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No to the violence of the fascists and bosses. Demonstrate outside the Union halls on 10 October

Wednesday 13 October 2021, by Sinistra Anticapitalista

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After the Forza Nuova (New Force) assault on the national headquarters of the CGIL (biggest Italian trade union confederation) we demand the banning of neo-fascist organizations. Mass assemblies have been called for Sunday, 1£0 October outside the national (Corso Italia) and local union offices.

Tomorrow, Sunday, the CGIL offices in most of Italy will be open. In Rome, in Corso Italia, there will be a national general assembly from 10am. Let’s defend our offices, let’s demand the banning of neo-fascist organizations and, no less important, let’s take back the streets and relaunch our struggles. It’s the best antidote to fascism there has ever been. We can fully support the CGIL appeal and agree with the following statement of our comrade Eliana Como, coordinator of Riconquistiamo tutto (Win back everything), the opposition current in the CGIL. She issued it while the national headquarters of the union was under the fascist attack. The assault was led, according to what the press say, by Roberto Fiore, leader of Forza Nuova and Giuliano Castellino, a convicted serial offender, notorious for squad raids, fraud and cocaine possession but, above all, leader of the worst extreme right, racist and fascist group.

As expected, the police seemed to be surprised and overwhelmed by the incursion of an absolutely containable number of fascist protesters. The leader of the rioters should have been under house arrest, due to his criminal convictions, but for the umpteenth time he took part and spoke in a demonstration with the acquiescence of the police. Strong against the weak but weak faced with the strong. Such ambiguity has precedents since the darkest periods of the Republic. The populist language and violent actions is a small scale replica of the fascist squad violence of a hundred years ago. It’s good to be clear: this kind of violence is always against working men and women, even when it seems to lash out at institutional targets and claim to be defending "freedom”.

Perhaps tonight’s raid will upset the harmony between declared neo-fascists and sectors of the petty bourgeoisie whom, since the beginning of the pandemic, have shown themselves intolerant of precautionary measures. Even the so-called non-violent protestors completely ignore demands for a public health service and a universal basic income, which have been raised by the most advanced sectors of the social movements and the workers’ movement.

Some of our Roman comrades have already reached the Corso Italia headquarters of the CGIL in the evening to defend it during the night. Tomorrow, Sunday, October 10, we will be there, in Rome and in front of every union hall in other cities where defence pickets will be convened. We’ll be there to support the anti-fascist movement. Forza Nuova is one of the groups that should be banned. We will also discuss the urgent need for a general strike against the violence of the bosses’ murders at work, of their sackings and of their profit-making from our labour.

9 October 2021

P.S.

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