The so-called "Article 18" is one of the main parts of welfare state, and grants the right for unfairly dismissed workers to be restored or to have an equal monetary indemnity (that must be not lower than five months of salary). Now the government wants to remove Article 18, justifying this choice with the pretence to create new favorable working conditions for young people. In this way - they say - Italy would be more competitive in the international work market. Government pretends to give work to about 300,000 young unemployed. Just to give you an idea, Italy has a employment percentage equal to 53.5 percent of the population; the mean in the rest of Europe is 63.3 percent.

CGIL (General Confederation of Italian Workers), the main trade union in Italy, organized this big demonstration to refuse every idea about changing present rules, and to take a distance from the murder of Marco Biagi. He was an important economist, one of the main collaborators of Maroni, the President of the Board of Trade.

He was killed in Bologna on March 19, 2002, while returning home from the railway station, by a commando unit of two or three people. This terrible event was claimed by the so called "Brigate Rosse" - a terrorist organization that returns on the political stage every time there is a strong "fight" regarding work and social conflict.

Biagi was a very important "piece of the chessboard", because he was one of the first economists who proposed to abolish Article 18 and every defense for workers. It seems strange he was a perfect unknown, a "man who worked in shadows". Almost no one knew anything about him before he was killed. He was a simple collaborator, his face didn't appear on mass media. Only "well-informed people" would have the possibility to know something about his work. But now after his death Berlusconi "profits" to give the political responsibility of this criminal act to the trade union, the No Global movement, and the left wing of parliament. According to Berlusconi, they are "responsible" for their strong criticism against government, because their protests would have given the possibility of "work" to terrorists.

This is clearly the same strategy used against the 300,000 pacifists in Genoa in July 2001 to demonstrate against G8: using violent action (then the so-called Black Bloc, now the new "Brigate Rosse") to discredit every pacific dissident voice.

The trade unions and the No Global movement are baffled about this assertion: "They want to treat protest as a crime. They want to kill the movement!" was one of the most pronounced phrases in Rome during the demonstration. Workers, retired persons, students, intellectuals, young people working under "a typical labor agreement" (that is an elegant way to indicate people working with reduced rights) all came together to demonstrate against the Berlusconi government, against the use of violence for political means.

A lot of young people came to Rome with their fathers (some retired, some still working) to say that it is dangerous to change the rules that govern the Italian work market. The No Global movement in Italy are almost 40,000; their banners say: "THIS HOMOCIDE IS MADE BY THE GOVERNMENT" and "STOP THE TERRORISM OF THE GOVERNMENT".

The opinion of Sergio Cofferati (leader of CGIL) is that to modify Article 18 is the best way to create strong and dangerous differences between "protected workers" and "new engaged people", who will be left with no rights and can be dismissed at any moment by the owner. Another danger is the breaking between north Italy, with its stronger economy and worker protection, and south Italy, which is more fragile. Cofferati refers to this eventual difference between people using strong words: "this is the new form of discrimination".

In reality Article 18 is applicable only when there are more than 15 employees in a factory, so it is totally unuseful for example in the so called "North East", where the production is concentrated only in small factories with no more than 10 employees. So "the only way to proceed is the extension of Article 18 to all!".

But the main question regards the "political attack" of the government on the trade unions. Who will join a trade union when there will be the possibility of dismissal for "political activities" inside the factory? This reform is a concrete danger for the existence of trade unions, but in general is a way to weaken workers, and dissident people in general.

Otherwise this "strange terrorism" (it seems strange to everyone who knows Italian recent history that the so called "Brigate Rosse" are still alive and present) is the weapon to compare the No Global movement and the left wing to the terrorists' violent activities. But this will be not an easy task. Because now in Italy there are more than two million people that represent the real democracy in the country.

They are pacifist, determined, united as one. And very strong.

–  PIERO BABUDRO