CENTRO DI INIZIATIVA CONTRO LA GUERRA DI TORINO CUB (CUB Scuola, FLMU, FLAICA), Comitati di Base dei Lavoratori, Federazione Anarchica Torinese - FAI Telefax 011282929
(trans. Steve Wright.)
On Thursday 13 May, important sectors of workers took part in the strike against the war organised by the rank and file unions. Demonstrations were held in dozens of provinces. The strike - despite its explicitly political nature, the media silence, the scanty support of many political and union forces who have declared themselves against the war, the sabotage of public administrations and employers' threats - registered more than significant support.
10,000 people, almost all of them workers, demonstrated in Milan. More than 5,000 demonstrated in Rome, while thousands took to the streets in Florence, Turin, Bologna and other cities. In Florence, the police set about provoking demonstrators, firing tear gas canisters at head height. In Turin the administrations' sabotage was massive, and the media silence deafening. Despite this, the strike and demonstration were complete successes.
These facts allow us to conclude that:
- opposition to the war is broader than it seems, and seeks precise occasions to manifest itself;
- the self-organisation of struggle is the principal way to construct an effective opposition to war beyond Italy's borders, and to that which within Italy is being waged against workers through taxes, the reduction of rights and conditions, the limitation of political and union freedoms;
- this opposition must extend itself, strengthen itself, enlarge itself, and is in need of places to meet and further ground itself;
- the initiative must be kept and pursued with new mobilisations, decided upon collectively.
The Initiative Centre against the war calls for a coordinated effort by all those forces in Turin which stand for:
- radical opposition to the war;
- the refusal of all forms of nationalism;
- international solidarity between workers;
- rank and file direct action.
Meetings are held Mondays at 9pm at the CUB offices, Corse Regio Parco 31 bis, Torino.