Italian strike for reforms

RKERS throughout Sicily are to stage a four-hour general strike today to back WORKERS throughout S onal union demands for reform in southern development policies, agriculture, national union demands 1 health and housing.

Their stoppage is the first of a series of regional strikes in which most sections of workers will down tools for 24 hours.

Tomorrow the strike call will go to the Alto Adige (the region bordering on Austria), on Tuesday to Milan and the surrounding area of Lombardy, and on Wednesday to Turin and Piedmonte.

The Italian working class wants to come to grips with the employers and the rotten, reactionary centre-left coalition that drives the leaders of all three Business down: Port bosses reach for the whip AMOUNTS of goods have fallen by 23 per second phase of Lo according to a Port of major unions to join in calling a series of strictly limited actions. During the last week alone thousands upon thousands of workers have shown themselves ready to respond. wórkers demonstrated Of rubber lens of thousands last week in support of their demand for a national contract. There is to be a national stoppage today against victimization of militants. in the giant Goodyear and Pirelli (Bicocca) plants. PROVOCATIONS At Ferrara 10,000 struck and demonstrated for. economic handled in London's enclosed docks cent in the first seven weeks of the rd Devlin's 'modernization' scheme, London report.

Some 90 ships were diverted elsewhere during this. period.

Reasons given for this reduction by employers and union leaders include: problems of dockers now working different hours from road-haulage drivers, the shorter working week, the reduced labour force and 'a reluctance by a minority to accept the new agreement'.

Measures to enforce acceptance of the already widely-hated scheme may soon be on the way. reforms last week, and at Varese thousands of workers and students responded to a call for a mass demonstration against fascist provocations in the area.

But the official leadership in all. three unions now lead action for reforms only because they can. do nothing else. ^1 'On July 6, when the Rumour government. resigned, on the eve of a threatened general strike for reforms, the Catholic " union (CISL) 'and the Soțial Democratic union (UIL) immediately countermanded the strike orders, and were very shortly followed by the Stalinist-led CGIL.

The government crisis has been further inflamed by the resignation of the centre-left coalition in Sicily, following allegations that the newly-elected Christian-Democratic mayor of the capital, Palermo, has been closely connected with the Mafia for many years.

And in Sardinia the political 'understanding' between the four centre-left parties (Christian Democrats, Social Democrats, Social Party and Republicans) has been fractured by the election of a regional President with Christian-Democratic and Socialist Party votes, with the agreed abstention of the Communists.

NO ADVANTAGE But the Stalinists who head the Italian CP have no intention of turning the employers' political difficulties to the advantage of the working class.

They are hard at work for a deal with 'left-wing' Christian Democrats on a national scale: a deal which would offer no basic gains to the working class and could only provide time for the extreme-right forces to prepare.

YOU MU lee.