Workers'
Stories
Magneti Marelli '70
A story by Enrico Baglioni
I started working in the factory in 1973.
I was 23 or 24 years old.
It was a big metal factory in Sesto San Giovanni.
There were 2,000 men and 2,000 women working
in the production department. Light manufacturing industry.
I started together with hundreds of other young people, men and women.
The struggle slowly shifted
from the traditional struggles for the improvements on the shop-floor
towards more general issues.
Also due to the presence of the women and young people
who turned towards struggle and a new life for the first time
in an urban metropolis like Milano
who had come from the villages of the South
where things were much more traditional than in the city.
The conflicts immediately opened up:
The relationship between men and women,
which was fundamental for my political experience
in order to widen the traditional trade union struggle
and to turn it into a political conflict.
After only a few months the presence
of political militants in the factory obtained a different significance.
The conflict became more general and sharper.
The unions said we would divide the workers.
But the division was unavoidable as a union-political phase
had come to an end
with the collective agreement in the metal sector in 1973.
We had to divide in order to turn towards the wider issues
in order to re-unite workers around them.
Management reacted immediately to the new climate.
They tried to sack people.
I was sacked on the pretext that I had kidnapped a manager
during an internal demonstration for the defence of a suspended worker.
This struggle helped to create a nucleus of solidarity
within the factory.
Something like a community.
We talked about justice
and about solidarity.
Like other sacked workers I lived for a year on
the support from other workers.
We went to court and were beaten up
by the Carabinieri inside court. We won the case.
They paid us, but didn't want that we would enter the factory.
Like it is happening now at FIAT Melfi.
But in the end the Carabinieri escorted us to our workplace.
Because the company had barred us from entering.
We nevertheless entered the factory every day,
although officially they didn't let us work.
For around 360 days a big group of men and women
helped us every morning to enter the factory grounds,
so that we could be there as union and political activists
for 360 days.
This struggle lasted from 1975 to 1976.
The accusations of the unions and the Communist Party
(the CGIL union) that we would divide the workers
didn't resonate amongst the workers, because they were willing
to engage in new and more general issues.
In fact, people didn't accept me being sacked.
Although I had been dismissed I was re-elected as a delegate
with the maximum of possible votes.
A community had formed
that went beyond the day-to-day struggles inside the factory.
We met outside of work.
We took part in other things.
Squatting was an issue,
which widened the scope for women to take part in struggle.
The housing question, the question of child care
and of sexual freedom surfaced amongst dozens of
proletarian women which had just arrived in Milano.
The issue of the husband as a "boss and master" was omnipresent
during discussions in male and female departments in the factory.
The unity we had created
prevented the plan of the union and the company
to kick us out.
Other crazy things that happened at the time:
A comrade of the Red Brigades was killed during
a shoot-out with the police.
The unions called for a strike for the cops in which we didn't take part.
We organised a counter-strike to take part in the funeral of the comrade
who wasn't a dog. He was a comrade from Sesto San Giovanni like ourselves.
We managed to organise a counter-strike.
Which raised the question what a strike actually is.
A strike is not just about demands.
It is also an expression of more general things.
The fact that a small groups like ours was able
to call for a strike in a factory and not for 1 Euro more
or to have 15 Lire more than the minimum wage.
This put us in a position of political leadership.
This obviously scared a certain
political and union establishment in Sesto San Giovanni.
During the struggle against the dismissals we re-considered the question
of legality and justice, the relation between worker and repression
worker and violence, worker and state.
The fact that you go to court in order to get re-instated
was not approved by a certain type of the left.
The old communists said that you don't go to court
because there the bosses have the say.
But back then we changed significant things,
which also led to new laws
which were more progressive when it comes to industrial relations.
But this is always an instable balance,
which can be changed or not through struggle.
Another issue were the attacks by fascists in Milano.
We always defended ourselves, in order to raise workers' consciousness
about the necessity to develop means to defend their struggles.
Be it the defence of a picket or of an occupation.
The idea of a broader and stronger organisation.
And the ability to use violence if necessary.
There is no way that the Carabinieri
can beat us up in court
or that they smash our pickets.
So we had to talk about organising,
which led to the discussion about the workers' right to be armed.
In 1977 I was arrested in the mountains in Verbania
together with seven other workers from Sesto San Giovanni.
They had a rapid court case in Verbania
which was attended by hundreds of workers from Milano.
There the right of the subaltern class, the workers,
to have an armed organisation became a topic.
This was a big scandal, but the topic was raised
and put on the agenda.
The presence of many workers meant
that the issue was reflected upon,
and this is apart from the fact that the subjective decision
to join the armed struggle
might have been wrong or was definitely wrong
given all the mess that happened during the following years.
But a more general issue was brought to the attention of struggles.
This reflection on the relation between justice and state
obviously contained a contradiction.
We pushed towards legality and we opposed the ruling legality at the time.
This issue is still relevant and we will always have to address it.
The struggle will need organisation to sustain itself.
There will always be opponents of the struggle, therefore
the contradiction between legality and illegality is never solved.
It's always a question of political relation of forces.
Today in Val di Susa (struggle against construction project) or the FIOM (metal trade union).
The FIOM today is treated
like the extra-parliamentary groups in the factory.
The struggle at Melfi is about the exclusion of a union
from the biggest industrial company in Italy.
This is a struggle for democracy, for freedom.
And nevertheless there are elements of illegality.
Today you cannot lead any struggle
if you are not organised to resist.
There is no struggle, be it action for housing in Rome
or the struggle in Val de Susa:
if violence is not used you are not on the agenda.
Those in power more or less force you to use violence.
The contradiction forces you use violence, but also widen the conflict.
You are forced to use it
but also to widen the dispute to more participants
and to deepen the contradiction.
You have to remind yourself of the victories that can be achieved through unity and mass
but always be willing to go further
and not get locked up in the mass
which is not able to continue the struggle
as soon as it has achieved a small result.