2,000,000 March in Rome against proposed liberalisation of Labour Laws and against terrorism

national | miscellaneous | news report Saturday March 23, 2002 16:40 by blissett

Reports on IMC Italy (1) say that up to 2,000,000 people are marching in Rome today against proposed changes in the country’s labour laws which would make it easier for employers to fire and hire workers

Reports on IMC Italy (1) say that up to 2,000,000 people are marching in Rome today against proposed changes in the country’s labour laws which would make it easier for employers to fire and hire workers. The demonstration, which follows close on the heels of a similarly massive demonstration against neo-liberal economic policies in Barcelona went ahead despite calls from the Berlusconi government to suspend it in the wake of the controversial murder of Italian government adviser Professor Marco Biagi (2).

A document (3) published on Thursday 21st March on the website www.caserta24ore.org styled as a communiqué from ‘The Red Brigades Combatant Communist Party’ claimed responsibility for the murder and was deemed ‘credible’ by the Italian Police on the strength of its ‘language and content’. This statement has been widely posted on activist sites all over the net in the last 24 hours.

Luca Casarini, spokesman for the Tutti Bianche and the most visible ‘face’ of the No-Global movement in Italy, has released a statement (4) characterizing the murder as ‘a horrible pro-regime homicide’. It has been widely condemned by the left in Italy which quickly moved to use today’s demonstration as a show of opposition to terrorism.

The murder, and the way in which it was quickly linked by the Berlusconi Regime to the Left in Italy, raises memories of the 70’s in Italy and of the ‘strategy of tension’ (5) which saw state sponsorship of terrorist acts which were then blamed on the left. This occurred at a time when left movements in Italy were in the ascendant. This historical background to this week’s events explains the context and importance of Casarini’s Statement on the Biagi murder and of the COBAS statement (6) on the same subject.

Berlusconi is historically linked to this dark side of Italian Political history through his association with the notorious P2 group (5).

(1)http://www.uk.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=25755&group=webcast
(2)http://www.indymedia.nl/2002/03/2800.shtml
(3)http://www.indymedia.ie/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=1191
(4)http://www.uk.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=25651&group=webcast
(5)http://www.indymedia.ie/cgi-bin/newswire.cgi?id=1175
(6)http://www.uk.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=25650&group=webcast