The Fire Last Time by Chris Harman

Author:Chris Harman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bookmarks

The growth of the revolutionary left

All three organisations grew in the years 1969-72, absorbing many of those who in 1968 had been unorganised spontaneists or in the orthodox Maoist groups. They became a significant force within the most active sections of the working class.

The recession of 1971 and the formation of the centre right Andreotti government in 1972 made the struggle harder in the factories, but increased bitterness throughout society as a whole. Inspired by the upheaval of 1968-69, hundreds of thousands of people fought back against increased hardship and repression. Violent conflicts with police occurred during occupations of empty houses by immigrant workers in Milan and protests by the unemployed in Naples. There were revolts in the prisons and new waves of struggle in the middle schools. Lotta Continua threw itself into all these struggles, finding new audiences for its ideas.

The spontaneous creation of revolutionary consciousness through struggle now began to mean “conquering the cities” to create “red bases”, from which the police were excluded.437 The notion of “the proletariat” was broadened to include all “the oppressed”. Stress was laid on the “revolutionary violence” that such struggles led to:

Armed struggle begins with the defence of a small minority of tenants and ends with the fight of the people against imperialism.438

Lotta Continua called a day of protest against repression in May 1971, with demonstrations in many cities; that in Turin was attacked by the police and led to 56 arrests, with 13 members jailed for more than a year.

It soon became clear, however, that the revolutionary left could not deal with the new offensives of the employers and the right through street demonstrations alone. This was brought home hard to Lotta Continua in June 1971 when FIAT management got away with sacking a number of militants.439 The revolutionary left needed a new strategy if it was to avoid a wave of arrests and sackings.

The intellectuals of Il Manifesto were the first to react. The right’s offensive, they argued, justified their own orientation towards the Communist Party and the unions. The main threat, they said, was a movement towards fascism whose main exponent they claimed was the Christian Democrat leader Fanfani. They called on the revolutionary left to campaign for support from the big left parties and the unions against his efforts to become president late in 1971.

Lotta Continua accepted the call, and organised joint demonstrations with Il Manifesto around the slogan “Down with Fanfanism”. Fanfani’s presidential ambitions were not fulfilled, but when the centre right Andreotti government was formed soon afterwards, Lotta Continua raised the slogan “Kick out Andreotti”. This was taken up in many factories and on many demonstrations.

This was a period of violent conflict with the fascists: a Lotta Continua headline in April 1972 claimed that the Christian Democrats and the bosses were “preparing civil war against the working class”.440 This may not have fitted the real intentions of the main sections of Italian capitalism, but few activists whose only political training had been in the strikes and demonstrations of the previous three years were likely to grasp that.

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