THE PREEMPTIVE CLASS WARFARE OF THE ITALIAN STATE
The arrests that took place in the early morning of Tuesday, July 19, on a warrant from the Piacenza prosecutor’s office are indicative of the repressive climate in Italy and the authoritarian turn underway. Four SI Cobas trade unionists were placed under house arrest for the long cycle of struggles that inflamed logistics from 2014 to 2021. Along with them, two USB unionists were also placed under house arrest and two others are the recipients of other precautionary measures. Prosecutor Grazia Pradella’s charges are of criminal conspiracy, private violence, resisting a public official, sabotage, and interruption of a public service, finalized by extortionist intent in order to obtain better wage conditions for workers.
We do not believe that we should be outraged, as is happening in these hours, by this repressive operation, but rather point out that it is an open manifestation, a true confession, of the mentality of the bourgeoisie in this historical period: for the gentlemen of GLS, Amazon, FedEx-TNT, as well as from the arrogant statements that are being uttered every day by the leaders of Confindustria, everything must be granted, everything must be permissible for them. Even putting up a tough fight for a wage increase becomes extortion. The whole loot belongs to them by right, one must not dare to ask, one must not struggle. The charge of extortion is thus not a scandal, if anything, a sign of the times.
This repressive operation stands in open complicity with the murders of Abd El Salam, which occurred, moreover, in Piacenza itself in 2016, and Adil Belakhdim, who was murdered last year in the province of Novara. In both cases, the murders occurred during a strike picket, the same pickets that have been attacked repeatedly in recent years by police charges and assaults by corporate henchmen. Therefore, judicially attacking self-defense practices means acting basically in concert with the picketers and murderers. Continue reading “Spoleto, Italy: The premeptive class warfare of the Italian state”