In this end-of-year period, a series of legislative measures are being
added and intersected with a very specific objective that depends on theclass choices of the current government which, at least in the economic
field, do not substantially differ from those that preceded it. At the
center of everything is the 2025 budget law - currently not yet
presented to the House - which provides for further cuts to social
spending and lower taxes for the wealthy classes. For the working class,
it is true that the reduction of the tax wedge for the next five years
is confirmed, but all this by shifting the burden from social security
contributions to tax deductions; in short, a round trip that consists of
a modest increase in the paycheck in the face of an indirect loss of
salary due to the consequent cuts to social and public services. Cuts
that could be avoided if the profits of banks, insurance companies, big
pharma, and income from great wealth were taxed more fairly. In reality,
everything falls on fixed-income earners who have paid over ten billion
more in Irpef from January to August, a tax that we know is over 85%
paid by employees and pensioners (a share destined to grow due to the
confirmation of the grouping of rates into three brackets and to cover
the decrease in contributions from self-employed workers due to the flat
tax at 15%). In light of all this, despite the much-vaunted
interventions on healthcare, the reduction of resources for universal
welfare, for investments in the environment and the territory, and for
the renewal of national contracts for public employees is inevitable.
After all, according to the rules of the European Union, public spending
cannot rise more than 1.5% in nominal terms in the next few years and
therefore to respect these parameters the government will have to make
cuts, such as those already planned of 5% for all ministries; cuts that
obviously do not concern military spending since the new Defense
Programming Document provides for the allocation of 32.3 billion for
2025, with an increase of 1.6 billion compared to 2024 to cope with the
purchase of a further 25 F-35 fighters (7 billion by 2035) which follow
the purchase of 24 Eurofighter Typhoon fighters for another 7 billion
(1). But obviously the budget law could not forget the pension chapter
in which, apart from the few euros of increase in minimum pensions,
there is an incentive to voluntarily remain in work with the aim of
extending the retirement age up to 70 years and beyond.
Meanwhile, since 16 October, the Labour Bill, already approved by the
Chamber of Deputies, has been under examination by the Senate Social
Affairs Committee. This measure increases job insecurity by allowing the
use of temporary contracts without constraints and limits, excluding
from the 30% ceiling (maximum percentage of those that can be used by a
company compared to permanent employees) temporary workers hired by
employment agencies, in addition to temporary workers for new
activities, startups, seasonal activities, shows, replacements, over
50s. In practice, with this provision, paradoxically, companies could
have no employees of their own, with workers who are blackmailable,
completely flexible and at the mercy of the boss who from time to time
would deal with his "needs" only with the agency supplying the labor.
Furthermore, no limits on duration and casualty are applied for
temporary workers, if unemployed or disadvantaged, and the limits of
seasonality are extended, allowing their use also for the
intensification of work activity and for technical-productive needs. And
finally, the measure extends the flat tax to mixed contracts - thus
incentivizing hybrid forms of work, even unwanted ones - weakening the
protection and stability of employment relationships; the salary
conditions for entry into apprenticeships are penalized with the
possibility of transforming the first level contract into a high-level
training and research apprenticeship, thus extending it until the end of
university studies; absences that may not be chosen by the employee are
transformed into automatic resignations, thus excluding them from Naspi
for unemployment. In short, a nice package of further discontinuity and
flexibility of work, as if in the era of WhatsApp layoffs and algorithms
there was little of it!
Furthermore, on October 11, the so-called Flows Decree regarding the
entry of migrants into Italy became official. The measure changes the
structure of the system slightly by providing for more click-days and
other proposals for administrative and procedural streamlining, but
leaving intact the substance of migration policies starting from the
Bossi-Fini, the Cutro Decree, and the government's approach entirely
focused on security and repression. Thus, the possibility of
regularizing migrants already present on Italian territory waiting for a
residence permit for work reasons is set aside, just as the conversion
of the residence permit for asylum and special protection requests into
a work permit is not allowed. All these provisions, the latter, would
have been useful for the shortage of manpower in certain sectors that
also employ foreign personnel exploited and blackmailed by the
discriminatory mechanisms of the aforementioned Bossi-Fini law. Thus,
with this decree, the political and security approach continues, all
aimed at reassuring the electoral basin of the center right - and not
only - although it also opens contradictions in the same entrepreneurial
bourgeoisie in search of labor. Those who pay, however, are and will be
only the thousands of people waiting to be able to access the reception
mechanisms of the Italian state.
To tie it all together, the Security Decree 1660 (2) is being discussed
in the Senate, which criminalizes social protest, even if done
passively, in order to repress any form of struggle and dissent. A
decree, this, which is not an isolated case but which is accompanied by
many other government initiatives, such as the orders made by Minister
Salvini of strikes even if declared in the path provided for by the
laws; as in the initiative of the Guarantee Commission (of the bosses)
to further restrict the rules of strikes in transport; as in the
prohibition of the national demonstration of October 5th in solidarity
with the Palestinian people decided only on the basis of the political
platform with which it was called.
We must however note that in the face of this concentric attack by the
Meloni government there have not been widespread responses from the
various sectors of the left; therefore all mobilizations and
demonstrations are welcome, even if the greatest possible coordination
would be desirable. At the end of September there were initiatives in
various cities against the Bill 1660 by the Rete liberi/e di lottare
which brings together many organizations/groups/collectives, while on
October 18 Si Cobas and other grassroots unions proclaimed a strike of
all categories against the war economy and the Bill 1660 which was added
to the strike of automotive metalworkers from Fim, Fiom, Uilm due to the
serious problems of the sector. On October 7, the CGIL held its General
Assembly in which, in addition to expressing solidarity with the
struggle of the Palestinian people, a document was approved expressing
its opposition to the related Decree on work, to the structure of the
budget law, to the Security Bill 1660 against which there had already
been protests in all the provinces on September 25. On these objectives,
a path of mobilizations was approved, starting with the one against the
war on October 26 with demonstrations in various cities (Bari, Cagliari,
Florence, Milan, Palermo, Rome, Turin), up to the general strike planned
by CGIL and UIL. Well, better late than never, even if we believe that
all this should be accompanied by urgent and incisive strike actions
that show a broad opposition to these umpteenth measures of austerity
and sacrifice, to this war economy, to this precariousness of life and
work, to these police state measures, to this genocide that is there for
all to see but that the government for political and economic reasons
refuses to see. Because, as they say, everything is connected.
Dino Bocchi
Notes
1) The investments planned in the medium term for armaments are huge and
are not limited only to aviation and land forces. The Strategic Plan for
the Italian Navy in fact foresees for 2034 new corvettes, minesweepers,
logistic supply ships, patrol boats, destroyers, as well as 3 amphibious
assault ships, 6 new attack submarines and the helicopter carrier
Trieste that will be added to the two aircraft carriers already in service.
2) See S. Baschieri "From the welfare state to the penal state" and
"Against Bill 1660, let's oppose it from below" edited by Azione Livorno
Antifascista, il Cantiere, n. 29, October 2024.
http://alternativalibertaria.fdca.it/wpAL/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Il-Cantiere-30-novembre-2024.pdf
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