Berlin, Germany (Weltexpress). Italy is facing a ‘hot autumn’ in the fight against dramatically increasing impoverishment. In a sensational report published last week on its online platform ‘Collettiva’, the CGIL trade union revealed the increasingly dramatic situation of the country’s poorest people. According to the state statistics office ISTAT, 2 million 235,000 families and 5 million 752,000 individuals live in absolute poverty. That is 8.5 per cent of families and 9.8 per cent of individuals. This means that the number of the poorest in society has increased by 2.3% and 2.9% respectively compared to 2014. The transport workers will kick off their struggle on 20 September with a nationwide strike called by the base union Unione sindacale di Base (USB). However, this will only be the beginning of a declaration of war against ‘the Meloni government’s policy of oppression, exploitation and war’, which is still ‘steeped in fascism’, wrote the communist magazine ‘Contropiano’ on its online portal, as the workers’ associations are already preparing for a new general strike.
The ISTAT report for 2024 shows the ‘merciless picture of the Bel Paese, which is characterised by precariousness and inequality’, according to ‘Collettiva’, which points out that a very high proportion of the working population also has to work in economically precarious conditions on the labour market, in short, people are poor even if they work. This includes the fact that in private companies, half of the more than seven employees have had their collective labour agreements expired for years and their wages have not been increased. One of the consequences is that ‘the purchasing power of gross wages fell by 4.5% between 2013 and 2023’ in Italy. ‘Collettva’ describes thefact that three million out of just over 10 million young people between the ages of 18 and 34 have had to leave the country as “particularly bad”. According to the General Secretary of the CGIL, Maurizio Landini, this situation is the result of the Meloni government’s involvement in the warmongering advances of the West, the EU and NATO, which has led to a reactionary radicalisation of all social, civil and democratic regression. While more and more money is spent on weapons and war, there is never any money available to meet the needs of poor people. She has abolished the national income so that entrepreneurs can finally hire the labour they need on their terms. Starvation wages are being cut further and further, and rent and arrears funds have also been abolished, making it increasingly difficult for sections of the population to afford rent in order to keep a roof over their heads.
One of the negative consequences is that the Italian population has fallen by over a million people in the last decade. In the regions in the south, this amounts to 4.7% of the population, while in the north it was ‘only’ 0.3%. The report describes the fact that ‘young people are the main agents of demographic decline’ as ‘particularly serious’. Of just over 10 million 330 young people between the ages of 18 and 34, three million had to leave the country.
Under the Meloni government, a direct heir to the neo-fascists of the post-war period, this course has undergone a reactionary radicalisation of all social, civil and democratic regression as part of its involvement in the warmongering advances of the West, the EU and NATO. While more and more money is spent on weapons and war, there is never any money available to meet the needs of poor people. The Meloni government is denying that ‘the country is in serious difficulties and that urgent measures are needed to support the most vulnerable groups’, said the CGIL General Secretary.
The struggles are being boosted by the fact that the CGIL has surprisingly quickly obtained the half a million signatures required for a referendum it is planning ‘on protection against unlawful dismissals, overcoming precariousness, safety in contract work and the prevention of accidents in the workplace’.
