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LAST CALL FOR PEACE-ITALY: Peace Movement Finds Ally in Trade Unions

Leonardo Sacchetti

ROME, Mar 15 2003 (IPS) - The Italian movement for peace in Iraq has found an ally in the country’s trade union confederations, although it has failed to forge connections with the opposition parties, and seems to have lost the open support of the Roman Catholic Church.

As seen in Saturday’s protests and a Europe-wide work stoppage Friday, Italy’s biggest labour confederations have added their mobilising capacity to the strength of the peace movement. Nearly 500,000 workers gathered Saturday in the northern city of Milan, convened by the five million-member Italian General Confederation of Labour (CGIL), the country’s largest trade union.

The peace movement has forged ties with non-governmental organisations opposed to the direction taken by the globalisation process (often labelled “anti-globalisation activists”), as well as sectors of civil society opposed to the right-wing government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, one of the staunchest supporters of the United States government’s plans for war against Iraq.

But although parliamentarians, mayors and city councillors from several parties – including right-wing political factions – have joined the campaign against war, the political system as a whole has stayed on the sidelines.

Despite meetings with the centre-left opposition aimed at bringing together the forces of political parties and social sectors against a war in Iraq, the initiative fell flat.

The peace movement is also opposed to “neo-liberal” policies, and to the Berlusconi government – views that are not always easy to digest for political parties and the Catholic Church.

Nevertheless, millions gathered in Italy Saturday to demonstrate for peace, just as millions of protesters came together in Rome on Feb. 15 to protest the plans for war. The rainbow-coloured flags that have filled the streets and windows in cities around Italy have also made their mark.

Although the media initially gave the anti-war movement heavy coverage, one month after the first Europe-wide peace demonstrations, Italy’s activists have lost the attention of the print media, TV and radio.

For that reason, recent remarks by Berlusconi’s wife, Veronica Lario, came as a surprise.

“This movement could raise awareness. Those who come out to demonstrate in the city squares have taken the decision to seek a collective response to their worries. These demonstrations merit respect,” said Lario, whose husband is not only prime minister, but a media magnate.

No government spokesperson had any comment to make on her statement.

In the last few days, the Catholic Church’s influential media also put an end to their campaign against the “pre-emptive war” that the United States plans to wage against Iraq.

The Vatican’s last major effort on behalf of peace was a Mar. 5 visit by Cardinal Pio Laghi to Washington, where he delivered a letter against the war by Pope John Paul II to President George W. Bush.

“For the Vatican, the bombing of Baghdad has already begun,” journalist Piero Schiavazzi, with the Vatican TV channel Tele-Pace, told IPS.

Having apparently lost the Vatican’s media and political support, the peace movement is now gaining strength thanks to the organising and mobilising capacity of Italy’s trade unions.

The CGIL, the Italian Confederation of Workers’ Trade Unions (CISL), and the Italian Labour Union (UIL), held new protests Saturday, after adhering to a 15-minute Europe-wide work stoppage at noon Friday.

“Italian and European workers can add another aspect to the peace movement: a workers’ struggle against the precariousness of labour and the precariousness of peace,” Titti Di Salvo, CGIL spokeswoman on international affairs, commented to IPS.

“Italy’s central trade unions are adding a social dimension, the defence of labour rights around the world, as a new angle for interpreting the Iraqi crisis. And that wager could end up victorious against the war,” said Massimo Gibelli with the Di Vittorio Foundation, the Italian labour movement’s leading research institute.

On Sunday, the members of Catholic trade unions will march to the village of Assisi, the birthplace of Saint Francis of Assisi in the central region of Umbria, which has become a symbol of peace.