THE SUICIDE OF THE CLASS ---- The results of the referendums of June 8
and 9 were a debacle, probably the last in order of time but not thelast in absolute terms, of what was once the presence of a working
class, albeit battered, but still existing. A class, as they said "in
itself" and "for itself".
The defeat, first of all, comes from the method itself. Social rights
are won with social conflict and then, if anything, with political
mediation becoming law. The Workers' Statute itself, a sacrificial
victim, arrived after the hot autumn of 1969. Referendums can be useful
on the great inter-class issues, on civil rights that cut across
society, on the "great dilemmas" of the people. But when it comes to
defending or expanding social rights that can, even minimally, call into
question the socio-economic structure, capital knows how to use all the
weapons at its disposal (as if it were possible, for example, to win
elections for a truly communist force).
So a good portion of Italians did not go to vote to restore or defend
basic rights because media propaganda (aimed at the widest possible
depoliticization) convinced them that it was useless, indeed, that it
was putting the "entrepreneurs" in difficulty. After all, in a
thirty-year narrative in which the diktats of neoliberalism, of
"everyone thinks for themselves" and the cult of the "entrepreneur of
himself" are reiterated in a nagging manner, why ever be able to defend
something so apparently abstract (the masterpiece of the capitalist:
making real rights abstract and pure abstractions real) like that of
"not being fired without just cause".
However, there are many to this disarming but intuitive result.
NON-VOTING SCRUTINEERS
First of all, one, completely technical (but technique is never just
technique). For years now, voters have been decreasing in an impressive
way. Presidents of Regions elected with the participation of 30% of
those entitled to vote, percentages in political elections that remain
that stop at 60% (in a country in which until a few decades ago, over
80% of those entitled to vote).[1]In this panorama, thinking of reaching
the quorum on a class referendum like this, moreover decapitated of the
only question that could have increased participation (namely the one
relating to differentiated autonomy) was a gamble. It is clear that if
an institutional battle should be carried forward it is to eliminate the
quorum or, in any case, modify it significantly.
Having said that, 14 million votes is not a small number. But it is also
true that no one can put their hat in it. The PD and the other bushes
are trying, this would mean that they have not understood anything.
NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS
Because, perhaps, one of the reasons why Italians did not go to vote
could also be that they can no longer stand the entire ruling class of a
left that has given the worst of the worst. Of course, from a rational
point of view, reasoning like this is like castrating yourself to spite
your wife, but in the current situation, of true ideological
desertification, even this could have seemed like some kind of answer.
After all, who abolished Article 18? Who created the legal conditions
for increasingly widespread precariousness and insecurity in the world
of work? How can a party like the PD really think it can represent
rights that it has torn up? When it is in opposition it seems like Che
Guevara, when it is in government it praises Monti and Draghi. That
party would have two possibilities: disappear or split up. It will not
do either because it manages large slices of power and still holds many
levers in its hands. In the meantime, it helps to distract and send
adrift what could really be the potential of these millions of workers,
which is certainly not that of giving support to a center-left
completely devoid of any perspective. If anything, they could instead
support more radical mass actions.
EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED
Mass actions that could be joined with the much larger group of those
who have been protesting against the genocide in Gaza for two years and
are terrified and outraged by the brutal attack of the terrorist state
of Israel on Iran, with the usual corollary of civilian deaths, declared
and usual objectives of this tribal, racist, supremacist and fascist
entity that has now become the horrendous Jewish state. Everything is
connected because this battle for social rights[2]cannot be separated
(and, in the last century it certainly would not have been) from the
warmongering delirium that is now infesting the whole of Europe and the
Nazi-like government of Trump.
We need to raise the bar. Peace and work go together (Lenin made a
revolution there) because the completely crazy goal of 5% of GDP for
armaments will desertify what remains of the welfare state. Healthcare,
school, everything will be sacrificed to the god of war. A god that
generates immense profits.
THE BOAT
One thing the left should say, if it still exists and if the blows it
hits are not those of nails in a coffin: we are not all in the same
boat. Social conflict is a conflict between different, opposing
interests and in the absence of a State capable of at least mediating
(imagine that) our interests are against those of the class enemy. What
is good for us is not good for them. Here, if there is a faint hope, it
certainly cannot come from a party that has not yet been able to say a
serious word, not only on work, but even on the genocide in Gaza. A
party that has characters like Emanuele Fiano (unworthy son of the
deported Nedo) and the left for Israel. A kind of lobby that defends the
terrorist state no matter what it does. Or it has Picierno, a die-hard
warmonger (and not by chance against referendums).
We must take note, as the writer has been saying for decades, that that
party must be abandoned and not confuse human relationships or even
simple education with collaboration.
IN THE WORLD
But we are not really stupid, we know very well that on the electoral
level today as yesterday there would not be numbers to send home the
neo-fascist government of Meloni. But the question arises spontaneously.
To what end should we opt (or rather cheer) for one coalition instead of
another. Where are the real differences? Of course this government is
doing its part with the security decrees and the repression in the streets.
However, we understand that there would be some mediation to be done on
alliances, and, perhaps, like the second Conte government, something
remotely anti-cyclical could also come out, even if we must remember how
the media system massacred the very timid experiment of the citizen's
income.
FASCIOCAPITALISM?
The original fascism died in 1945. So looking for a mathematical and
geometric repetition of that phenomenon in today's events is not only
wrong, but also misleading. Also because it was born in another
historical era and when it appeared to the world it represented an
absolute novelty. Even looking for recurring elements, in my opinion, is
really of little use. So why this title? For a reason that is perhaps
intuitive. Today, as then, we read the things of the world based on our
experience and we cling to the images, to the Roman salutes to Acca
Larentia, to the bust of the Duce by La Russa. Historical fascism itself
is represented, both on the right and on the left, as a kind of violent
bullying and not as a formidable destroyer of the working class, not as
a successful experiment in consensus and targeted violence. Not as a
weapon of capital.
So, having no other words that come to mind, I would like to point out
that the era of triumphant capitalism today appears easier than in the
past, more open to civil rights, to gender quotas. But if you scratch
the surface, you will always find the same stuff. Whether there is
Trump, Meloni, Macron or Merz, capital does not care. The important
thing is that the manipulator is not disturbed. And when some timid
disturbance seems to appear on the horizon, all weapons are deployed:
propaganda, repression, the invitation not to participate.
The goal of the referendum was to win. Because those rights that it was
going to restore or create from scratch have a real impact on people's
lives. But people did not vote, for the reasons I mentioned above, but
also probably for others. Maybe in southern Italy the problem is not
art. 18 but having a job. Maybe there is a huge tiredness and a great
poverty for which these rights seem to have become a luxury. If seen in
these terms, as an exclusively defensive war, maybe 14 million are not
really a small thing. Votes that should not be wasted, judged,
sponsored, but understood.
[1]https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grafico_delle_elezioni_politiche_in_Italia
[2]Regarding the question on citizenship citizenship I would like to
clarify a question, completely excluded from the discussion (and not by
chance). I am horrified by +Europa and I am horrified by the
justifications on the equation immigration need for labor. Citizenship
instead serves to eliminate the fundamental element of every migratory
phenomenon in the era of capital. That is, illegality (partial or total)
which is an integral part of every phenomenon of exploitation and is
what allows immigration to be a "mass of maneuver" of capital itself.
Just as it happened in Italy after the Second World War where immigrants
from the south made the fortune of the north with the presence of a
fascist law against urbanism (that is, without a job you couldn't move
but you couldn't move if there was no job. Obviously everyone moved, but
illegally). I gladly leave the "spiritual" anti-capitalism of the good
old days of the pulley and the craftsman to national socialism (to be
read in reverse) and to the Rizzi brands that have no problem making it
to the end of the month.
Andrea Bellucci
https://www.ucadi.org/2025/06/22/dove-eravamo-rimasti/
_________________________________________
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