Militant workers striking against rising prices in Italy in Britain rush around creating a 'social contract with the Labour Government holding down wage increases in the face of rampant intlation, their counterparts in Italy are trying to put together their version of a social contract. New model Dominated by the Communist Party-led trade union federation, the CGIL, the unions have come forward With theit 'new model of develop: ment. And what does this new mod. el of development involve? -exploiting investment in Southern Italy, a Testtucturing of the agncultural industry, reforms in the social services, and. selective expansion of They even went so far as to welcome the promise by the Government to investigate the question of that was made at the same time as the tax increases were armounced! Instead of mounting industrial action to oppose the savage increase in the cost of living, the response of the CP bureaucrats and their bedfellows was Italian saction of the Fourth Interna tional, to advance a real workers' solution to the crisis a workers' answer to the attacks of the employers and their Government.
Our comrades have put forward their own programme to meet these attacks: a sliding scale of wages, so that the standard of living of the working class is not eaten into by inflation; a slidine scale of bours, so that rather than throw millions of workers on the dole, the same number of workers work less hours for the same pay; five days work of five days' pay-it's capitalism's crisis, and the State must pay workers wages if they are made redundant.
General strike
These sorts of measures represent a real working class counter-attack. and no amount of 4-hour regional stoppages will pressure the Government and the ruling class into uccepting them. Only through a general strike can the workers impose these measures, establish their own organs of power, and open up the road to socialism Red Weakly 15 Augus: 1974 Page 5