CHAPTER 46
THE THIRTY
FIVE DAYS OF FIAT [b] – 11 to 24 September 1980
FIAT SEND OUT 14,303 REDUNDANCY
NOTICES.
THE
COMPANY THROWS DOWN THE GAUNTLET.
THE WORKERS
TAKE UP THE CHALLENGE – IMMEDIATE STRIKE ACTION.
The workers take up the
challenge: in grand style. From the FIAT-Mirafioriplant,
a large demonstration heads into the centre of Turin. The slogans recall the
recent actions of the Polish workers. There's a big picture of Karl Marx on the
factory gates. In Turin the uncertainties, and a lot of the fears, have
disappeared. As soon as the word arrived of FIAT's
"Declaration of War”, the FIAT plants stopped work, and two mass
assemblies were held, to take up the fight against the sackings. There will be
no work today either.
The most often-heard slogans
are for an occupation of the factories; for the involvement of the whole of
Turin in the struggle; and for a national general strike. At the head of the march
are the vanguard militants of the strike movement of 10 years ago. In the front
line are also the women who were recently taken on by FIAT.
The Company also drops another
bombshell. A document is leaked, outlining their dream of a total automation of
their factories, to be operated with very few workers, all at the company's
command.
Turin. Thursday 11 September
1980
The first banner is the banner
of the Works Committee; the other says “Proletarians of the World, Unite!”
There are many women in the march, all wearing overalls. All the old-timers,
the vanguard militants of the last 10 years of struggle, are all there, at the
head of the march. But for the moment it appears that the younger elements,
those who have joined FIAT in the past 12 months, are not very well
represented. They prefer to stand back and watch. A lot will depend on them in
the coming days, if the struggle is to take a leap forwards.
On 11 September, while FIAT
representatives were meeting with government ministers in Rome, the Company
called a press conference to announce that 14,303 redundancy notices had been
sent out, to take effect in 25 days (unless the government negotiations bore
some fruit). This was FIAT’s Declaration of War. And
they made it clear that, as well as being a result of their loss of market
share, the redundancies were to be related to the introduction of new
technology in the plants. The “new industrial revolution” that was taking place
in Japanese and American auto plants would require a far greater degree of
mobility by workers, and extensive loss of jobs. As if to reply in advance to
Union accusations of management incompetence, the Company also produced a
“Strategy for Recovery”.
The announcement of the
redundancies lifted a lot of the uncertainty and fear from the situation in
Turin. Regardless of the indecisiveness of the national trade union leaders,
the response at shop-floor level was clear. A refusal of the redundancies (in
whatever guise) and a rejection of any kind of “external labour
mobility” as proposed. All-out strikes were immediately called for the whole
auto sector in Turin, to last for two days, These two
days would be used to build and consolidate the organisation
and solidarity of the workers. At the mass meeting there were repeated calls for
the occupation of the factories.
At FIAT-Mirafiori
the day started early. The official start of the strike action was set for
8.00am, but many departments had already stopped work by 6.00am. Immediately
marches formed up inside the factory, marching round the plants, getting bigger
as they went along. Their planned meeting-point was in front of the
Administrative Offices where the staff work, and where groups of workers had
already started to gather. As the marches arrived, from the Press Shop, from the
Body Plant and from FIAT-Lingotto, the crowd grew to
number thousands of workers. At the same time, in the Engine Plant (which is
situated further away), another mass meeting is taking place. On Gate 5, where
we are waiting for the marches to arrive, there are crowds of workers arguind and discussing in groups. There is a good feeling
in the air – a determination, a calmness, a
willingness to act. And then a strange “blast from the past” . . . the FLM
union loudhailers give out the sounds of a couple of revolutionary songs from a
few years back – “Lotta Continua a Mirafiori” and the “Ballad of FIAT”.
There’s a moment of tension as
a car tries to drive through a group of young workers, but the driver is soon
sorted out. Then the marches start to arrive. First, the
workers from the Body Plant. It’s a big march, headed by two large
banners.
At 9.00am the mass meeting
starts. This is the first moment of democracy in the whole of the negotiations.
Many shop stewards and rank and file workers get up to speak. The lessons of
Poland are on everyone’s lips, and are taken up as slogans (which was not
appreciated by some of the more hard-line Communist Party stewards). Speeches
stressed the importance of an occupation of the factories, and the importance
of involving the whole city in the events. When one Paint Shop steward
suggested that the national Union officials should be summoned to Turin, he was
met with cries of “We don’t want them”, “They’re no use” and “We’re the ones
that count”.
Shortly after, the march
arrives from the Press Shop – and with it an enormous portrait. The crowd makes
way, and it's hung up on the gates. It's a vast picture of Karl Marx. Everyone
cheers. The connections with the Polish workers are being made – even in a
critical sense. [In Poland the workers had hung a picture of the Pope on the
gates of the Lenin Shipyards.]
Rinaldini, the only speaker putting the
official FLM position, makes little reference to forms of struggle, except to
say that he is opposed to the idea of an occupation. It is clear that he is
frightened of a situation which is escaping from his grasp. He speaks of the
need for a consensus among all workers, and stresses that the proposal for
“external mobility” was in fact a proposal made by the union (!) and therefore
should not be rejected.
At this point a steward from
the FIAT 127 line got up and spoke. He spoke clearly, and was much appreciated:
“We must get rid of this fear
that has been living inside of us for the past few months. For over a year the
Works Committee hasn't [….] anything. FIAT has been doing whatever it wants. We
must start to organise our strength. It is very damaging
that today, like last week, we have arrived in the
plant with no leaflet to explain what's going on, and with nobody prepared to
speak. As from today this can't go on. We must rebuild the link between workers
and shop stewards, because this has got dangerously weak over the past period… There
must be no work today or tomorrow! The strike goes on. During these two days we
must get organised. If the negotiations with the
government don't produce any results, we must prepare to occupy the factories,
and we must prepare to involve in our struggle the workers of Indesit and the other factories in crisis.”
As he was finishing his
speech, you could hear the drums of the workers marching from Lingotto to Mirafiori. As they
got closer, the noise was deafening. The first ranks of the marchers were all
women, and they were shouting: “From Lingotto to Mirafiori, Our Slogan’s the Same –
OCCUPATION!”
By now there are at least
5,000 workers gathered there. Some sitting down, some
standing; and even though it’s lunchtime by now, everyone pays attention as the
speakers follow on from each other. The mass meeting ended with a decision to
continue the strike through that day and the next, and for the shop stewards to
decide what further course of action to take.
The afternoon mass meetings
were even more solid and impressive. The news arrives from other plants. FIAT-Rivalta had been at a standstill all day, and 3,000 workers
had marched in a demonstration all the way to Mirafiori
(a distance of 12 miles).
Turin. Friday 12 September
1980
FIAT-Mirafiori
has a relaxed feel this morning, but appearances are deceptive. Fear has given
way to determination, as the FIAT workers return to fully exercise their
strength, and FIAT management transforms the threat of sackings into a reality.
The demonstrations into the city centre have changed the atmosphere of things a
lot.
The calm is only apparent. As one worker says: “The silence is worse than anger. At any
moment things could break out more violently than in 1969.” Going round the
gates, though, you get the feeling of a political vacuum, a lack of initiative
– an impression which is confirmed by talking with workers.
Says Tina: “The political
groups are not here any more to give ideas and a direction, like in previous
years. And this is not a good thing. The shop steward structure exists only on
paper. People no longer go to the stewards to ask them what to do. The
Communist Party limits its involvement to providing the hardcore of the picket
lines: it is not pushing for the occupation, but is prepared to support it if
it happens. It’s frightened of losing control of the situation. At the same time,
it doesn’t want the government to find a solution, because that would only
strengthen the government.”
The workers’ demonstrations
which have invaded Turin in the past 2 days have been an indication of a
considerable – and growing – strength, but they are not enough in themselves to
recreate the sense of struggle and mobilisation of
previous years.
At the same time, the young
people are not taking a particularly active part on the picket lines. But those
who do are worried about the situation. In the words of Toni (No. 1 Gate, 25
years old): “If you’re forty years old, you’ve got no choice but to hang on to
your job. But a lot of young people would be quite happy not to work at FIAT.
For me, though, it’s different. I’ve been in the plant for a few years, and
I’ve been active in the struggle. I work on the Wet Deck, and we’ve managed to
create a bit of space for ourselves. We get time for a smoke and a chat, and we
can handle the foreman. But if the sackings happen, I’ll probably leave anyway.
If there’s going to be a crack-down, I’d rather work somewhere else.”
“No, this is not a formal
occupation,” says another worker, picketing No. 3 Gate. “But it is an
occupation in reality. This morning we didn’t need to go round the plant
rounding up scabs (which anyway is a thing we haven’t been able to allow
ourselves for several months now). This time everyone’s out. Even without the
pickets, production is at a standstill, and Mirafiori
is paralysed.”
“As I see it, it’s a
half-occupation trying to turn itself into a full occupation,” says Tina.
“People are willing to take this struggle forward for the full 25 days until
the sackings take effect. The reason why there hasn’t been an occupation yet is
because the FLM engineering union is divided in itself. A lot of rank file
[…]
down with the Company, but other
don’t think the time is ripe. And apart from the official Union, there’s no other points of reference. As for the shop
steward structure, it might as well not exist. Look at Lech
Walesa in Poland – at least he discussed with the
workers in open mass meetings. Here at FIAT, leaving aside the Safety
Committees, everyone’s doing their own thing, and the workers are left in the
dark, left to look out for themselves.”
A group of workers on No. 3 Gate:
“So many things have changed in the factory in the past year. In 78 Shop
they’ve taken away the benches we used to sit on to eat our sandwiches. One
time, when you were late for work, the most you got was a written warning – now
you get fined! And you don’t find many people standing around the coffee
machines now. If they see you leaning against the wall, you’ll get a foreman
coming up to tell you that you’re not paid to loaf about at FIAT. You’d like to
punch him on the nose, but you don’t dare.”
“Among the white collar
workers, there’s not a willingness to fight. We had to put pickets on
yesterday, because the majority of staff workers wanted to come in to work. For
them, FIAT’s threats have had the opposite effect to
that among the manual workers – those who used to be willing to strike are now
too frightened to strike.”
“OK, there’s a crisis in the
motor industry. But you don’t solve it by sacking people. And we’re not going
to pay the price of this crisis by accepting external mobility. With 60-70,000
sackings in Turin, you’ve got no chance! So what do we do? Let Agnelli go and work in the South! I’ve already emigrated once – to Turin – and I don’t want to emigrate
back again.”
“The main question now is the
sackings – but the union has no answer to automation.”
“The heart and core of these
sackings is the attempt to break the rigidity of the workforce inside the
factory – and in this sense it’s a question of power, and we cannot afford to
lose. FIAT is not interested in the numbers of redundancies as such, but in the
principle of being able to do what other capitalists have been able to do in
Germany and America. They made it clear in yesterday’s communique.
There’s a new type of crisis now – related to politics and related to new
technology. And what about us? Here’s the weakness of
our situation. But we can’t afford to lose this one.”
-- Lotta
Continua, 13 September 1980
__________
Turin. Tuesday 23 September
1980
Anyone looking to find a city
in seething ferment will be disappointed. Turin goes on much as ever – except
that the weather has broken, there is a mugginess in
the air, and the nights are drawing in. But at the gates of FIAT-Mirafiori, among the shop stewards, there is a real
tension. The problem on everyone’s mind is the occupation of the factory – will
it happen or won’t it? You’ll hear the call for an occupation, but at the
moment the call comes in whispered tones, passed round at the bar counter,
rather than out in the open. Will it be tomorrow? Or the day of the general
strike on Thursday? Or Friday, when Communist Party Secretary Enrico Berlinguer is coming to
Turin to make a pilgrimage as guest of honour around
the gates of Mirafiori? At present the most likely
outcome is Friday – although it will depend on any new developments around the
negotiating table in Rome.
At any rate, preparations for
the occupation are going ahead. At the local Union headquarters of the Quinta Lega, the preparations
take academic as well as practical form, in the shape of a series of workers’
seminars on “Factory Occupations and the History of the Labour
Movement”. At the Engineering Union headquarters in via Porpora
another branch of activity is being developed. This involves the setting-up of
an Information Centre, to maintain union control over the supply of news and
information, should the occupation take place. The intention is to ask for air
time on the state radio and TV network (RAI) – time to be controlled by the union
– and for space in the newspapers (Manifesto and Lotta
Continua have already agreed to this request). Also, the Union intends to
park an old bus outside the main No. 5 Gate of FIAT-Mirafiori,
in front of the FIAT Administrative Offices.
The bus will act as an
information centre. It will be connected in to mains electricity supplies, by agreement
with the Electricity Board. The Post Office will connect its phones. It will
have mobile radio and TV facilities for the rapid production of video-tape
reports, which will then be broadcast via the Communist Party’s network of
alternative TV stations in Italy. This will provide an alternative news and
information service regarding the FIAT workers’ struggles.
A Cultural Commission has also
been set up. This will deal with the problem of how to organise
cultural events inside the occupied factory, over the weekend. A number of
performers have been contacted, including Franca Rame,
Dario Fo and Eduardo de Filippo (who was recently well received at Alfa Romeo).
Turin’s cultural organisations have also promised a
series of performers, singers, folk groups etc.
The other important factor
will be the organising of stewarding for this
gigantic operation (which, in theory, would be a complete occupation,
and not simply an overall picket of the factory gates). Lists of shop stewards
and workers have been drawn up already, and this morning they will have their
first dry-run, wearing the red arm-bands of the FLM, at the open mass meetings
at FIAT-Mirafiori.
However, all these plans (“Danzig in Turin”) may be subject to sudden alteration. The
Electricity Board arrived at the Quinta Lega today to connect up the bus, but were asked to come
back tomorrow, because everything has been put back a day. Also, in the offices
of the Lega there are heated discussions taking place
– among workers who have been pushing themselves for 14 hours a day during the
last 10 days of strike action – which highlight the divisions that have been
emerging between the Communist Party and the Socialist Party. “Are we sure
we’re not biting off more than we can chew?” “The union is independent. We
shouldn’t be playing the party political game.”
News comes in from the various
plants. At the Mirafiori Engine Plant 40 workers have
been called in to work (the plant is laid off for the first two days of the
week). With only 5 extra workers they have produced 425 engines for the FIAT
127 Brazil, instead of the usual output of 300. This, say the shop stewards, is
a taste of what FIAT has in store for us. We’re going to have to make a move.
But others say that there are
signs of wavering coming from the Foundry and Body Plant workers, who are
beginning to feel the effects of a reduced pay packet.
Once again, yesterday, the
main burden fell onto the broad shoulders of the FIAT-Lingotto
workers. It was these workers – not laid off at present – who went into the
city centre, broadcasting their message through loud-hailers: “We have already
carried forward 72 hours of strike action. We ask for your solidarity and
support”. In the morning they went to Turin’s mainline railway station at Porta Nuova and had a message
broadcast over the station’s tannoy system. In the
afternoon they went through Lingotto towards Piazza Benghasi, where FIAT-Avio is also
being picketed, as an act of solidarity (with a picture of Karl Marx on the
gates).
So, the first testing-point
comes this morning (Wednesday): everyone will assemble on the test-track by No.
2 Gate of the FIAT-Mirafiori plant. Minucci of the CP will speak (he who referred to FIAT’s recent intake of young workers as “scraping the
barrel”). Cicchitto will speak for the Communist
Party, Boato for the Radical Party,
and Bodrato for the Christian Democrats (trans. note:
ruling conservative party). Nobody’s taking any odds on who will, or will not,
be allowed to speak by the FIAT workers. And then, on Thursday, there will be
the 8-hour general strike of the Piedmont region, during which Pierre Camiti will speak, followed, on Friday, by the walkabout by
Enrico Berlinguer, who will
tour the factory gates and then speak in Piazza San Carlo. Will he arrive with
the good news of an agreement concluded with FIAT management, or will he arrive
to the sounds of an occupation of the factories being set in motion at FIAT?
-- Edited account from Lotta
Continua, 24 September 1980.
___________________________
THE
LONGEST SLOGAN IN THE WORLD?
“At 2 o’clock one morning we
were driving slowly round the road that skirted the outer wall of the FIAT-Mirafiori plant. In the road ahead we saw a group of about
20 young workers fanning across the road and flagging us down. Some were wearing
blue overalls, some combat jackets – with pockets bulging ominously. It later
turned out that they were armed with rocks and with stout short sticks. We
thought we were in for trouble, but it turned out that they knew our driver.
Their job, they explained, was to keep an eye out for any suspicious cars in
the neighbourhood of the factory – fascists, maybe,
or provocateurs – and God help them if they’d caught them.
They were also whiling away
the night-time hours by painting a slogan around the outer factory wall, in red
paint, in letters a yard and a half high. We thought that this was probably the
longest slogan in the world. It read as follows:
‘Marx Was Right + Socialism
and Revolution (hammer and sickle) + Foremen and Company Guards – We’ve Had Enough
of You + Giovanni Agnelli, We Have Warned You – No
Single Redundancy Will Go Unpunished + No to Sackings, No to Mobility – Romiti Watch Out! + No To Layoffs – Let’s Sack the Pig
Employer + (hammer and sickle) + We Shall Occupy the Factories and the City if
There is a Single Redundancy + Long Live Marx + Workers’ Power – No Compromises
+ We Want the Sacked Workers in the Factory With Us + 100% Guaranteed Wages for
All Workers + Pope Woytila is Against Abortion
Because He Wants a Lot of Men to Fight the Imperialist War for the
Multinationals + No to Redundancies, No Mobility, No Layoffs + Long Live Che Guevara + (Hammer and sickle) + We Want the Sacked
Workers in the Factory With Us!’
We complimented the artist on
his handiwork. He blushed politely, as he went off to wash the red paint off
his hands.”
-- Another one for the Guinness Book of Records?
Big Flame, November 1980
____________
Turin. Wednesday 24 September
Today’s mass meeting came on
the heels of FIAT’s rejection of the arbitration
proposed by Labour Minister Foschi.
The meeting was planned as an open forum for all the political forces to state
their positions on the FIAT struggle. Representatives of the major political
parties and the unions were to speak.
On No. 2 Gate there was a
tight security, with shop stewards checking everyone who came in, checking
their credentials and looking into their bags. Journalists and photographers
were directed up onto the concrete roof of the car park, which also served as a
platform for the speakers – with the workers gathered (at a safe distance!) on
the car test-track below. Some workers were set to guard the various entrances
into the factory proper: the stewarding was working to perfection, and was
obviously a trial run for any possible occupation of the plant. There was a
large crowd of workers present – although not the masses that might have been
expected.
The meeting had already
started when, in the distance, came the sound of beating drums, rhythmically
pounding. They sounded like war drums. This was the FIAT-Lingotto
workers, who had marched through the city outskirts from Lingotto
to the Mirafiori plant. They flooded into Mirafiori with drums (converted oil drums) beating, bells
ringing, whistles blowing, setting up a tremendous din and almost drowning out
the speakers from the platform. They set themselves up, with red flags flying,
in the middle of the crowd, and within minutes had the chance to exercise their
vocal chords.
The platform announced the
next speaker as being a Christian Democrat. There was instant pandemonium.
Italian workers have very effective ways of drowning out speakers. The drums
started to beat. The whistles started to whistle (many marchers carried shrill
referees whistles round their necks, and those who didn’t have whistles
produced a fair imitation with two fingers in the mouth). The bells started to
ring. And the shouters started to shout. The slogans were various, starting in
one corner of the crowd, and being taken up eagerly by the rest. “Halfwit!” “Go Home!” “The Only True
Terrorists are the Christian Democrats!” etc etc.
But the most effective message was the variety of signs and gestures that
Italian, more than most languages, has at its command. The English V-sign
multiplies into innumerable variations, all more or less obscene, inviting the
speaker to go and do unspeakable things to himself. “Cornuuuuto!”;
“Ti faccio un culo cosiiiii!
”
Now, while it was pleasant
enough seeing a Christian Democrat being given stick in this way, the pleasure
turned into a sick feeling when it became clear that a lot of the shouting was
coming from card-waving Communist Party members, who then proceeded to give
exactly the same treatment – in fact worse – to Marco Boato,
a speaker from the revolutionary Left.
A number of Communist Party
militants who, whether we like it or not, had been the backbone of the struggle
so far, arrived at the meeting with their Party positions at the ready, and
with their all-too-familiar arrogant attitude. It was this claque who, having
jeered, whistled and booed the Christian Democrat speaker, turned their
attentions to Marco Boato – whose only fault was the
fact of being a Member of Parliament in the Radical Party list – a party which,
perhaps, has not paid enough attention to the problems of the working class,
but which has also been a radical thorn in the side of the Communist Party.
From start to end of his
speech Boato had to face up to a hundred or so
imbeciles (we don’t like saying it, but there’s no other word for them) who,
rather than listening and perhaps criticising, waved
their Party cards in the air, made obscene gestures and shouted ‘Poof’, ‘queer’
etc etc. An extremely ugly scene, which makes one
strongly doubt the average political level of the CP militants and the
political awareness and maturity of certain working-class “vanguards”.
The other speakers presented
their positions, and ended with Agostino Marionetti, speaking for the Union, and stating that
“tomorrow’s general strike will probably be accompanied by other initiatives”.
[Expanded account, based on Lotta Continua
– 25 September 1980]
_______________________________________
Translated
by Ed Emery
Extracted from: THE
BOOK OF FIAT: Insurrection,
insubordination, occupation and revolutionary politics at the FIAT motor
company – 1907-1982
Published:
Red Notes / May Day Rooms
First
published in 2020