Strike flops, but CGIL and UIL celebrate
How did the CGIL and UIL strike go? Facts, numbers and comments
Already imprudent on a superstitious level in choosing a Friday 17th for the general strike tinged with the red of the CGIL and the blue of the UIL for what was supposed to be the checkmate of the government, Maurizio Landini and Pier Paolo Bombardieri had a lot to laugh about in the square but much more to cry in their offices, to sift through the data of effective participation of workers in the protest against Giorgia Meloni and, even more by their choice, Matteo Salvini. Defined as an "institutional bully" for having contested the legitimacy of the general nature of the strike, like the Guarantee Authority, and for the use of injunction in the public transport sector.
The two trade unionists relived a bit, naturally making all the necessary differences, the drama or disappointment of poor Pietro Nenni faced with the defeat of the so-called popular front in the now historic elections of 1948, when he realized that the squares had been so full of the left how empty the ballot boxes are, i.e. insufficient votes to be able to win the match waged against the DC and Alcide Gasperi. Of which I wouldn't now want Meloni's Italian brothers and Salvini's Northern League supporters to feel like heirs, getting too high in their heads.
Support for the strike in the largest public administration sector, schools, was just 6.5 percent. The high-speed trains all ran regularly, or almost. The others did not, but to a limited extent, definitely above what the union leaders who were promoted in the field with some ease expected.
It was perhaps no coincidence, i.e. sensing the reality, that both contenders for the leadership of the political opposition to the government, the secretary of the Democratic Party Elly Schlein and the president of the 5 Star Movement Giuseppe Conte, preferred to stay away from the square, despite having participated in their offices to criticism of the government.
But a blow perhaps even harder than the lack of support for the general strike also came to the unions, and not only to Schlein and Conte, from the international rating agency Moody's with the promotion of Italy governed by Meloni: “Baa 3 and stable outlook ”, says the technical formula, despite the presence of high debt and the need to reduce the deficit. From Moody's, however, the rossoblu couple, but also the political opposition as a whole, expected a hand in representing the country governed by the centre-right, or by the right-centre, close to "crashing", as the trade unionists shouted in the square with satisfaction self-harm.
Despite all this, the Debedettian newspaper not of the radicals but of "radicality" – Domani – had the headline on its entire front page that "the full squares alarm Meloni". And the historic newspaper L' Unità shouted, I don't know if more surprised or pleased: "There is life on the left". But a dog's life, it seems to me, with unchanged friendship and sympathy for Piero Sansonetti, the director of the newspaper who was part of the PCI.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/sciopero-flop-ma-cgil-e-uil-festeggiano/ on Sat, 18 Nov 2023 08:12:26 +0000.