A-Infos (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #19-25 - Referendum adventurism. Only the fight decides (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The fate of the last five referendum questions was already written in 
the aftermath of the ruling of the Constitutional Court - in January 
2025 - which had deemed inadmissible the request for a referendum aimed 
at abolishing the so-called differentiated autonomy imposed by the 
Meloni government on the country, leaving the others adrift. That drift 
that materialized with the result, with an unequivocal meaning, of 
Monday 9. ---- The political controversy did not take long to develop, 
as is obvious. On the part of the right and its government it was more 
than expected even in its most vulgar tones - even if perhaps they 
should take into consideration the fact that the 12 million plus of Yes 
votes are in fact equivalent to the 12.5 million that in the past 
elections brought Meloni to Palazzo Chigi.

It was also expected by those who call themselves 'reformists' like Gori 
and Picierno or 'liberal-liberists' like Renzi and Calenda, immediately 
ready to unleash against the current leadership of the Democratic Party, 
guilty, in their opinion, of being too cold on 'rearmament', on 
supporting the wars underway both by Ukraine and Israel and above all of 
subordination to the policies of Landini and Conte. Guilty, above all, 
of continuing to develop, with the so-called 'broad field', a coalition 
project with the 5 Star Movement and the Green Left Alliance, without 
having complete control over it to force it to make more 'responsible' 
choices and more in line with the European centrists. It is no 
coincidence that the right and reformists immediately shouted their 
heads off, proclaiming the death of the 'broad field' and loudly calling 
for Landini's resignation from the leadership of the CGIL.

Obviously neither option will be given, both because there are no 
alternatives to Landini one year after the renewal of the position and 
because the numbers, skillfully manipulated, of the Yes votes play into 
Schlein's hands against the internal minority. The statements of both, 
like those of Conte, Bonelli and Fratoianni, go in a completely 
different direction, also strong in the good results in the 
administrative elections, in Genoa and Taranto above all: that of the 
strengthening of the 'broad field', with the promise of a greater 
commitment in defense of workers.

It is certain that if we are to listen to one of the 'strong' slogans of 
the CGIL campaign - "The vote is your fight" - this is a commitment 
whose results we will have to be very careful about.

We only have to look back, and not even by much, to realize how much 
this left wing of parliament and this state union have done for workers. 
From the Treu package of 1997 (Prodi government of the center-left) 
that paved the way for the precariousness of work to the Jobs Act and 
the abolition of Article 18 on dismissals (Renzi government of the 
center-left), to mention only the main ones, the Democratic Party has 
been at the head of a neo-liberal process of privatizations and cuts 
that has consolidated privileges and positions of strength of a 
political and bureaucratic class, abandoning territories and the world 
of work to the right.

With the referendum questions both the CGIL and the current leadership 
of the PD wanted to give a signal of a reversal of the trend compared to 
previous choices, on the terrain that is more suitable for them, that of 
the ballot rather than of the social struggle, also given the objective 
conflictual weakness of their central body of reference: appealing to 
the base to force a stalemate, this is the aim. The signature 
collection, the stalls, the rallies, everything served to lift their 
base from the state of passivity to which 'their' choices had confined it.

It was not enough; beyond the consoling phrases of Schlein and his, the 
political defeat was clear: in no large city, in no region, did the 
quorum reach 50% of those entitled to vote. And the percentage reached 
(30.6%) would have been even more meager if the many who abstain, by 
choice, in political elections had not participated in the vote and who 
this time decided to wait in anticipation of a resounding defeat that 
would have had even more devastating results on the working class and on 
the numerous immigrants living in our country. In this regard, the 65% 
of Yes votes collected by the question on citizenship deserves to be 
underlined due to the fact that much of the climate of distrust that 
exists in the country on the issue of immigration is due not only to the 
right with Salvini in pole position, but also to the policies of the PD 
and the M5S. Let's not forget the yellow-green government, just as let's 
not forget the Minniti-Orlando package and everything that followed.

Once again it is demonstrated that the referendum institution as it was 
established, if it has given significant results, albeit questionable, 
on the issues of civil rights (divorce, decriminalization of voluntary 
termination of pregnancy) in times of great street mobilizations and 
bitter social conflict, in recent years has highlighted all its limits, 
inherent in its original design. Even more so on the issues of work, 
entrusting to a collective opinion, by its nature interclassist, the 
decision on issues that are, among other things, difficult to understand 
from a technical point of view for those who do not experience them, 
means consigning oneself to defeat. This was the case in 1985 for the 
referendum to repeal the law on the sliding scale where the quorum was 
reached but it was disastrously lost and in 2003 for the referendum 
against the abolition of article 18 with a turnout that stopped at 25.5%.

It should be noted that since 1995 no popular referendum has reached the 
quorum except the one in 2011 on nuclear power and on the public 
maintenance of water against privatization that won only to be thwarted 
by palace maneuvers. The same thing is happening for the resumption of 
nuclear power in Italy, in the face of the referendums of 2011 and 
especially of 1987 held and won after the Chernobyl disaster, in the 
wake of large popular demonstrations and occupations of the plants then 
active in the country.

Nothing new under the sun. We have never been promoters of any 
referendum and indeed we have always warned against the use of a means 
that once again has the function of distracting the population from 
those that are the true instruments of expression of the collective 
will: self-management and non-delegated action. Replacing conflict with 
the ballot is not only a demonstration of weakness in terms of struggle 
but is above all a gift to the government in office and to the employers.

It is now a matter of preventing the sense of victory that runs through 
the government troops from turning into an even more frenzied attack on 
the living and working conditions of the lower classes and the immigrant 
population. It is also up to us, the adventurists - as we have often and 
willingly been called - to repair the damage that the adventurists of 
the referendum have caused. Let's roll up our sleeves.

Massimo Varengo

https://umanitanova.org/avventurismo-referendario-solo-la-lotta-decide/
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