Gramsci and the Factory Councils

gramsoi ana the Factory councils aiasbar aavidson The Italian nation came out of the First quintals; the maize crop from 25 to 22 World war in dire economic straits. In 1915 million quintals, and the beet sugar crop the country was still backward industrially, from 21 to 15 million quintals. (1) In agricultural production was still all-import 1919 the result was, as one post-war ant to the economy, and it had been ill- prime minister, Giolitti, put it, that "the prepared for the enormous expense of fight public debt had risen from 13 to 94 bill ing a war. During the war years, state exp ions", and there was an annual deficit of enditure had risen enormously from 2,287 four thousand million lire. (2) If immed million to 30,857 million lire per annum. iate steps of extreme urgency were not Simultaneously, the mobilisation of vast taken, this would conduct the country to numbers of peasants had resulted in drast ruination. He concluded that the Italians ic falls in agricultural production and con would have to pay their debts themselves, sequently in national income from that or make their country ever-more indebted important sector. In 1915-19, the grain to countries like the United States. crop had fallen from 52 to 46 million Most Italians had suffered economically from the war. The rapid increase in State expenditure had created corresponding This is the first instalment of a two-part art inflation. While their money bought less, icle which will be concluded in our next issue. the cost of living index had risen from 100 Formerly at Monash University, Alastair in 1914 to 248 in 1918. (3) Wages had not Davidson has this year been lecturing in France risen commensurately. Even what money and the United States. there was did not mean corresponding 38 AUSTRALIAN LEFT REVIEW- OCTOBER 1974 food to buy, and on occasions the staple, debts. Their plant was old and out-of-date, bread and pasta, ran out completely. (4) and it had to be reconverted to peace-time The result was a populace made poorer by production, profits were bound to fall, and the war and less in a position to pay any the industries which could not survive ex national debts than it had been in 1915. cept in the hot house conditions of war would have to be scrapped. To modernise, The working class had been subjected the capitalists needed huge investments of to martial discipline in the factories during capital. The steel and heavy machine indust the war to ensure that production was un ries were particularly affected by this prob impaired. In cities like Turin, this meant lem. (8) None were prepared to tolerate that a traditionally militant working class industrial trouble. So, while the attitude of was obliged to forego practically all its the government was that Italy should pay her claims for improvements in its conditions debts herself, the mass of the people could precisely at a time when they were most needed to offset increases in prices. Strikes not, and would not, do so, and the capitalist were illegal and the unions, who were led class would not do so. by reformists, many of whom favoured the war effort, could do little to defend the In the last year of the war, the commiss- workers' interests. Even organisations like ione interna had become the primary organ the metalworkers' commissioni interne isation through which the Turin metal work (shop committees) feared to protest about ers expressed their resentment at the condit conditions to the military delegates who ions the "capitalists' war had brought them to. ran the factories, as the slightest suggestion In April 1918, it wai agreed by the FIOM of independence could mean the withdrawal and the Automobile Consortium that the of a man from inclusion on the list of res commissione interna would decide disputes erved occupations, and dispatch to the over piece-work rates in certain cases, and front. (5) The result was a working class the leaders of the factory organisations boiling with resentment, which sometimes spoke together with the union leaders to ex exploded in rebellion, when, for example, plain this to the masses. (9) In November the bread ran out in Turin in August 1917. 1918, Emilio Colombino, a leading Turin Like Gramsci, the workers believed that the trade unionist, stated to the National Con bourgeoisie was responsible for the war and ference of the FIOM that the commissione the miseries it had brought upon them nd interna had a leading role to play in def was determined that it would pay. (6). 11 ending workers' interests. (10) As soon as Turin, in particular, it was very militant, and the war was ended the FIOM secured the the local authorities were fearful that its owners' acceptance of the right of the resentment would spill over into rebellion. commissione interna to exist in all metall urgical works. The commissioni themselves The only class in the community which considered the owners' proposals before had benefited from the war had been the FIOM accepted them. In March 1919, the capitalist class, both in banking and industry. agreement was implemented throughout There had been a hothouse growth in industry the industry. because of the need for war material. The production of cars had gone from 9,200 At the beginning of 1918, these comm units in 1914 to 20,000 in 1918 and the pro issioni were little different from the coll duction of aeroplanes from 606 in 1915 to aborationist organisations which they had 14,820 in 1918. The profits in the automo been before the war, when the owners used bile industry had increased from 8.20 per them to resolve labor disputes in the inter cent to 30.51 per cent in two years and the ests of maintaining production, and the union value of fixed capital from 17 million lire leaders looked on them as transmission belts in 1914 to 200 million in 1919. (7) Vast keeping them in touch first with the organ fortunes had been made in industry, and ised workers, and then with the unorganised. much had been made by the speculation of The union leaders selected their members war profiteers, the pesce cani, whom Gramsci from among union members only. (11) On attacked so often in 'Sotto la Mole' in 1916-7. the whole, both sides, capitalist and unionist, To extend and consolidate their interests, saw them as a means of smoothing over diff the capitalist class had strengthened the links iculties of a minor nature, and regarded matt between themselves and engaged in mergers ers of substance as something to be decided throughout the war. But they too faced the at a higher level in negotiations between their post-war period ill-prepared to pay national respective bureaucracies. 39 What must be grasped is that the nature The militants from the factories did not of the commissione interna was changing feel the same. After hearing Colombino's throughout 1918 as a result of the real press speech, Maurizio Garino, an anarchist of ures placed on the working class economic long standing and a member of the "rigids" ally and socially, and because of the inability of their own union leaders to defend their interests successfully. This change implied a "attacked the report of Colombino critique of traditional trade union methods which was, according to him, too including the role in the movement of the mild, stating that it was time to fin grass roots workers' organisations and of the ish with the bourgeoisie, with the existing trade union leadership. industrialists, and that the moment was right to act revolutionarily." The union leaders' attitude towards the masses was summed up in a speech made by Bruno Buozzi in 1916 in which he stated The union leaders' reply was to hold a that the trade union organiser "must see higher and further than the masses" and tiny assembly, as was common, and re sometimes use any means to get the masses placed the "rigids" by a firmly reformist to do what they did not want. (12) It was leadership comprised of Bruno Buozzi, innately elitist, dividing the trade union Mario Guarnieri, Gino Castagno and Alessan movement into those who were capable of dro Uberti. The rigids, Garino, Fassone, knowing the true interests of the workers Boero and Parodi, were in a tiny minority and those who were not. It had as a coroll for the rest of the year. (15) ary a bitter resentment of any attempt to poach on its preserves, or to challenge its As far as the reformists were concerned, methods. (13). they were proud of their reformism, like Their elitism was reflected in the lack Buozzi, who stated late in 1918: "I am not of popular participation in the central org ashamed of being a reformist -- nor a coward anisations of the labor movement. about it -- I've never hid it", (16) and they "A tiny minority of members take saw the commissione interna in a reformist part in the life of the Leagues and fashion, as an organisation to be run from Camera del Lavoro; the majority the top by them. They were not going to is regularly absent, though this does have anarchists and syndicalists challenge not preclude its intervening at dec their line. They represented the workers isive moment with a vote which and that was that. Throughout 1918 they displays a lack of thought.... of frustrated several efforts of the "rigids" and men who are not responsible for their anarchist and syndicalist allies to make their acts........The leaders ac quire an authority and importance a comback in the FIOM.

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