I am the Iron, this May it’s mine (V. Majakovskij)

posted by admin on maggio 9th, 2010 under English

“It has been an episode fortunately limited,
which has taken place in an area which is fortunately not very extended,
whose conditions are unique”
Mario Scelba, Minister of Home Affairs
May 9th 1947

The first of May 1947 the rally at “Portella della Ginestra” (Sicily) is taken down with a shooting burst on the crowd which causes 11 deaths and injures 65 people. The operation is carried under the leadership of the bandit Giuliano, but becomes immediately clear that it is a fascist attack, a State revenge executed by its “violent side”, aiming of crushing down the rise of the left in the Sicilian area.
After many years, the fascist provocation still remains the tool to increase tension and manage the struggles. And it gets indeed more and more intense between the 25th of April and the 1st of May, through seemingly not connected actions and public meetings. As the choice of calling for a “black week” in Milan to honor the memory of the fascist Sergio Ramelli and the call for a nazi rally in the heart of Berlin, show.
In both cases, though, an immediate antifascist response took places.
In Milan the choice of the fascists of using the death of Sergio Ramelli to take the streets just in the week between April 25th and May 1st, has increased even more the participation to the antifascist rallies which have taken place during those days in the streets of the city. The final result has been: a soccer tournament and a rally of about 200 people for the fascists, as usual suitably protected by the police, and various antifascist rallies which have reached the heart of the city whose participation has grown more and more along the way.
In Berlin too the antifascist response has been immediate. The nazi rally which was supposed to march past Pankow, in the north-eastern part of the city, has been blocked at a first stage by few dozens of antifascists and then by barricades displayed along the way which have caused the complete end of the action.
It is worth noting the provocations by fascists and police during the rallies. In Turin, for instance, the police has attempted, in vain, to stop a part of the procession and has arrested a comrade charging him for having injured a policeman, it has been then taken immediately under trial. In Milan a CasaPound (fascist group) militant had the good idea of attempting to clash with the rally but has been immediately taken away by the protesters. Another provocation during the first of the two rallies which took place in Naples where, along the way, a group of fascists aside the procession has started a taunt with Roman salutes and threats of various kind, even in this case they have been taken away by the protesters.
Although we find a response to fascism everyday quicker, it is evident in Italy how the 1st of May is every year farer and farer away from being a workers’ day for real. This is concerning at least the continuity of the work and the paths pushed forward year by year. Clearly this is situation arise in the perspective of considering only workers’ struggles and not institutional shows of various kind which take place in such days. It appears clear how, despite the severe crisis which is raging the country, we face less and less enduring self-organized workers’ fights.
The rallies of Rosarno and Pomigliano, where a time still not too far away in the past, workers’ and immigrants’ used to firmly stand up against the “sacrifices” imposed by the Big Capital with their struggles. Today they become the location for the usual show of the main trade unions which, with the promise of cloudy improvements of workers’ condition, cause the end of the revolutionary boosts, as in the case of the Fiat rally in Pomigliano (Naples), with a significative turn to the right made “official” by the presence of the UGL (Polverini’s, the new right-wing president of Lazio, trade union) among the rally’s organizers.
Having said that, though, it is also appropriate to make a remark on the efforts of the comrades who attempt, taking advantages of this date, to intercept those precarious workers who hardly respond at the call for standing up, partly for slenderness of their-own working contexts, partly for the “fluidity” natural consequence of being obliged in jumping from one job to another, and which makes hardly possible the growth of any kind of consciousness.
Going over what happened in other countries instead, the situation appears a lot different.
In Moscow molotov have been thrown against a police station whereas in Minsk Belorussian banks and other economical hubs have been taken under assault (watch the videos).
Clashes among protesters and police have taken place also in Turkey, where from this year the 1st of May is an holiday once again. The Turkish workers have marched on Taksim Square, the same square where during a rally 33 years ago, in 1977, 36 leftist protesters were murdered by groups belonging to the extreme right. For the first time the Turkish government has given authorization to “political” May 1st processions, clearly the group which were “allowed” have been chosen by Erdogan (Turkish prime minister); even if superficially may look a sign of detente towards the workers, in reality the Turkish government, while the country is in the middle of the process to become EU member, has attempted to calm down the workers’ rage, appealing various time at isolate the most violent part of the movement with the blackmail of revoking the rally authorization. The reality shows instead that all these appeals are as stupid as they are useless. Given the daily misery and repression, the response cannot be other then the rage of the class.
In Bolivia, instead, the police has heavily repressed the rallies in La Paz after the attempt to assault the Employment Ministry.
In Greece the news of an austerity plan imposed by the government and suggested by the EU and IMF, has made the celebration for the 1st of May much “hotter”. The clashes have taken place all over the country and in particular in Thessaloniki and Athens where the procession has stopped in front of the Finance Ministry, there the police charges have begun. Other spontaneous rallies have taken the streets during the whole night of the 1st of May and we are waiting what is going to happen the 5th at the general strike.
It is interesting to note how the Italian news have presented what was happening in Greece. It is evident the attempt of drawing the protesters as gaunt and violent minority, putting the stress on the sharp contrast with the healthy part of the country, trustful in the recovery and inclined to make sacrifices to save the country from the crisis; it is essential, for the bourgeoisie media, to insist upon the faith in the institutions, which in reality seems to have been over long ago. The crisis it is far away to be over and there is the risk that the months to come may turn out to be very hard as for the social control.
We would like to conclude with a happy ending: once again the Cuban people have showed to be on the revolution side; in a country strangled by the embargo and by the economical sanctions, millions of Cubans have marched in the streets of Havana, in occasion of the international workers’ day. At the same time, though, we are waiting with anxiety the rubbish articles that will tell about a Cuban population obliged to take place at the rally and to smile at the authority.
For the moment we suggest you to have a look at some pictures of the Cuban May 1st which without any doubts prove a tremendous repression by the regime…