PEACE, bread and land, Bread and roses, bread and roses, All Power to the working People as a whole, >>> Yoshie Furuhashi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 04/23/99 09:20PM >>> Forwarded by Charles: >On Thursday, 22nd April, over 600 shop stewards gathered in the Milan >CGIL trade union headquarters to take part in a national assembly called >by forty factory councils. The meeting called on the national leadership >of the three main trade union federations (CGIL,CISL and UIL) to organise >a general strike against the war. They also decided to organise a series >of mass meetings in the factories on the question. > >What happened in the town of Massa, in Tuscany, is an indication of how >the movement could develop. The official unions, CGIL, CISL and UIL, >organised a four hour provincial general strike on 19th April. This was >the first serious strike action called by the trade unions against the >war. The national leadership seems less prepared to organise a serious >movement, but the pressure could build up, especially if ground troops >are sent in. > >The number of people on the demonstartion was 5,000. A large number of >school teachers were there with a banner that had had some lines from a >Bertold Brecht poem: "Among the vanquished the poor people went hungry, >among the victors the poor people went hungry." Prior to the >demonstration teachers and students had organised meetings in the schools >on the war. > >Apart from the teachers there were also blue collar workers from the >factories, government workers, the pensioners union, the railway workers >and the workers from the marble quarries of Carrara. Significantly, there >was also a delegation on the demonstration from the SIULP (the police >trade union!). Charles, this is good news! In some European countries, the war against Yugoslavia may even revitalize the left! Yoshie
