Sindacato di strada fights fascism
One year ago, we witnessed the vile attack on the home office of our confederation, CGIL, in Rome, one of the most fascist and devastating attacks on the Italian Republic. It was a strike not only against the largest labour union in Italy and Europe but also against all the workers and people that CGIL represents and protects.
Our country is currently facing an alarming drift of far-right ideology. A worrisome climate is rising in Italy. Our issues: labour, housing, and social rights are constantly used to fuel people’s anger. Unions are highlighted by the far right as the cause of social and economic hardship. Our present, our future and our history entrust us with a very large responsibility. We must be available to represent workers in their daily struggle. We must listen to them, struggle alongside them and understand their frustration.
We cannot only be a front-line democracy. We must be proactive on the democratic battlefield.
FLAI is more committed than ever not only to defending workers’ rights, but also to growing the movement to include those still outside the union’s traditional tent, especially the large numbers of migrant workers in the agrifood sector. We have chosen “sindacato di strada” or “union in the streets” as our core action strategy in order to keep close to the workers wherever they happen to be: on farms, in the vineyards, in stores, anywhere.
We are firmly convinced that this approach, together with collective bargaining, is the key to standing together with the workers we represent as well as those we aspire to represent, and to fighting back the rising tide of fascism.
