In Italy, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi wants to change the Statuto dei lavoratori (the Statute of the workers) so that corporations can fire employees without just cause. Our elitist neo-conservative leaders are telling people that privatization along with easier laws to fire employees is conducive to a better economic performance and lower unemployment. And to show this absurd neo-conservative rational conclusion, we have economists performing statistical correlation studies which scientifically prove that the US experienced a lower unemployment rate than Europe's since they have easier laws to fire employees. We have shown in our previous articles in Ensign that most correlation statistical studies are flawed, but most importantly, these correlation studies are used to support the status quo along with the neo-conservative agenda to put profits before the rights of people.

Yesterday, some forty thousand people gathered in Vancouver to protest the budgetary cuts announced few weeks ago by B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell, and yesterday as well, we had some million people in Rome protesting the political directions of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Last week, professor Marco Biagi, labour adviser to Berlusconi, was gunned down in Bologna and Silvio Berlusconi, prompt to capitalize on this murder, blamed the trade unions for creating social violence in the country. The trade unions were quick to respond to this fascist opportunistic Berlusconi, and millions of people have poured the streets of Rome to protest Berlusconi's government. People converged to Rome from every corner of Italy, they travelled to Rome chartering some 10,000 buses, some 60 trains, and a number of ships and planes.

Union leader Sergio Cofferati told the crowd Biagi's killing was carried out just when "workers and citizens were mobilizing to claim their legitimate rights." Cofferati went on to say that "we are against the current compassionate capitalism... we will fight for the fundamental rights of fathers and mothers and their sons and daughters... We think of a universal system of rights for all the people who were born either in Italy or abroad."

Passionate old time activist Pietro Ingrao, who participated in 1943 in Milano at the first and only workers strike under Europe's Nazism, was deeply moved by the peaceful demonstration and said that this was the greatest demonstration he had ever experienced in all his life. But the meaning of the protest was properly explained by participant Maria Cristina

"I'm here not so much for myself, but for my 13-month-old daughter. I want to fight for the rights she should have when she starts to work."

References

Pertinent article published in Ensign

Protesters rally against B.C. government, CBC Canada, March 23, 2002 http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2002/03/23/BC-protest020323

Millions rally in Rome against labour law reform, ABC Australia, March 24, 2002 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2002/03/item20020324010854_1.htm

Italians Rally Against Berlusconi, by Frances D'Emilio, Associated Press Writer, March 23, 2002 http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=535&u=/ap/20020323/ap_on_re_eu/italy_rally_1

Padri e figli, operai e disoccupati, garantiti e senza diritti: insieme fanno 3 milioni, L'Unita, Redazione On Line, March 23, 2002 http://www.unita.it/index.asp?SEZIONE_COD=HP&TOPIC_TIPO=&TOPIC_ID=7528

La più grande manifestazione mai svolta. Che parla alla destra e alla sinistra, di Piero Sansonetti, L'Unita, March 23, 2002 http://www.unita.it/index.asp?SEZIONE_COD=HP&TOPIC_TIPO=&TOPIC_ID=7538

Two Million Union Protesters Descend on Rome, by Luke Baker, March 23, 2002 http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&u=/nm/20020323/ts_nm/italy_dc_15