A-Infos (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #16-25 - The referendum trap. Change is achieved through struggle, not by voting (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The abrogative referendums scheduled for June 8 and 9, whose questions 
will concern reinstatement in the workplace in the event of unlawful 
dismissal, compensation for dismissed workers in companies with fewer 
than 15 employees, fixed-term contracts, the responsibility of 
contracting companies for accidents at work in the case of contracts and 
the reduction of the time required for foreign citizens to request 
Italian citizenship (from 10 to 5 years), are once again a blunt weapon 
for social movements.

The referendum game has its ironclad rules. If we take into account that 
referendums are subject to a mechanism whereby they are invalidated if 
the quorum of 50% + 1 is not reached in addition, obviously, to the 
majority of Yes votes, it has very often happened that they have come to 
nothing. Furthermore, history shows us that even when all the 
requirements have been met, on several occasions the institutions have 
mobilized to nullify the results. A clear example of this is the 
referendum on public water, which after more than a decade has been 
totally ignored and disregarded.

But the CGIL has collected the necessary signatures and everything is 
ready to proceed with the vote.

Confederal and concertative trade unionism - which has been working for 
social pacification for many years - relentlessly pursues its own 
exclusive interest, certainly not that of the exploited and oppressed 
classes. The infamous "Treu Package" of 1997, which during the first 
Prodi government opened the doors to an inexorable process of job 
insecurity, was supported by the same party and trade union forces that 
today are shouting their heads off for the call to the polls. At the 
time of the approval of the Jobs Act and the cancellation of Article 18, 
the triad certainly did not do somersaults to hinder the policies of the 
Renzi government, limiting themselves to a feeble symbolic protest. 
Heavy neoliberal reforms that sanctioned cuts to services and 
privatizations were accepted lightheartedly. The imperative was and 
still is clear: maintaining one's privileges counts more than the future 
of those who touch poverty and precariousness with their own hands. The 
proposal of the last question, if possible, is even more paradoxical. 
The security package branded Minniti-Orlando, the urban daspo for the 
poor and undocumented, the plan to build a CPR in each region, the 
agreements with Libya in order to facilitate pushbacks at sea, the 
closure of ports and the blocking of NGO ships, were the work of the 
center-left coalition led by the Democrats.

Not only that. Referendums are, in our opinion, the smokescreen that 
risks diverting attention from social conflict, the only terrain where 
the exploited and the exploited can obtain concrete results.

The only terrain on which the state unions cannot and do not want to engage.

With respect to these dynamics, a good dose of awareness and 
disenchantment is needed.

We need to open our eyes to the interclassist and losing nature of the 
tools offered by bourgeois institutions and contested by union 
bureaucracies.

Laws are nothing but the normative precipitate of the balance of power 
in society.

If the 1987 referendum on nuclear power, held in the aftermath of the 
disastrous accident at the Chernobyl power plant, proved to be a winner, 
this was also and above all thanks to strikes, occupations and 
impressive street initiatives. Because conquests not supported by a 
significant conflictual campaign are ephemeral and precarious.

Only through a general and widespread mobilization is it possible to 
obtain effective improvements in the living and working conditions of 
those involved. Only by avoiding the logic of delegation and practicing 
direct action can we ensure that the government takes a step back, 
restoring rights and protections that have long been dismantled.

We renew our commitment to participation in the field of struggle.

Let's build the alternative from below!

The FAI Correspondence Commission

https://umanitanova.org/la-trappola-del-referendum-si-cambia-con-la-lotta-non-con-il-voto/
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