WEBVTT 00:00:33.975 --> 00:00:37.007 My encounter with large factories 00:00:37.760 --> 00:00:40.920 took place in 1969, in the midst of 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:46.080 the ‘hot autumn’. For a year and a half 00:00:46.320 --> 00:00:49.920 I had visited a cultural club 00:00:49.920 --> 00:00:52.920 in Sesto San Giovanni. 00:00:53.480 --> 00:00:55.280 It was linked 00:00:55.280 --> 00:00:57.280 to the Communist Party, 00:00:57.280 --> 00:01:00.840 which was also a gathering spot 00:01:02.240 --> 00:01:05.240 for all minorities 00:01:06.360 --> 00:01:08.200 and renegades, 00:01:08.200 --> 00:01:13.560 unorthodox groups including Marxist-Leninists, Trotskyists, 00:01:14.680 --> 00:01:19.120 people of the Hammer and Sickle group, but above all 00:01:19.240 --> 00:01:23.280 it was frequented by representatives 00:01:23.880 --> 00:01:27.800 of the so-called trade union left, in particular figures 00:01:28.480 --> 00:01:30.720 who were quite legendary 00:01:30.720 --> 00:01:34.200 of the working class in Sesto and the surrounding area, including Pirelli. 00:01:34.200 --> 00:01:36.280 For example, there was Renzo Baricelli, 00:01:36.280 --> 00:01:39.280 a prominent trade unionist from Bicocca. 00:01:39.720 --> 00:01:42.160 And others, especially 00:01:42.160 --> 00:01:45.160 the trade union left wing of the time within the FIOM. 00:01:45.400 --> 00:01:50.760 And then it was frequented by a figure who was the most charismatic, 00:01:50.760 --> 00:01:55.000 the most important, who, strictly speaking, cannot be 00:01:56.000 --> 00:01:58.640 classified as belonging 00:01:58.640 --> 00:02:03.480 to the trade union left because throughout his life he remained 00:02:03.800 --> 00:02:08.160 loyal to official positions but he 00:02:08.160 --> 00:02:11.400 was a charismatic figure, that was Antonio Pizzinato. 00:02:12.120 --> 00:02:15.960 And Pizzinato and Baricelli liked me, also 00:02:16.520 --> 00:02:20.200 politically speaking, and it was they who 00:02:20.200 --> 00:02:23.520 somehow got me into the factory. 00:02:24.040 --> 00:02:26.720 They got me in 00:02:26.720 --> 00:02:29.440 so that I could then carry out 00:02:29.440 --> 00:02:33.160 trade union activities 00:02:33.160 --> 00:02:36.160 after putting me through a couple of quick 00:02:36.520 --> 00:02:39.520 trade union training courses. 00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:41.880 In the companies 00:02:41.880 --> 00:02:44.880 that is, the maintenance companies, 00:02:44.960 --> 00:02:48.360 which were external companies but which nevertheless supplied 00:02:49.640 --> 00:02:52.680 a very significant proportion of 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:56.280 of workers who were assigned 00:02:56.520 --> 00:03:01.120 to routine or non-routine maintenance of the large 00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:06.160 factories in Sesto – that is, essentially all the factories of the Breda Group, 00:03:06.360 --> 00:03:11.000 all the factories of the Falck group and also Pirelli. 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:14.920 The reason was that, compared to 00:03:14.920 --> 00:03:18.000 the accelerated processes of unionisation and 00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:21.560 trade union political growth of the 00:03:22.800 --> 00:03:25.800 regular workforce in large factories, 00:03:26.440 --> 00:03:29.440 the maintenance companies had a very low 00:03:29.960 --> 00:03:33.240 unionisation rate and thus represented 00:03:33.240 --> 00:03:36.240 a point of weakness within 00:03:36.600 --> 00:03:39.880 the Sesto working class as a whole. 00:03:39.920 --> 00:03:41.280 There are many reasons for this. 00:03:41.280 --> 00:03:46.360 In some respects they were also privileged, because despite, 00:03:46.680 --> 00:03:52.200 facing intensive exploitation and working conditions 00:03:52.680 --> 00:03:55.600 that were worse than those 00:03:55.600 --> 00:03:58.400 of the regular workers in the large factories 00:03:58.400 --> 00:04:01.400 they were certainly paid better. 00:04:02.240 --> 00:04:06.360 They had long working hours, they worked overtime. 00:04:06.360 --> 00:04:10.400 On average, each worker did at least 10 hours a day, but it was common 00:04:10.920 --> 00:04:14.920 for people to do 14 or 12 hours. 00:04:14.920 --> 00:04:17.920 To get around the regulation 00:04:19.280 --> 00:04:22.040 they would do a 6-hour shift 00:04:22.040 --> 00:04:25.360 at Breda and then 00:04:26.640 --> 00:04:27.840 clock in and do another 00:04:27.840 --> 00:04:31.520 6-hour shift perhaps at Falck. 00:04:31.600 --> 00:04:35.040 Then there was holiday work because 00:04:35.520 --> 00:04:39.760 every Sunday there was routine maintenance 00:04:39.960 --> 00:04:42.880 let’s say at the rolling mills at 00:04:42.880 --> 00:04:46.520 Breda Siderurgica, and there were large hordes of maintenance workers 00:04:46.520 --> 00:04:49.520 who would carry out this type of operation. 00:04:49.520 --> 00:04:53.880 So if you consider the higher wages, the overtime and 00:04:53.880 --> 00:04:57.120 the Sunday work, then they were in a relatively 00:04:58.520 --> 00:05:01.680 integrated situation, 00:05:01.680 --> 00:05:04.680 and therefore 00:05:04.720 --> 00:05:07.760 not very unionised. Or if they 00:05:09.280 --> 00:05:14.600 were in a union, they were in CISNA, which was still active in 1974 00:05:14.600 --> 00:05:20.640 when we raided the CISNA headquarters in Sesto, 00:05:23.680 --> 00:05:26.560 seizing the register with 00:05:26.560 --> 00:05:29.880 with the membership cards. The vast majority were 00:05:29.880 --> 00:05:33.720 Breda workers, among whom CISNA 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:37.920 essentially played 00:05:37.920 --> 00:05:41.560 a role as a yellow union, a collaborationist union. 00:05:43.000 --> 00:05:46.240 So there was an interest in trying to 00:05:47.560 --> 00:05:50.880 initiate a process of of unionisation 00:05:50.880 --> 00:05:53.680 even within these maintenance companies. 00:05:53.680 --> 00:05:57.800 My recruitment was made easier by the fact that 00:05:57.840 --> 00:06:01.560 in Sesto there were a few companies, a couple in particular, 00:06:02.120 --> 00:06:07.640 which were, in a sense, direct offshoots of the Communist Party 00:06:07.680 --> 00:06:12.800 and the trade union, because they had been founded by former partisans 00:06:12.960 --> 00:06:15.960 and, above all, by certain workers 00:06:16.440 --> 00:06:21.000 of a high professional calibre who had been expelled 00:06:21.040 --> 00:06:25.360 from the factories in the 1950s and who had 00:06:25.360 --> 00:06:30.400 re-trained as small business owners, with the help of the party and the trade union. 00:06:30.440 --> 00:06:35.000 They had set up these types of companies. 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:39.760 With some help I got hired into one of these subcontracted companies 00:06:39.760 --> 00:06:45.560 and into these large factories in ’69. 00:06:45.600 --> 00:06:49.440 Generally speaking, aided by the 00:06:50.440 --> 00:06:52.080 overall climate of the 00:06:52.080 --> 00:06:55.040 development and growing awareness of the workers’ struggles 00:06:55.040 --> 00:06:59.200 even within these companies certain aspects gradually began 00:06:59.200 --> 00:07:03.200 to change and people started to participate in the struggles, 00:07:03.240 --> 00:07:07.680 even though there were instances of strike-breaking. 00:07:09.360 --> 00:07:12.280 They were actually quite frequent. 00:07:12.280 --> 00:07:14.120 I remember 00:07:14.120 --> 00:07:18.560 one occasion during the collective contract dispute 1969 00:07:18.560 --> 00:07:22.320 and in 1970, during another internal struggle at Pirelli. 00:07:24.680 --> 00:07:27.680 The subcontracted workers 00:07:27.760 --> 00:07:30.920 were barricaded in, scabbing flat out in a maintenance workshop. 00:07:34.200 --> 00:07:38.760 Me and some other young lads went with the welding torches 00:07:38.760 --> 00:07:42.720 and basically we welded them shut inside the workshop 00:07:43.200 --> 00:07:47.200 and that was the reason why Pirelli then sacked me and said 00:07:47.760 --> 00:07:52.320 that I was completely undesirable that I would not be allowed inside 00:07:52.320 --> 00:07:56.840 a company dealing with Pirelli, so I carried on at Falck or Breda. 00:07:57.160 --> 00:08:01.440 Generally speaking, 1969, as I remember it 00:08:02.160 --> 00:08:05.160 was a great movement whose characteristics 00:08:05.160 --> 00:08:09.040 are that the working class for the first time 00:08:09.440 --> 00:08:12.720 recognised itself as a major force, 00:08:13.080 --> 00:08:15.800 as a major collective subject 00:08:15.800 --> 00:08:20.240 capable of aligning its own perspective 00:08:20.640 --> 00:08:23.600 with other social sectors as well. 00:08:23.600 --> 00:08:29.000 It conquered a significant role as a social protagonist 00:08:30.600 --> 00:08:33.600 which extended its influence progressively 00:08:34.760 --> 00:08:39.600 into the wider social sphere. I recall when 00:08:40.640 --> 00:08:43.600 the factory councils 00:08:43.600 --> 00:08:45.360 were established, 00:08:45.360 --> 00:08:48.600 the delegates from the large factories 00:08:48.600 --> 00:08:54.200 who were elected, say, in the Bergamo and Brianza areas 00:08:54.720 --> 00:08:57.240 they went on to form 00:08:57.240 --> 00:09:01.520 a social authority in the area alongside, the mayor 00:09:01.520 --> 00:09:06.400 and the parish priest, as eminent figures to whom people would also go 00:09:07.400 --> 00:09:10.560 to seek advice on matters 00:09:11.280 --> 00:09:15.840 that often went beyond the direct workers’ struggles. 00:09:15.840 --> 00:09:20.840 They essentially became a recognised social authority. 00:09:20.840 --> 00:09:27.960 Frankly, I don’t recall there being a revolutionary consciousness, 00:09:27.960 --> 00:09:32.760 it was rather the idea of workers power that was the order of the day 00:09:33.320 --> 00:09:37.440 in the collective imagination of the working class in 1969. 00:09:37.440 --> 00:09:41.920 On this matter I have always disagreed with 00:09:41.920 --> 00:09:45.360 a true workerist interpretation, (which discards political content) 00:09:45.520 --> 00:09:48.520 as certain tendencies were 00:09:48.800 --> 00:09:51.840 already present and anticipated: 00:09:52.200 --> 00:09:55.200 the emergence of workers autonomy, 00:09:55.320 --> 00:09:59.960 not only in the forms of struggle that were beginning to take shape. 00:09:59.960 --> 00:10:04.440 Some characteristics developed that were more radical than 00:10:04.440 --> 00:10:06.018 the traditional ones of the working class. 00:10:06.133 --> 00:10:07.320 Also in terms of content 00:10:07.320 --> 00:10:11.480 these struggles were absolutely avant-garde 00:10:11.480 --> 00:10:15.040 compared to traditional trade union concepts. 00:10:15.320 --> 00:10:18.440 What comes to mind, for example, is egalitarianism, which begins 00:10:18.760 --> 00:10:22.000 right there and which is a fundamental theme because 00:10:23.280 --> 00:10:26.280 it establishes 00:10:26.440 --> 00:10:29.360 a concept of the working-class community 00:10:29.360 --> 00:10:32.360 which is defined in an egalitarian manner 00:10:33.360 --> 00:10:37.440 based on behaviour and relationships 00:10:37.440 --> 00:10:40.440 which are forged in the struggle 00:10:40.560 --> 00:10:43.640 and no longer according to professional profile 00:10:44.160 --> 00:10:48.480 or according to their formal position within the production process. 00:10:48.480 --> 00:10:51.880 Previously, the foremen in the factory 00:10:52.080 --> 00:10:55.920 tended to be higher skilled workers, 00:10:56.280 --> 00:11:01.080 but things began to change. 00:11:01.080 --> 00:11:04.760 Of course, they change because the overall composition changes, 00:11:04.760 --> 00:11:08.160 because as early as ’69 there was a 00:11:08.480 --> 00:11:12.000 fairly massive surge of a new type of working class. 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:13.320 What is commonly referred to 00:11:13.320 --> 00:11:17.520 as the mass worker who is beginning to play a 00:11:19.280 --> 00:11:21.480 dominant role 00:11:21.480 --> 00:11:25.640 not only in quantitative terms but above all in qualitative terms. 00:11:25.640 --> 00:11:27.680 In terms of the struggles 00:11:27.680 --> 00:11:30.000 which also give rise 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:33.000 to new political elements. 00:11:34.440 --> 00:11:38.000 The skilled working class gave only a relative 00:11:38.520 --> 00:11:41.800 attention to certain aspects of the workers’ condition in general. 00:11:41.800 --> 00:11:44.800 Take hazardous working conditions. 00:11:45.600 --> 00:11:50.000 There was a kind of working-class pride that sometimes manifested itself 00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:55.560 almost as a kind of heroism. It was not only the trade unions 00:11:55.560 --> 00:11:59.840 that were monetising health. Also the skilled type of worker 00:11:59.840 --> 00:12:07.560 had a profoundly different perspective on these issues 00:12:07.560 --> 00:12:11.280 because it is their conception of life 00:12:12.120 --> 00:12:15.800 in the sense that for them the factory, the work 00:12:16.520 --> 00:12:20.720 the pride in their work, the ability to do their job well, 00:12:20.720 --> 00:12:24.720 the ability to do it better than the bosses or the owner or the engineer 00:12:25.120 --> 00:12:30.000 was the defining element of their existence. 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:32.280 For the mass worker, on the other hand, 00:12:32.280 --> 00:12:37.533 life in the factory coincided with the struggle and its new relationships, 00:12:41.240 --> 00:12:44.040 but then real life began outside when 00:12:44.040 --> 00:12:48.040 working hours ended. So they wanted to leave work 00:12:48.080 --> 00:12:52.200 the least tired as possible 00:12:52.200 --> 00:12:56.320 so that it was still possible to have a whole other range of experiences 00:12:56.760 --> 00:13:00.560 that weren’t just those of the factory. 00:13:00.600 --> 00:13:04.200 Speaking of the change in class composition 00:13:05.680 --> 00:13:08.120 I believe we must also highlight another 00:13:08.120 --> 00:13:11.120 aspect, in addition to the well-known 00:13:11.120 --> 00:13:15.080 constantly repeated talk of the mass worker 00:13:15.080 --> 00:13:18.800 namely the process of increased education and 00:13:20.560 --> 00:13:23.560 the fact that in the factory 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:25.240 in general 00:13:25.240 --> 00:13:28.240 in those years there were 00:13:28.440 --> 00:13:31.440 an impressive number of student workers, 00:13:31.880 --> 00:13:35.640 of workers who attended evening classes 00:13:36.480 --> 00:13:39.480 and who returned to the factory 00:13:39.840 --> 00:13:42.160 not only with more 00:13:42.160 --> 00:13:45.160 professional knowledge 00:13:46.320 --> 00:13:49.320 but also with a 00:13:49.920 --> 00:13:54.480 more advanced cultural background and a higher level of political awareness. 00:13:54.480 --> 00:13:57.480 Because the the movement of students 00:13:58.880 --> 00:14:01.880 and evening students 00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:05.000 I believe 00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:06.560 was more significant 00:14:06.560 --> 00:14:10.040 both in terms of quality and in terms of quantity 00:14:11.080 --> 00:14:14.080 than the secondary school students’ movement. 00:14:15.480 --> 00:14:17.880 This meant that 00:14:17.880 --> 00:14:21.240 there was a working-class 00:14:21.240 --> 00:14:26.000 with a student section that had these characteristics 00:14:26.040 --> 00:14:29.840 and the introduction of technicians into the factory 00:14:30.360 --> 00:14:33.240 who came from this experience of struggle 00:14:33.240 --> 00:14:37.440 and political debate in evening schools. 00:14:37.440 --> 00:14:41.880 Because in many factories, for example at Pirelli or Telettra, 00:14:44.280 --> 00:14:46.320 alongside the 00:14:46.320 --> 00:14:51.480 the mass of workers who were fighting and taking action, 00:14:51.960 --> 00:14:55.920 very often the vanguards were 00:14:55.920 --> 00:14:59.920 the technicians who came from this sort of background. 00:14:59.920 --> 00:15:05.000 Certainly the most significant factor in terms of general behaviour was 00:15:05.040 --> 00:15:11.240 was the so-called ‘mass worker’—this is just to say that the changes 00:15:11.240 --> 00:15:15.240 taking place within the factories were were manifold and diverse. 00:15:15.240 --> 00:15:18.480 But it cannot be reduced solely to 00:15:20.200 --> 00:15:21.520 that worker figure. 00:15:21.520 --> 00:15:24.560 1969 was essentially this: 00:15:24.960 --> 00:15:27.720 A significant agency of the worker and recognising oneself 00:15:27.720 --> 00:15:31.840 as an agent capable of altering the balance of power 00:15:32.160 --> 00:15:35.160 not only within the factory but also outside it. 00:15:35.760 --> 00:15:39.240 Certain concepts emerged 00:15:39.240 --> 00:15:43.200 from these struggles later on, 00:15:43.960 --> 00:15:48.760 however some aspects were clear straight away. 00:15:48.960 --> 00:15:53.680 The struggles in 1969 were preceded 00:15:53.880 --> 00:15:58.680 by the contract dispute for the chemical and textile workers 00:15:58.680 --> 00:16:03.920 which had been postponed by a year. They took place in ’68 with struggles 00:16:03.920 --> 00:16:08.320 as sensational as those in the petrochemical sector at Porto Marghera or even 00:16:10.000 --> 00:16:12.080 the struggle which 00:16:12.080 --> 00:16:16.560 was an icon of 1968, namely the Marzotto struggle in which 00:16:17.640 --> 00:16:19.680 the Marzotto workers 00:16:19.680 --> 00:16:23.320 waged a fierce struggle 00:16:23.880 --> 00:16:26.880 in open opposition 00:16:27.600 --> 00:16:31.720 to the trade union bureaucracy. 00:16:31.720 --> 00:16:37.280 They destroy the statue of Marzotto and clash with the police. 00:16:37.640 --> 00:16:41.240 They anticipated later struggles in terms of behaviour 00:16:42.480 --> 00:16:46.160 but also in terms of outright rupture with the unions, 00:16:46.200 --> 00:16:50.400 through a struggle, and an organisation, 00:16:50.400 --> 00:16:52.720 that was completely autonomous and alternative, 00:16:52.720 --> 00:16:56.120 which foreshadowed what would happen in the years that followed. 00:16:56.760 --> 00:17:00.880 The cycle of struggles of ’69 came to an end for me personally 00:17:03.840 --> 00:17:06.840 when I had to go for military service. 00:17:07.200 --> 00:17:11.240 I returned to the factory more or less with the same trick, 00:17:11.240 --> 00:17:14.240 actually it was slightly different. 00:17:18.080 --> 00:17:23.640 When the head of personnel was on leave he was replaced 00:17:23.640 --> 00:17:28.080 by a personnel manager who was a friend of the trade unions. 00:17:29.040 --> 00:17:32.040 So I was hired by Sirti, 00:17:32.240 --> 00:17:35.360 which was a factory operating in the 00:17:35.360 --> 00:17:39.720 telecommunications sector. There was an important aspect, 00:17:39.720 --> 00:17:44.080 because the headquarters had its offices in the business district of Milan 00:17:45.720 --> 00:17:49.120 and that became a 00:17:49.160 --> 00:17:53.240 major issue in ’73 because back then the business district 00:17:53.920 --> 00:17:56.920 was enormous. 00:17:57.480 --> 00:18:00.480 There were lots of technical staff and office workers 00:18:00.480 --> 00:18:03.480 even those with a very low profile 00:18:04.440 --> 00:18:09.240 in terms of trade unionism. And yet they played a strategic role 00:18:09.240 --> 00:18:12.320 in the sense that blocking the business district 00:18:13.440 --> 00:18:16.040 with strikes 00:18:16.040 --> 00:18:18.120 during the collective contract dispute 00:18:18.120 --> 00:18:22.120 was clearly of great importance. 00:18:23.200 --> 00:18:26.200 In fact 00:18:27.560 --> 00:18:31.040 the contract dispute of ’73 00:18:31.440 --> 00:18:35.120 was a hard struggle with daily 00:18:35.160 --> 00:18:40.200 picket lines, clashes with scabs clashes with the police etc.. 00:18:40.200 --> 00:18:43.320 It was a context of greater radicalism compared to 1969. 00:18:44.760 --> 00:18:47.800 The high point, as everyone knows 00:18:48.240 --> 00:18:52.840 was reached with the occupation of FIAT 00:18:52.840 --> 00:18:57.240 by the so-called ‘red scarves’, or ‘the hooded’, which was 00:18:57.240 --> 00:19:01.280 a workers’ initiative of paramilitary dimensions 00:19:01.680 --> 00:19:05.280 which commanded and controlled the factory for a certain period. 00:19:05.640 --> 00:19:10.920 But these forms of struggles were essentially replicated 00:19:10.920 --> 00:19:14.680 across almost the entire country, namely the blocking of goods, 00:19:14.680 --> 00:19:18.080 sabotage and extremely violent factory-internal demonstrations. 00:19:18.880 --> 00:19:23.600 These were characteristics that spread like wildfire 00:19:23.600 --> 00:19:27.000 throughout that period of struggle and marked 00:19:27.280 --> 00:19:30.080 a new horizon as well. 00:19:30.080 --> 00:19:33.200 It must also be said that at the same time 00:19:33.600 --> 00:19:37.560 especially in the south, in Naples and in other parts of the South, 00:19:38.440 --> 00:19:39.560 there were 00:19:41.000 --> 00:19:42.360 experiences in which workers, 00:19:42.360 --> 00:19:45.080 starting from the 00:19:45.080 --> 00:19:48.080 organised nuclei 00:19:48.720 --> 00:19:50.240 of the large factories, 00:19:50.240 --> 00:19:54.000 launched attacks on the prefectures, thereby bringing 00:19:54.000 --> 00:19:57.480 the confrontation not just outside the factory because that had already happened 00:19:58.720 --> 00:20:02.160 though it had always been linked to the dimension 00:20:03.360 --> 00:20:05.520 of the capital-labour struggle, 00:20:05.520 --> 00:20:08.520 whereas here for the first time, 00:20:09.960 --> 00:20:11.760 the workers 00:20:11.760 --> 00:20:13.920 attacked 00:20:13.920 --> 00:20:16.920 the state and its forces 00:20:17.800 --> 00:20:19.400 operating 00:20:19.400 --> 00:20:22.400 in the urban areas. 00:20:23.680 --> 00:20:26.680 This led to the idea of 00:20:26.840 --> 00:20:29.400 a new phase 00:20:29.400 --> 00:20:32.640 of workers’ struggles. 00:20:38.215 --> 00:20:38.920 At the end 00:20:38.920 --> 00:20:41.920 of that collective bargaining dispute 00:20:42.680 --> 00:20:46.680 of ’73, practically at the start of 1974, 00:20:47.160 --> 00:20:49.560 I joined a large factory for the first time 00:20:49.560 --> 00:20:52.560 in a straight-forward manner, in the sense that I applied 00:20:53.600 --> 00:20:55.600 and Breda Fucine hired me. 00:20:55.600 --> 00:20:58.600 Breda generally didn’t fear anyone 00:20:59.720 --> 00:21:04.440 unlike other factories for example Falck, where 00:21:05.800 --> 00:21:06.720 essentially 00:21:06.720 --> 00:21:09.720 you’d get in with a letter of recommendation 00:21:09.840 --> 00:21:13.080 from the parish priest of your village 00:21:13.080 --> 00:21:16.080 from Brianza, Lodigiano or from 00:21:17.840 --> 00:21:19.800 the Bergamo area, 00:21:19.800 --> 00:21:25.440 which acted as a kind of background check. 00:21:25.440 --> 00:21:29.600 Breda wasn’t afraid of anyone partly because they thought: 00:21:29.640 --> 00:21:32.640 “ We put you to work at the furnace 00:21:34.080 --> 00:21:36.960 and then we see how you cope”. 00:21:36.960 --> 00:21:39.800 But anyway, 00:21:39.800 --> 00:21:42.800 at Breda Fucine 00:21:44.160 --> 00:21:45.520 management felt safe 00:21:45.520 --> 00:21:48.520 probably also because, 00:21:49.800 --> 00:21:52.560 if we’re to be honest, 00:21:52.560 --> 00:21:55.560 the presence of the CGIL trade union 00:21:56.880 --> 00:21:59.880 and the FIOM guaranteed them 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:03.240 a degree of control. 00:22:03.600 --> 00:22:07.000 The unions had long guaranteed them 00:22:07.320 --> 00:22:10.960 significant internal control within the factory, 00:22:10.960 --> 00:22:12.960 but then this situation fell into crisis. 00:22:12.960 --> 00:22:16.520 We must remember that there were departments at 00:22:16.680 --> 00:22:20.440 Breda, like La Forgia 00:22:20.480 --> 00:22:24.600 and La Tempera, where 00:22:24.600 --> 00:22:30.480 in ’74, 98% of workers were members of the FIOM. 00:22:31.720 --> 00:22:34.320 Impressive figures, 00:22:34.320 --> 00:22:37.320 extremely impressive. 00:22:38.120 --> 00:22:42.000 It must be said that this organised force 00:22:42.680 --> 00:22:47.200 meant that there was a certain security. 00:22:47.200 --> 00:22:52.400 There was genuine factory despotism 00:22:52.400 --> 00:22:55.400 but the trade unionists certainly counted for something. 00:22:56.480 --> 00:23:01.560 There was a situation from a disciplinary point of view 00:23:02.640 --> 00:23:05.640 that was absolutely 00:23:06.440 --> 00:23:08.920 not comparable 00:23:08.920 --> 00:23:12.600 to other factories in this respect. This type of co-management 00:23:13.080 --> 00:23:16.320 certainly worked, but the working conditions 00:23:16.320 --> 00:23:20.200 were terrible, first and foremost due to the 00:23:20.480 --> 00:23:23.640 absolute technological backwardness of the factory. 00:23:23.640 --> 00:23:28.680 Physical manual labour was absolutely predominant 00:23:28.680 --> 00:23:34.840 and it was gruelling, highly hazardous and involving silicosis. 00:23:34.840 --> 00:23:39.880 Workers reached retirement age and died three days later. 00:23:40.200 --> 00:23:45.320 On this front there was very little awareness. 00:23:45.360 --> 00:23:50.400 Even independently from the trade unions, 00:23:50.400 --> 00:23:54.680 there was a working-class mentality 00:23:54.680 --> 00:24:00.200 of professional working-class pride that was also very male chauvinistic. 00:24:01.200 --> 00:24:02.200 Meaning, an idea 00:24:02.200 --> 00:24:06.320 of physical strength and of resistance. I remember that 00:24:06.720 --> 00:24:10.920 after two days at the factory they put me 00:24:10.920 --> 00:24:14.680 at the hammers and it was very hard work and there were plenty of macho jokes 00:24:14.680 --> 00:24:18.520 I was married and the workers knew it and all day the refrain was 00:24:18.840 --> 00:24:23.280 “Tonight with your wife you won’t get it up…" 00:24:23.560 --> 00:24:27.360 “Call us, who after two shifts at work, will still do it to her”, etc.. 00:24:27.360 --> 00:24:30.480 Just to say that you had to 00:24:30.480 --> 00:24:33.600 deal with that kind of mentality. 00:24:34.760 --> 00:24:38.960 But even at Breda Fucine 00:24:38.960 --> 00:24:41.960 there were 00:24:43.560 --> 00:24:45.160 two departments, 00:24:45.160 --> 00:24:49.000 the turning department and the rods department, 00:24:49.600 --> 00:24:52.600 where workers were much 00:24:52.920 --> 00:24:55.920 less skilled, mainly in the 00:24:56.360 --> 00:24:59.360 rods department. 00:24:59.760 --> 00:25:04.320 A completely different kind of working class developed there. 00:25:04.760 --> 00:25:09.680 Really completely different. In the rods department 00:25:11.160 --> 00:25:13.640 You must imagine 00:25:13.640 --> 00:25:16.720 that it reached 00:25:16.720 --> 00:25:21.840 daily rates of 40% of absenteeism, 00:25:22.520 --> 00:25:26.560 in a factory where the other traditional departments 00:25:27.040 --> 00:25:32.120 would go to work even when ill, because it looked bad for a worker 00:25:32.120 --> 00:25:36.600 who was a member of the PCI or the union that you stay at home 00:25:36.600 --> 00:25:39.680 even when you’re ill. Also because, well, 00:25:39.680 --> 00:25:43.440 it’s not just because of pride, but because the factory is their world 00:25:44.520 --> 00:25:47.520 their own sphere, so 00:25:47.760 --> 00:25:50.760 frankly they didn’t even know what to do 00:25:51.880 --> 00:25:53.600 if they didn’t go to the factory. 00:25:53.600 --> 00:25:56.640 All this is clearly very different 00:25:57.040 --> 00:26:00.040 for the new workers, 00:26:00.080 --> 00:26:04.120 many of them immigrants, but in any case with characteristics 00:26:04.120 --> 00:26:07.200 that were completely different. 00:26:07.200 --> 00:26:10.200 From these departments 00:26:11.840 --> 00:26:15.120 behaviours emerged, developed and grew 00:26:15.440 --> 00:26:20.040 which are perfectly aligned with those found in the workshops 00:26:20.360 --> 00:26:23.080 at FIAT or other factories 00:26:23.080 --> 00:26:26.400 like Magneti Marelli or Alfa Romeo where apart from 00:26:26.400 --> 00:26:29.800 absenteeism and indiscipline, there was a questioning 00:26:31.520 --> 00:26:32.720 of roles and a 00:26:32.720 --> 00:26:37.680 refusal to accept any kind of command, neither from the superiors 00:26:40.920 --> 00:26:41.920 of the factory 00:26:41.920 --> 00:26:46.360 nor from the trade union. In other words “not giving a shit”, 00:26:47.640 --> 00:26:49.440 initially even with a 00:26:49.440 --> 00:26:54.360 pre-political character which only later, through debate 00:26:54.360 --> 00:26:58.600 and participation in the struggle, took on more defined characteristics. 00:26:59.960 --> 00:27:02.360 There is no denying that initially much 00:27:02.360 --> 00:27:06.760 of the aspect of indiscipline 00:27:06.840 --> 00:27:09.840 was not very developed in class terms, 00:27:10.320 --> 00:27:13.320 but it was nevertheless 00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:15.960 a beautiful raw material 00:27:15.960 --> 00:27:18.960 to discuss and work on. 00:27:18.960 --> 00:27:22.280 There is this detachment, this separateness, 00:27:22.480 --> 00:27:26.720 this non-recognition of any kind of hierarchy 00:27:26.720 --> 00:27:31.240 other than that which is constructed as an antagonism, a struggle. 00:27:31.800 --> 00:27:34.800 There are these experiences, 00:27:35.320 --> 00:27:38.320 the same experiences of sabotage 00:27:38.840 --> 00:27:41.840 and experiences 00:27:42.720 --> 00:27:46.680 of relative violence in the factory especially during 00:27:47.200 --> 00:27:51.400 the internal protest marches and outside during the 00:27:51.440 --> 00:27:54.720 demonstrations. There is therefore an alignment, 00:27:55.360 --> 00:27:58.600 unfortunately of a minority, 00:27:58.600 --> 00:28:01.680 because it is a minority 00:28:02.640 --> 00:28:04.800 in quantitative rather than 00:28:04.800 --> 00:28:07.962 qualitative terms, because in the struggles it is this minority who is in charge. 00:28:08.197 --> 00:28:10.760 This is obvious, but generally speaking 00:28:11.040 --> 00:28:14.080 they are a numerical minority 00:28:14.080 --> 00:28:18.480 compared to the traditional working class which 00:28:19.800 --> 00:28:22.920 in factories such as Breda, 00:28:23.400 --> 00:28:26.400 more so than in other companies, 00:28:27.720 --> 00:28:33.040 proved to be fairly impervious and 00:28:35.240 --> 00:28:39.280 hardly detachable from the hegemony 00:28:39.680 --> 00:28:42.680 of the social democratic leadership. 00:28:45.320 --> 00:28:46.560 In the struggles 00:28:46.560 --> 00:28:52.120 at particular moments of tension 00:28:52.120 --> 00:28:55.520 a shift may occur towards radical positions 00:28:55.520 --> 00:29:00.720 but in terms of representation and organisation, the split 00:29:00.720 --> 00:29:03.960 at Breda was very radical, whilst in other factories, such as 00:29:03.960 --> 00:29:06.960 FIAT or Magneti 00:29:07.320 --> 00:29:10.320 there was a mixture, 00:29:10.320 --> 00:29:13.320 there isn’t a dualism 00:29:13.400 --> 00:29:16.560 and such a radical separation 00:29:16.560 --> 00:29:19.840 that you see at 00:29:19.840 --> 00:29:22.840 at Breda Sidurgica, for example. 00:29:22.920 --> 00:29:27.200 The radical new generation and the traditional working class 00:29:27.200 --> 00:29:32.880 remained two worlds 00:29:33.240 --> 00:29:37.800 that, except in moments of intense struggle and tension, 00:29:38.640 --> 00:29:42.840 they hardly ever manage to meet or even communicate because they are 00:29:45.240 --> 00:29:48.240 two different worlds, that is to say 00:29:49.680 --> 00:29:52.680 to put it in terms of social customs, 00:29:53.000 --> 00:29:55.440 in the rods department 00:29:55.440 --> 00:29:58.240 it was not uncommon to see workers rolling joints at work 00:29:58.240 --> 00:30:03.920 while from the average perspective of a Communist Party worker at the forges 00:30:03.960 --> 00:30:07.840 someone who smokes joints should have been sent to Siberia 00:30:08.320 --> 00:30:11.320 for re-education, just so we’re clear. 00:30:13.440 --> 00:30:16.320 We’re still talking about 00:30:16.320 --> 00:30:20.000 the long-haired lot, 00:30:21.480 --> 00:30:23.760 about differences 00:30:23.760 --> 00:30:26.760 in culture, 00:30:27.400 --> 00:30:30.400 radical differences that 00:30:30.560 --> 00:30:34.160 will indeed lead to the fact that 00:30:37.800 --> 00:30:40.800 the new working class 00:30:40.960 --> 00:30:43.600 while being important and significant 00:30:43.600 --> 00:30:49.080 fundamentally remained the story 00:30:49.080 --> 00:30:52.080 of a minority that never succeeded 00:30:52.080 --> 00:30:55.080 unlike as in other situations, such as at Magneti Marelli 00:30:55.960 --> 00:30:58.280 to gain the hegemony over the entire factory 00:30:58.280 --> 00:31:02.040 or over the vast majority of workers, 00:31:02.040 --> 00:31:07.280 precisely because the differences between two groups 00:31:07.680 --> 00:31:11.560 are so strongly marked, in such a consistent manner 00:31:11.560 --> 00:31:17.240 that they have very little chance of communicating at all. 00:31:17.240 --> 00:31:20.720 The only ones standing at the gates, fighting alongside their comrades. 00:31:20.720 --> 00:31:21.200 True. 00:31:23.920 --> 00:31:25.960 The assembly proceeds little by little, 00:31:25.960 --> 00:31:29.040 this is not a sign of maturity. 00:31:29.520 --> 00:31:33.040 Each of you must be a man not because you wear trousers, 00:31:33.560 --> 00:31:37.040 but a man because you must have a brain, and take on more responsibility. 00:31:37.520 --> 00:31:41.400 If there is an occupation, it will also be our occupation. 00:31:41.400 --> 00:31:46.000 We will work with all of you night and day, 00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:49.000 if necessary, but all of us together. 00:31:51.440 --> 00:31:53.720 Agnelli, the women leave the kitchen, 00:31:53.720 --> 00:31:56.000 they enter in hard struggle 00:31:56.000 --> 00:31:58.680 on the shop-floor. 00:31:58.680 --> 00:32:01.680 Within this situation 00:32:01.720 --> 00:32:04.720 of new forms of struggle 00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:07.320 the question of 00:32:07.320 --> 00:32:09.200 representation, 00:32:09.200 --> 00:32:12.000 mass participation and 00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:13.920 self-organisation 00:32:13.920 --> 00:32:16.480 began to 00:32:16.480 --> 00:32:19.480 manifest itself. 00:32:20.120 --> 00:32:24.600 The question 00:32:24.600 --> 00:32:30.680 of a different 00:32:30.720 --> 00:32:33.720 kind of organisation emerged, 00:32:34.400 --> 00:32:36.960 also in 1973 at Sirti, where 00:32:38.160 --> 00:32:40.280 the collective of workers and technicians 00:32:40.280 --> 00:32:43.040 was created 00:32:43.040 --> 00:32:46.320 and also at Breda, although 00:32:47.680 --> 00:32:50.200 it never reached, 00:32:50.200 --> 00:32:55.560 both numerically and qualitatively, 00:32:56.040 --> 00:32:59.400 a role comparable to autonomous workers’ committees 00:33:00.240 --> 00:33:03.960 in other neighbourhoods or other factories. 00:33:05.120 --> 00:33:08.120 These forms 00:33:08.200 --> 00:33:11.200 of autonomous organisation did emerge, which had 00:33:11.800 --> 00:33:14.640 their own substance 00:33:14.640 --> 00:33:17.640 and visibility, above all 00:33:19.360 --> 00:33:22.960 during the struggles both inside the factory and at demonstrations, 00:33:23.200 --> 00:33:28.320 even in a visible manner because the way they were organised, 00:33:28.840 --> 00:33:32.400 the use of large sticks 00:33:32.400 --> 00:33:35.400 with tiny red flags attached 00:33:35.440 --> 00:33:40.760 the ropes they used at marches, 00:33:42.600 --> 00:33:45.760 so there was a visible otherness 00:33:47.320 --> 00:33:50.320 from a militant perspective 00:33:51.560 --> 00:33:54.800 with a role that it certainly played within 00:33:55.680 --> 00:33:59.640 the factory in terms of the struggles. 00:34:03.200 --> 00:34:04.280 There is an episode at Breda, 00:34:04.280 --> 00:34:09.040 which is, however, very important and quite indicative of that. 00:34:11.480 --> 00:34:13.280 This happened in 1974 00:34:13.280 --> 00:34:18.600 during the Sossi kidnapping by the Brigate Rosse. 00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:23.960 The trade unions called for a series 00:34:26.600 --> 00:34:29.560 of strikes, two-hour strikes 00:34:29.560 --> 00:34:32.560 against terrorism 00:34:32.720 --> 00:34:38.400 with general assemblies across groups of factories, 00:34:39.200 --> 00:34:41.440 not just factory by factory, 00:34:41.440 --> 00:34:44.440 because I remember that we took part. 00:34:47.000 --> 00:34:48.120 From Breda Fucine Termoelettrico 00:34:48.120 --> 00:34:53.520 we went to Magneti Marelli 00:34:53.640 --> 00:34:57.040 and spent two hours together. 00:34:57.640 --> 00:35:00.600 There was of course 00:35:00.600 --> 00:35:03.600 a huge debate, a right chaos, around this kidnapping. 00:35:03.960 --> 00:35:06.080 I was attacked over this, 00:35:06.080 --> 00:35:09.080 even personally, by name 00:35:09.120 --> 00:35:12.440 by a trade union representative, actually from the PSI. 00:35:13.920 --> 00:35:16.240 In his speech on stage 00:35:16.240 --> 00:35:21.520 he pointed me out as one of the terrorists 00:35:21.520 --> 00:35:25.760 who was involved in the events under discussion. 00:35:26.480 --> 00:35:30.680 I must say, to his credit and in his memory that 00:35:34.160 --> 00:35:36.680 Antonio Pizzinato himself 00:35:36.680 --> 00:35:40.800 spoke up later to say: “Chicco, we all know him. 00:35:40.800 --> 00:35:45.000 He might be a bit of a wanker, but he’s one of us.” 00:35:46.640 --> 00:35:49.720 But above all, the key point is that 00:35:50.120 --> 00:35:54.680 a motion put forward by us comrades, 00:35:54.680 --> 00:35:57.680 more or less autonomously, 00:35:58.920 --> 00:36:01.920 from the committee 00:36:02.520 --> 00:36:05.520 this motion was passed 00:36:05.880 --> 00:36:10.560 so it had to be a 2-hour paid assembly 00:36:11.240 --> 00:36:14.680 rather than a 2-hour strike. 00:36:15.120 --> 00:36:18.320 This speaks volumes namely the fact that 00:36:18.880 --> 00:36:24.360 in 1974, there was still 00:36:25.440 --> 00:36:30.800 a possibility for political action which, at certain moments, became 00:36:30.800 --> 00:36:34.120 a position taken on by the majority. 00:36:34.880 --> 00:36:37.880 Obviously, those who voted 00:36:38.440 --> 00:36:41.440 to convert the two hours strike 00:36:42.600 --> 00:36:44.920 into a paid assembly 00:36:44.920 --> 00:36:49.400 did not all agree with the kidnapping of Sossi, 00:36:49.760 --> 00:36:53.040 needless to say, or with 00:36:53.280 --> 00:36:56.040 the line I was taking at the factory, but 00:36:57.000 --> 00:36:59.640 they considered, 00:36:59.640 --> 00:37:01.440 not the Sossi kidnapping, 00:37:01.440 --> 00:37:05.520 but what we represented in the factory, as 00:37:05.520 --> 00:37:10.040 a possible political option or, at any rate, one worth discussing, 00:37:10.440 --> 00:37:14.200 not as an enemy to be isolated or driven out. 00:37:14.200 --> 00:37:17.400 Because, back then in the factory 00:37:17.800 --> 00:37:21.640 especially the right-wing faction of the FIOM had transformed 00:37:21.960 --> 00:37:27.720 the discussion about the kidnapping into a discussion about our 00:37:28.080 --> 00:37:31.080 political existence in the factory. 00:37:31.640 --> 00:37:34.640 They’ve been screwed because then the majority of the workers 00:37:34.800 --> 00:37:36.160 were saying: 00:37:36.160 --> 00:37:40.040 “We can’t help but agree that they’re a bunch of idiots, 00:37:40.840 --> 00:37:44.880 but they’re workers like us and above all, what they’re saying 00:37:45.680 --> 00:37:48.680 is a line that fits. 00:37:49.120 --> 00:37:52.400 You might agree or disagree 00:37:52.400 --> 00:37:55.400 with the goals 00:37:55.480 --> 00:37:58.120 of the struggle 00:37:58.120 --> 00:38:00.680 but anyway, they recognised 00:38:00.680 --> 00:38:06.120 a right to the presence of 00:38:06.120 --> 00:38:10.200 expressions of such positions as internal to the workforce. 00:38:10.200 --> 00:38:13.840 If we think about the changes in the factories within a short span of time 00:38:14.400 --> 00:38:20.760 we would have struggled to believe 00:38:23.160 --> 00:38:25.000 that such things could happen. 00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:28.400 That time there was still 00:38:33.360 --> 00:38:36.360 a level 00:38:36.400 --> 00:38:39.400 political viability and recognition 00:38:39.680 --> 00:38:43.960 of these positions which circulated absolutely freely 00:38:43.960 --> 00:38:49.080 within the factory and were recognised as plausible, even though 00:38:49.440 --> 00:38:53.160 obviously not by the majority, 00:38:53.160 --> 00:38:57.840 but nevertheless it was a recognised element. 00:38:58.080 --> 00:39:02.040 Alongside the militancy within the factory, 00:39:03.560 --> 00:39:06.560 which was predominant, 00:39:07.120 --> 00:39:10.120 there were also other forms of political activism 00:39:10.440 --> 00:39:13.440 more generally. 00:39:14.120 --> 00:39:17.120 In the early 1970s in Sesto San Giovanni 00:39:17.640 --> 00:39:21.320 we all gravitated somewhat towards an 00:39:22.240 --> 00:39:26.040 an organisation called the Lenin Circle 00:39:26.880 --> 00:39:30.440 which was quite well-established 00:39:30.440 --> 00:39:33.720 in certain factories, such as Magneti Marelli, 00:39:36.240 --> 00:39:38.800 although particularly among students, 00:39:38.800 --> 00:39:43.560 and not just sixth-formers, but in this case evening-school students, 00:39:43.560 --> 00:39:48.440 especially those at the ITIS, 00:39:49.680 --> 00:39:51.600 less so from secondary school. 00:39:51.600 --> 00:39:54.600 The Lenin Circle was essentially a group 00:39:56.720 --> 00:39:58.920 that belonged to the sphere 00:39:58.920 --> 00:40:02.240 of Operaismo / Workerism. 00:40:02.240 --> 00:40:06.840 I subsequently joined Lotta Continua in ’72. 00:40:07.200 --> 00:40:12.360 towards the end of ’72. I was fascinated 00:40:12.360 --> 00:40:15.360 precisely by the quality 00:40:16.960 --> 00:40:19.960 of the workers’ organisation 00:40:20.200 --> 00:40:23.880 that Lotta Continua had in some large factories 00:40:23.880 --> 00:40:29.160 especially in Turin and Milan, at Alfa Romeo and so on. 00:40:30.400 --> 00:40:34.720 I considered it the focal point, 00:40:34.720 --> 00:40:38.400 capable of transcending localism 00:40:39.240 --> 00:40:42.600 and particularity, which were the limits of the Lenin Circle. 00:40:43.040 --> 00:40:46.040 Within Lotta Continua 00:40:47.720 --> 00:40:51.120 there were echoes of a debate 00:40:52.080 --> 00:40:55.160 which was politically more advanced 00:40:55.560 --> 00:41:00.440 but also on extremely sensitive issues 00:41:00.440 --> 00:41:03.440 so to speak, such as 00:41:06.720 --> 00:41:08.160 the question of violence/force 00:41:08.160 --> 00:41:11.160 which was the euphemism used 00:41:12.000 --> 00:41:15.480 to define the problem of 00:41:15.480 --> 00:41:20.560 paramilitary organisation. 00:41:21.040 --> 00:41:24.040 This issue was seen as 00:41:24.920 --> 00:41:27.120 the development, acceleration 00:41:27.120 --> 00:41:32.400 and radicalisation of Lotta Continua’s demo self-defence units. 00:41:33.480 --> 00:41:34.920 But in any case the issue of violence 00:41:34.920 --> 00:41:38.480 was deeply rooted in situations of struggle 00:41:38.480 --> 00:41:43.880 not just workers’ struggles in workplaces 00:41:44.520 --> 00:41:48.120 but also struggles in the neighbourhoods 00:41:48.120 --> 00:41:51.840 because there were squats but there were also issues 00:41:52.560 --> 00:41:55.560 linked to enforced rent reduction 00:41:56.040 --> 00:41:59.800 or reappropriation, which certainly 00:42:00.120 --> 00:42:04.920 was a more mature and mass-based form in the years 00:42:04.920 --> 00:42:08.080 from ’75 to ’76, 00:42:08.080 --> 00:42:11.240 but which, in any case, had also existed before. 00:42:11.240 --> 00:42:15.200 And these are all forms of struggle that concern the working class. 00:42:15.200 --> 00:42:19.080 The episodes of reappropriation, the enforced reduction of supermarket prices, 00:42:19.080 --> 00:42:23.120 they were forms of proletarian shopping, in the sense that people were told 00:42:23.400 --> 00:42:26.400 to be at the supermarket at a certain time 00:42:26.520 --> 00:42:30.920 at the checkouts with trolleys full of goods, the factory workers 00:42:31.400 --> 00:42:35.280 then started a ruckus and would rush out with their trolleys. 00:42:35.520 --> 00:42:38.480 They had solved the problem of domestic supplies 00:42:38.480 --> 00:42:41.480 for a week or ten days, and there was 00:42:41.640 --> 00:42:44.680 considerable participation. 00:42:45.360 --> 00:42:50.040 These points of discussion were also present within 00:42:51.280 --> 00:42:52.080 the factory, 00:42:52.080 --> 00:42:55.280 even with direct worker participation. 00:42:55.280 --> 00:42:58.880 There was no separation, it didn’t all end 00:42:59.240 --> 00:43:02.840 within the confines of the department 00:43:04.160 --> 00:43:05.960 or the department struggle. 00:43:05.960 --> 00:43:09.000 In Lotta Continua there were discussions about violence 00:43:09.000 --> 00:43:13.640 about the need to organise. 00:43:17.280 --> 00:43:19.720 A massive acceleration 00:43:19.720 --> 00:43:25.040 was the occupation of FIAT by the so-called ‘red scarves’ 00:43:25.040 --> 00:43:28.360 and the assaults on the prefectures 00:43:29.400 --> 00:43:32.680 because from that moment on we began to think 00:43:32.680 --> 00:43:38.920 about the fact that there was a maturity among the workers, or rather a 00:43:39.680 --> 00:43:45.040 a component that was still in the minority but which was nevertheless capable 00:43:45.280 --> 00:43:50.160 in moments of struggle to exercise real hegemony 00:43:50.640 --> 00:43:55.600 over sectors of the working class much broader than itself 00:43:56.080 --> 00:44:00.240 and which was acting 00:44:01.800 --> 00:44:04.080 precisely on the terrain of violent struggle 00:44:04.080 --> 00:44:07.480 of self-organisation and of an understanding 00:44:07.480 --> 00:44:11.560 that the level of confrontation was now shifting 00:44:13.440 --> 00:44:14.920 in concrete terms, not 00:44:14.920 --> 00:44:18.800 in ideological and revolutionary terms, but in material terms 00:44:18.800 --> 00:44:20.280 starting from the factory departments, 00:44:20.280 --> 00:44:24.200 in terms of power, because the strength of the working class had grown 00:44:24.200 --> 00:44:28.560 so much so as to take shape in the large factories 00:44:28.560 --> 00:44:32.280 the existence of a dualism of power which was a situation that 00:44:32.520 --> 00:44:35.520 obviously could not be expected to 00:44:36.600 --> 00:44:38.160 endure over time. 00:44:38.160 --> 00:44:44.560 Ultimately, one power had to have supremacy over the other. 00:44:44.560 --> 00:44:48.000 It was inconceivable that it could last and that therefore 00:44:49.240 --> 00:44:51.960 there was a problem 00:44:51.960 --> 00:44:55.000 of preparing for the 00:44:55.760 --> 00:44:58.760 radicalisation of the conflict 00:44:59.160 --> 00:45:00.600 necessitated by events, 00:45:00.600 --> 00:45:06.640 beyond subjective will. This was an idea that, in some strata 00:45:06.640 --> 00:45:10.280 among the working class, was now gaining ground. 00:45:13.440 --> 00:45:16.440 This debate caused 00:45:17.960 --> 00:45:19.560 Lotta Continua to enter a crisis, 00:45:19.560 --> 00:45:22.560 like other groups, 00:45:22.800 --> 00:45:26.080 Such as Potere Operaio. 00:45:28.560 --> 00:45:31.560 These groups showed a Certain backwardness, 00:45:33.480 --> 00:45:35.240 an inability to tackle 00:45:35.240 --> 00:45:38.080 in new terms the situation that was 00:45:39.080 --> 00:45:41.080 taking shape and that 00:45:41.080 --> 00:45:45.840 required transformative measures at a general level in political terms, 00:45:46.320 --> 00:45:49.320 in personal terms in terms of militancy. 00:45:49.600 --> 00:45:53.520 We were entering a phase in which 00:45:54.040 --> 00:45:59.160 it is no longer the phase where you just hand out leaflets or engage in confrontation in the factory. 00:45:59.800 --> 00:46:05.080 Something different was starting to be required as well, and at this point 00:46:05.640 --> 00:46:10.360 clearly everyone is 00:46:10.360 --> 00:46:13.360 called upon to step up. 00:46:13.840 --> 00:46:16.200 Choices that were made 00:46:16.200 --> 00:46:20.960 were not always personal choices they were also collective choices because 00:46:20.960 --> 00:46:25.920 there were whole groups, for example In Sesto San Giovanni 00:46:26.280 --> 00:46:29.280 about twenty of us left Lotta Continua 00:46:31.120 --> 00:46:34.920 between the end of 1973 and the start of 1974. 00:46:37.040 --> 00:46:40.800 Based on a hypothesis precisely of this sort, to begin 00:46:41.200 --> 00:46:45.240 to consider the introduction of organisational elements 00:46:45.240 --> 00:46:49.680 even openly illegal and paramilitary 00:46:50.360 --> 00:46:52.760 to offer these structures 00:46:52.760 --> 00:46:58.040 as a tool for mass struggles. 00:47:00.160 --> 00:47:02.160 It so happens that 00:47:02.160 --> 00:47:05.160 more or less around that time 00:47:07.240 --> 00:47:09.920 in various places and in different situations 00:47:09.920 --> 00:47:12.920 the same 00:47:13.960 --> 00:47:17.640 intentions take shape, and this is essentially the process 00:47:18.360 --> 00:47:21.120 of the formation of the so-called Workers’ Autonomy, 00:47:21.120 --> 00:47:25.560 that is, the first actions begin to emerge in which we see 00:47:25.560 --> 00:47:30.960 more or less the same willingness 00:47:30.960 --> 00:47:33.960 and the same determination 00:47:35.040 --> 00:47:36.640 to do things. 00:47:36.640 --> 00:47:39.640 Gradually the situation builds up until. 00:47:40.560 --> 00:47:43.080 There is a pivotal moment 00:47:43.080 --> 00:47:47.600 the days of April 1975, in which the trigger 00:47:47.600 --> 00:47:52.640 is an element linked to fascism 00:47:52.640 --> 00:47:55.800 because a fascist shot and killed a comrade. 00:47:55.800 --> 00:48:00.960 In reality, then the response of the workers’ autonomy, 00:48:00.960 --> 00:48:05.400 was to take over the squares and streets. 00:48:06.240 --> 00:48:10.240 This certainly went beyond the anti-fascist element. 00:48:11.520 --> 00:48:14.520 Biographically, 00:48:14.600 --> 00:48:17.560 what still survived of the 00:48:17.560 --> 00:48:20.880 extra-parliamentary groups during the April days 00:48:20.880 --> 00:48:26.760 was rigidly focused on pursuing limited anti-fascist objectives. 00:48:26.760 --> 00:48:30.600 There was a very violent incident, bordering on a 00:48:30.600 --> 00:48:33.600 physical confrontation with one of the groups, Avanguardia Operaia, 00:48:34.600 --> 00:48:39.040 because they objected us attacking the housing administration 00:48:39.200 --> 00:48:43.560 with molotov cocktails, thereby giving continuity 00:48:43.840 --> 00:48:46.800 to an element of the mass workers’ struggles 00:48:46.800 --> 00:48:49.800 of that period, which involved 00:48:50.080 --> 00:48:55.040 the refusal to pay rents, bills and so on. 00:48:55.040 --> 00:48:56.400 The squares and the streets 00:48:56.400 --> 00:49:01.160 took shape precisely as an element of counter-power: 00:49:01.880 --> 00:49:04.200 “Today we’re in charge, 00:49:04.200 --> 00:49:08.640 we decide where we go what we do and how we do it.” 00:49:09.080 --> 00:49:11.120 And in fact, 00:49:11.120 --> 00:49:16.320 apart from anti-fascist objectives, we also attacked the 00:49:16.440 --> 00:49:21.440 mainstream newspapers. 00:49:22.440 --> 00:49:24.120 This opened 00:49:24.120 --> 00:49:26.640 a rift that would prove irreconcilable 00:49:26.640 --> 00:49:29.640 with the rest of the 00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:33.520 extra-parliamentary left from that moment onwards. 00:49:37.840 --> 00:49:40.560 I gave up my factory job 00:49:40.560 --> 00:49:44.880 because this new form of militancy 00:49:46.000 --> 00:49:47.960 requires a commitment 00:49:47.960 --> 00:49:51.560 of a different kind, full-time with other characteristics. 00:49:51.560 --> 00:49:54.600 Also, my presence in the factory 00:49:54.600 --> 00:50:00.280 was beginning to become dangerous from the point of view 00:50:00.280 --> 00:50:05.400 of repression and the possibility and being arrested. 00:50:05.680 --> 00:50:09.720 Essentially, in 1975 I made myself untraceable. 00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:15.240 I haven’t had any arrest warrants yet but there were reports, complaints 00:50:15.240 --> 00:50:19.640 and so I chose to live in a state of semi-clandestinity 00:50:20.200 --> 00:50:23.880 which was relative, because even then 00:50:25.080 --> 00:50:27.360 in ’76 it happened 00:50:27.360 --> 00:50:32.880 that we stormed the canteen of the upper management and 00:50:32.880 --> 00:50:38.360 we’d sit at the tables eating together with our comrades 00:50:38.720 --> 00:50:41.880 working at Magneti Marelli without paying, of course 00:50:42.480 --> 00:50:47.160 and nobody said anything to us because back then we had, how shall I put it, 00:50:49.560 --> 00:50:52.560 we had a role. 00:50:53.120 --> 00:50:53.720 This role wasn’t 00:50:53.720 --> 00:50:57.200 linked to our subjective characteristics 00:50:57.240 --> 00:51:00.480 or to us being bullies, but to the fact 00:51:01.000 --> 00:51:04.000 that the workers of Magneti Marelli had our backs. 00:51:04.600 --> 00:51:05.880 There was a wide opening, 00:51:05.880 --> 00:51:08.880 it was a semi-illegality. 00:51:10.200 --> 00:51:13.480 But basically from there 00:51:13.800 --> 00:51:17.520 it completely changed my life 00:51:17.520 --> 00:51:20.640 which then began to be much less 00:51:20.880 --> 00:51:23.880 indeed, no longer tied 00:51:24.120 --> 00:51:28.800 to the world of the factory, 00:51:29.080 --> 00:51:32.080 but to a different kind of militancy.