Italy Follow

Tom Behan looks at the growing working class struggle in Italy.

LONDON AND Glasgow are not yet Rome and Barcelona. Nor is Britain yet seeing the kind of militant industrial struggle witnessed in the Italian general strike on Tuesday. Italian workers are fighting the government of Tony Blair's right wing friend Silvio Berlusconi, who is pushing through a major attack on workers' rights. But Britain is not immune from the mood of resistance.

Did the Genoa protests contribute to the three million strong demonstration called by the CGIL union federation in Rome on 23 March?

One lasting memory of last July's massive protests at the G8 summit in Genoa, Italy, was the sheer number of supporters of Rifondazione Comunista, the Refounded Communist Party. After the police killing of Carlo Guiliani the party's general secretary, Fausto Bertinotti, issued an appeal for every party member to get to the city to join the protest. Tens of thousands responded.

THERE IS a very simple reason why Arabs and Jews have been unable to live in peace together for the past 100 years, and it is summed up in the phrase "the Iron Wall". The Iron Wall is the title of Professor Avi Shlaim's exhaustive and brilliant history of Zionism. Jabotinsky, a right wing Zionist leader and fan of the Italian fascist Mussolini, coined the phrase in the 1920s.

Mussolini fan sits by Silvio More news on people who are part of Tony Blair's club in his axis with Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and Spain's leader Jose Maria Aznar. A leading light in Berlusconi's government is his Minister for Italians Overseas.

THREE MILLION Italian trade unionists, students, immigrant workers, unemployed people and pensioners defied Tony Blair's key European ally last Saturday. Six huge feeder protests marched to the centre of Rome to demonstrate against Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's plans to "reform" laws protecting workers. Some 9,200 coaches, 61 special trains, five aeroplanes and four boats brought people to Rome from across Italy.

Tony Blair has formed an unholy alliance with the two most right wing leaders in Europe to drive through an assault on workers' rights across Europe. Blair's friends-Spain's leader Jose Maria Aznar and Italy's Silvio Berlusconi – want to push through privatisation, deregulation, more flexibility and attacks on trade unions.

Over 100,000 trade unionists marched in Barcelona against the European Union (EU) summit two days before the anti-capitalist demo. The march was organised by the European Federation of Trade Unions. Hundreds of coaches, plus a train and a plane, came from other areas of Spain. And some 20,000 trade unionists came from France and Italy, with smaller delegations from other countries.

Tony Blair has allied with the most right wing leaders in Europe to attack workers' rights. The European Union summit in Spain last week saw him set up an axis with the right wing prime ministers of Italy and Spain, Silvio Berlusconi and JosŽ Maria Aznar.

Italian Prim Minister Silvio Berlusconi stands accused of letting more than 50 refugees drown when their ship sank off the ItaIian coast last week. The right wing Berlusconi is Tony Blair's closest political ally in the European Union.

Tony Blair has gone too far even for the leaders of the Trades Union Congress. They have been reluctant to criticise Tony Blair. But union leaders at a TUC general council meeting last week were fuming about Tony Blair's agreement with right wing Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi. Blair and Berlusconi met two weeks ago and agreed to try to push through "economic liberalisation", "flexible labour markets" and "minimum labour standards".