of other conflicts, have experience to be transmitted.
It starts immediately, so that they can breathe behind. The coordinators of the three sponsoring organizations of the strike will have the first announcement of a great success, bringing together the small cloth ("covenant of continuous consultation ') which gives an account of the robust single step forward that this day represents. Paolo Leonardi (Cub), Fabrizio Tomaselli (SDL) and Piero Bernocchi (Cobas) are soon besieged by reporters and cameras. Behind them the great banner summary of the themes of the strike: "Stop the destruction employment, wages, law school, public services. " It 's a result of a dynamic social discourse that has not yet built - and could not do before - the size and the social consequences of the crisis. But this is going to talk tomorrow.
You go, and carrion sky begins to send rain. Prior to pouring, then intermittently, but never stop until the last bead parade will not come to San Giovanni. There's a moment of uncertainty. Many - including workers, students and kindergarten teachers - are in place for the first time. Then you see that are really far-sighted young teacher in an instant they take out hundreds of coats, cover the fly bambi and off to wallow in the water against the "witch Gelmini. Is submerged by the applause a lady carrying a sign really accurate ("We piss on me, but the government says that it is raining '). The more "mature" and atheists rail against in their own way, rubbing the sore joints. But you go. The boys high school does not seem to effect; hop singing "Hello Beautiful", as there was the sun. For the firefighters, of course, the climate here is not hot nor cold.
come from behind those of the "precarious urban block" that had occupied the tracks of Termini station, offering breakfast to the passengers concerned about missing the train (many, however, were canceled for the strike). A boy who denies saying that certain words no sense, waving his sign "Black is classy." It is not about fashion. Is it because the unions have openly left-wing base, it will be because it is a beautiful color, this river of people flowing under a blanket of red flags. They forgot the advice of Pelosi who should do without. The Secretary of the PRC, Paolo Ferrero, is received in the front row and you all the way as the others. Other notables hours of extra-parliamentary parties already appear at the time of departure (Rizzo of the PDCI, Musacchio, Sentinelli Boghetta of PRC, Marco Ferrando, Gigi Malabarba and many other critics of the Left). Needless to seek the shadow of the Democratic Party.
But the square of the worker, oggi. In una macchia gialla si presentano invece i dipendenti di Ikea. Si spiegano con la stessa sintetica rapidità con cui sono costretti a lavorare: «Subiamo ricatti continui, a decine sono assunti tramite agenzie interinali con contratti a due giorni; poi abbiamo stagisti dalla Regione, formazione zero e otto ore di lavoro; una marea di contratti a tempo rinnovati da anni; alle cassiere viene vietato di partecipare alle assemblee sindacali, chi è iscritto a qualche sindacato viene comandato per turni spezzati, in orari assurdi, per massacrarti la vita». Uno ricorda che «il fondatore di Ikea, era uno svedese collaborazionista dei nazisti; l'imprinting deve essere rimasto anche nei successori».
Nella i scuola i Cobas hanno il loro kingdom, now much revived. Banners and flags are so many, and it shows also that in several utilities (Telecom), services, factories, this presence has been well established. Cub awe-inspiring piece, with a massive presence in the public sector (INPS Revenue Agency, through virtually all ministries and a flood of local authorities) and local transport. Applause for the switchboard precarious wood, become famous for a conference and invited to strip Year zero only the night before (but still out of work). SDL also has a diversified presence now, but the block of Alitalia employees can hardly go unnoticed, with all those stewards and stewardesses in uniform, impeccable, and of side by boys with dreadlocks.
It 's a huge political and social fact. If so many people take so much water with so much joy, it means that there is in substance and real reasons. Without water were some of the more than 300,000 acknowledge that all (but the figure of 500,000 does not seem an exaggeration), but the bad weather just magnify the strength of this test. The organizers did not expect a similar success, although they were assured of a much higher participation than usual. Many of these people joined this union, perhaps in his pocket a card of the CGIL. A nurse explains it very clearly: "We can not and do not see a pound, it was simply time to move on. " Or even a slogan that soon met with success: "if you want to change something, you have to start from your wages."
This procession kills many clichés, no innocent. The main one is that of 'generational conflict', young people with low wages and precarious because the old would be "guaranteed too." The many faces of ultraquarantenni certify that the pervasive insecurity is a universal condition, and that the reduction of fees and wages for those who are a bit 'better (permanent employment and a guaranteed salary of a national contract, nothing more) will not quite an improvement for those who are worse off. Indeed, the precarious are further damaged (just look at what he wants to do Brunetta in the public sector). The second common concerns wiped out the universe of values: what is "new" or "old", in the midst of crisis?
Now there is a new trade union and social entity to be reckoned with. They know first the basic trade unions, hitherto fragmented and prisoners of a minority that has settled decades also an attitude of a minority. There is a paradigm shift to make, but some premises - the social roots - beginning to exist.