------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the May 24, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- BEHIND BERLUSCONI VICTORY: RIGHT-WING MEDIA MOGUL FED ON CENTER'S CONCESSIONS By John Catalinotto Amidst election disorder that kept booths open until 2 a.m., Italian voters on May 13 elected a right-wing coalition led by multi-billionaire media magnate Silvio Berlusconi to clear majorities in both houses of Parliament. The social-democratic-led coalition that has been in office since 1996 paved the way for Berlusconi's victory. Called the Olive Tree, this coalition not only presided over social service cuts and privatization but pushed the Italians into a major role in the U.S.-NATO aggression against Yugoslavia. Any class-conscious worker or progressive opposed Berlusconi and his right-wing populist and free-market policies. None, however, could get enthusiastic about the incumbent government or the candidate leading the opposition, Rome's Mayor Francesco Rutelli. Berlusconi's right-wing coalition--named the "House of Liberty"--will have 368 seats in the 630-seat Chamber of Deputies and 177 in the 324-member Senate, according to official election results. The Olive Tree will have 250 seats in the Chamber and 128 in the Senate. The Refoundation Communist Party, which has remained outside the Olive Tree coalition since 1998, won 5 percent of the vote and its own representatives in both houses. It would be daunting to try to analyze each of the 40 parties in Parliament. However, a look at some of the major parties in the two coalitions, their leaders and their political roots can help provide an outline of the events. BERLUSCONI'S "FORZA ITALIA" Berlusconi's own party is called Forza Italia or Let's Go Italy--a soccer chant. Before 1993 it didn't exist. This time it alone won over 29 percent of the vote. With his billions, control of all three main private television networks, film and advertising companies and 40 percent of the print media, investment and insurance concerns, the Milan soccer team and other sports franchises, Berlusconi has made his party the major vote-getter for the Italian ruling class. There are two other major players in the "House of Liberty" coalition. One is the anti-immigrant and anti-southern- Italian Northern League, led by Umberto Bossi, which dropped to only 4 percent of the vote. The other is the now more "respectable" successor party to Mussolini's fascists, the National Alliance, led by Gianfranco Fini, which wound up with about 12 percent, mostly in the South. While Berlusconi's two major allies are far right-wing parties, no one at this point fears they will usher in a period of extreme fascist-like repression. They have no mass base of active storm troopers, nor do they hold street demonstrations. What is likely is a more right-wing orientation of the police and courts, much like the Republican administration carries out in the U.S. In addition the rightists will now monopolize both the private and government media. As with the Republicans here, a Berlusconi government means one of the capitalists themselves, instead of one that simply represents capitalist interests. Berlusconi, whose first job was as a singer on a cruise ship, is reputed to have built his fortune through the usual capitalist methods--heavy corruption, bribes and mob connections. He is reported to be the richest Italian, the third wealthiest person in Europe and 14th richest in the world, and he boasts of his success. He also boasts of his friendship with George W. Bush and his support for the U.S. in general. He backed Bush's anti- missile program and his rejection of the Kyoto accords on controlling global warming. While Berlusconi is newly rich, he got the backing of the Italian capitalist establishment this election when Gianni Agnelli of the Fiat automobile company switched to support him. OLIVE TREE SOCIAL DEMOCRATS The main party in the Olive Tree is Democrats of the Left, the social-democratic successors to the old reformist Italian Communist Party. This group dropped not only its name, but also its connection to the Italian working class, and also dropped its vote to 17 percent, a historic low. The Olive Tree candidate, Rutelli, leads his own coalition of small bourgeois parties that picked up 15 percent of the vote. Much as the Democratic Party under Clinton paved the way for the Republicans by destroying the old welfare system and leading the war against Yugoslavia, the Olive Tree cut social benefits, allowed unemployment to grow and joined wholeheartedly in that war. It oriented toward the European Union and NATO. Though the Democrats of the Left have turned themselves into complete servants of international capital, this didn't stop Berlusconi and his allies from attacking them for their past adherence to the Italian Communist Party. The election this time was more like a U.S.-type popularity contest than the previous parliamentary elections in Italy with a strong focus on program. Berlusconi's flamboyance and control of the media overcame the charges against him of corruption, bribery and monopoly of wealth and power. He apparently convinced many voters it was better to choose a crook who was a successful capitalist than some merely corrupt or ineffectual career politicians. The Olive Tree, on the other hand, failed to create a pole of struggle against privatization and in defense of the benefits workers had won in Italy in the period of class struggle between 1960 and 1980. REFOUNDATION COMMUNISTS Outside the two big coalitions, the Refoundation Communists succeeded in winning 5 percent, or over 2 million votes, gaining representatives in both houses. This party is the successor of the more left part of the old Italian Communist Party (PCI) and has attracted some other Marxist tendencies. This does not mean that the Refoundation Communists, led by Fausto Bertinotti, are a combat organization ready and able to lead strikes and mass protests to confront the government. But it has become a pole of attraction--at least in the electoral arena--for almost all those in Italy who identify with communism. There was pressure to support the Olive Tree on the Refoundation leadership, as its 2 million votes would put the center-left coalition ahead of the right-wingers. Of course that assumes the 2 million voters could stomach supporting a grouping that backed the war and attacked the working class. The old PCI had a heroic period when it led the partisan movement that drove out the Nazi occupiers and Mussolini's fascists in 1945. Washington mobilized its wealth and its secret agencies to build up the Christian Democratic opposition to the PCI and assure its setback in the 1948 elections. But by the early 1960s, the PCI leadership had gone the furthest in raising reformist and opportunistic positions within the old Soviet-centered world communist movement. It also led moves toward a so-called historic compromise with the capitalist class in the early 1970s, desperately seeking acceptance not only from the Italian capitalists but from Washington. In those days the PCI got upwards of 30 percent of the vote and had almost the complete backing of the Italian workers. The U.S. government, rather than compromise with the PCI, prepared for military coups with secret organizations in Italy like the infamous P2--of which Berlusconi was reportedly a member. Both the PCI and the Christian Democrats collapsed in the early 1990s. Despite the decline of the communist movement, which accelerated after the counter-revolution in the Soviet Union, there are still millions of workers in Italy who identify with the struggle for socialism. There is a youthful movement against imperialist globalization. There is an anti-imperialist movement that fought the aggression against Yugoslavia. In the inevitable battle between the Berlusconi government and the Italian working class, will an organization arise that gives independent leadership not only in parliament but in the factories and the streets? - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. 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