Strike Technique

Last month, Christian Democratic Premier Alcide de Gasperi triumphantly returned to Italy with the promise of a U.S. loan in his pocket. He resigned, confident that he could form a new Cabinet without the Communists. But last week, when he finally managed to rig up a new Government,* he had gained little, if any. ground.

The cause of De Gasperi's setback was of interest to France, Holland and all other countries where Communist voting strength is far from a majority but where Communist influence over labor unions gives the party a practical veto (by strike) over Government action. This is what happened in Italy:

De Gasperi was in fact defeated by the refusal of dissident Socialist Giuseppe Saragat to join his new Cabinet. Saragat had refused because he knew that gaining cabinet posts or parliamentary seats would be futile unless anti-Communists found a way to reduce the power which the Communists derived from control of labor unions.

Italian Communists mustered an 18.9% popular vote at the last elections, have only 104 of 556 seats in the Assembly. Their strength lies in the fact that (in alliance with Pietro Nenni's Socialist Party) they control Italy's federation of trade unions, the Confederazione Generale del Lavoro. The Confederazione's Communist Secretary-General Giuseppe di Vittorio, a wiry, steel-jawed veteran of Spain's International Brigade, wields the vast strike power of the Confederazione's six million workers.

In a recent typical strike at Naples (called by Communist Boss Clemente Maglietta), the strikers quickly seized the post office, telephone exchange and radio station. The strike's purpose: to protest rising prices. Strikes for similarly popular causes (better schools, housing, recreational facilities) easily win the workers' support and serve at the same time to worsen the economic position, for which the Government is blamed.

Two Arenas. Against such tactics, the ill-organized Christian Democrats (who believe in unions but not in political strikes) are helpless. They complain: "Every victory of ours must be .fought twice, first in the political, then in the economic arena."

Saragat, in refusing to join De Gasperi's Government, had decided to tackle the Communist position at its labor union roots. His group, planning to contest union elections during the next few months, did not want to be tagged as conservatives. The Communists saw the danger and fought him tooth & nail. Recently, when Alessandro Cappelletti, burly head of the Land Workers' Union, openly came out for Saragat, the Communists thew him bodily out of his office, later "legalizing" the act by also voting him out of office.

In France, too, Communist power in the unions is more important than the party's position in the Government. The Communists have edged aging Leon Jouhaux out of the real leadership of France's Confederation Generale du Travail, have made Communist Co-Secretary General Benoit Frachon the real boss over the Confederation's six million workers. French Communists, through unions directly controlled by Communists, can stop key industries, including metals, light & power, railroads, building, mines, chemicals, textiles, food processing, communications. The constant threat of a general strike permits the Communists (27% of the popular vote) to keep any French Government from adopting foreign or domestic policies contrary to the essential interests of the party--or Russia.

* The only major change: Socialist Pietro Nenni ceded the Foreign Office (and with it the painful job of signing the Italian peace treaty) to Independent Count Carlo Sforza.

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