ROME (ITALPRESS) – “There is yes the problem of a policy for the security of Europe, but for us it must be based on rights, labor and the welfare state.” Thus, in an interview with Corriere della Sera, CGIL General Secretary Maurizio Landini, stressing that the union will not be in the square with the 5 Star Movement on Saturday, April 5, at the demonstration against rearmament.
“The CGIL,” he explains, “does not join party demonstrations. Then, individuals will do what they see fit.” “The secretary of the CGIL does not participate,” he adds. “But we are respectful of this and other initiatives against rearmament.
The conversion of automotive to defense, “I think it’s total stupidity,” Landini continued. Here we are faced with fundamental choices. When you produce weapons then you have to use them. This reconversion hypothesis is not acceptable, because then you enter a war economy, when instead people need to be given development and rights. Italy and Europe have the problem of no longer being at the center of innovation, as we see on artificial intelligence. And even on the more traditional sectors, steel, chemistry, mobility, we have long since stopped investing. We believe that industrial policies should have other goals, from stability and quality of employment to improving wages.”
“Government and Confindustria,” he adds, “must reopen the tables to renew public and private contracts, from metalworkers to telecommunications, with real increases. But solving the wage issue also means addressing the reasons for labor poverty: from the redistribution of income all in favor of profits to the unprecedented precarity and the chain of subcontracting. For this, I repeat, referendums are crucial.”
“With the June 8 and 9 vote,” he declares, “we can change things by creating the conditions for a wage based on stability and job security. On April 11 and 12 in Milan we will launch the referendum campaign. On the 12th we will be in the streets in 120 cities and in Brussels and Paris because, I remind you, citizens outside Italy and abroad for study, work or care will also be able to vote.” Regarding the quorum, “there are all the conditions to reach it,” says the CGIL leader. “Certainly it is not easy in a country where now half of the voters do not go to vote. But this is a vote that does not delegate but allows direct decision-making. If we win, the day after the vote, two and a half million people will obtain Italian citizenship, and workers in companies with more than 15 employees will all get back Article 18 against layoffs, and liability in case of accidents on contracted work will be extended to contractors.”
“Several parties have signed on to the referendum, so I expect them to play their part during the referendum campaign, which formally opens in a few weeks. And I expect all parties, regardless of their position on the merits, to invite citizens to vote. I would find invitations to go to the sea unacceptable, a real attack on democracy,” Landini concluded.
– photo Ipa agency –
(ITALPRESS).
