ECONOMY ON THE BRINK OF RUN by ETTORE SALVINI nONE workers who are supposed to stop going on vacation and stop eating meat (that is, the ones who took vacations and occasionally ate meat; it is well known that this does not include all workers, even during "good years"). In the meantime, the employers continue to sail their yachts back and forth between the Costa Smeralda and the Côte d'Azur, eating caviar and drinking champagne. On the other hand, the employers are using the crisis to eliminate the gains made during past years by the workers struggles in the factories. We have seen the bourgeois press scream for the reduction of absenteeism in the major factories -- at the very mome.at that it was announcing that tens of thousands of workers had been put on technical unemployment. The employers see a good sign in the easing off of a phenomenon of passive protest like absenteeism. It is a sign that the workers, intimidated by the crisis and the bourgeoisie's use of it, are "pulling in their horns" and turning docile, as they were in the good old days. The employers hope that the workers will manifest this docility in face of the plans for restructuration that are being prepared, plans that will mean layoffs and unemployment for a part of the working class and speed-up and overtime for the rest, the "lucky ones" who manage to stay in the factories. The crisis is being used by the employers, but this is not simply a maneuver on their part. Rather it is an objective phenomenon, a characteristic of capitalist society that will be with us for as long as that society lasts. Thus, the problem is to begin with the workers' need not to bear the costs of the crisis, to make the employers pay instead, and then to arrive at a general workers counteroffensive capable of bringing down the capitalist system, the eternal generator of crisis.
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ITALY How the crisis will develop The credit squeeze has not yet born all its poisonous fruit. Its full effects will be felt only in coming months, in September and October, especially when the banks have to force the companies to pay back outstanding credit at the anticipated interest rate of 8 percent. (This happens beginning September 30.) This will cause the closing and bankruptcy of a whole series of small- and medium-sized firms and will create various difficulties even for some of the big firms. But that is not all! Already it is being said that the credit squeeze is not tight enough yet, for the whole Christian Democratic apparatus of bureaucrats and hangers-on, which is financed by the state treasury, has continued to spend and expand during this whole period. It is thus clear that the determination of the CD (and let's not forget the other government parties, including the SP) to stop at nothing in preserving the armchairs lined with thousands of millions of lire that are presently occupied by their members in the various state institutions will inevitably intensify the credit squeeze. And this will eventually lead to attacks on employment in the factories. It is easy to predict that to the exten. that the government is obliged by the joint pressure of the industrial bourgeoisie and the reformists to "cut wasteful spending" and thus to reduce public expenditures a bit, the ones who are going to suffer will not be the presidents of the useless state agencies or the employers that hang around the public through picking up scraps. The ones to suffer will be the employees of the various state and public institutions. Inflation goes on The prices of all consumer goods have taken a new and formidable leap forward in recent days. The government measures of the past few months -- from the credit squeeze to the decrees that were supposed to slow down inflation -- have stimulated the price increases. We now have recession and inflation simultaneously, which combine to bear down on the working class and force it to accept sharp reductions of consumption and thereby of its standard of living. The prices set by private and state companies are increasing in a very touching race, all in the name of "management efficiency. " What hypocrisy! The Italian bourgeoisie -- both private and state -- one of the most inefficient in the world, is fighting for efficiency. It is becoming ever more clear that for the employers efficiency is simply a synonym for attacks on the workers' living standards. The international context The internal inflationary pressure, exacerbated by the parasitism that characterizes not only the state apparatus but the whole capitalist structure as well, continues to stimulate increases in imports and thereby the balance of payments deficit. This will end by drying up the already scarce currency reserves. Already today, what remains of currency reserves (apart from gold, which is not negotiable anyway) is earmarked for paying off foreign loans to Italy. Italy pays 500, 000 million lire a year in interest for these loans. Moreover, a part of these loans are supposed to be paid back during the next few months. Our patriotic bourgeoisie has resumed exporting capital. In recent days the lire has begun to depreciate rapidly again. But the more the value of the lire declines, the more expensive imports become, the more exchange reserves are dimin10 ished, and thus, the more we are dependent on the "generosity" of the other capitalist countries in granting loans.
The "generosity" of West Germany and the United States depends -- apart from political considerations -- on these coun tries' interest in preserving an important market for their commodities and their capital. But to be a good investment, the Italian market must function perfectly from the capitalist point of view: There should be no strikes; the power of the trade unions should be curbed and the power of the delegates coun cils eliminated; the work pace should be faster and the real wages should be lowered (even more).
The international bourgeoisie considers the Italian bourgeoisie inefficient not only and not so much because of its unusually parasitic characteristics as because it has been unable to control the working class. The international bourgeoisie will thus lend a hand to the Italian bourgeoisie not only and not so much by granting loans as by linking these loans to political conditions. The meaning of these conditions, no matter how they are formulated, will be the imposition of a line of attack on the working class. All this accentuates authoritarian tendencies. Which way out? The spokesmen of the bourgeoisie affirm that the crisis is a product of fate, provoked by a "cruel and cynical destiny." If the crisis is a product of fate, they try to convince us, there is nothing to do but to "roll up our sleeves" and "equally share" the inevitable sacrifices, hoping it will pass as soon as possible. In reality, we know very well that the real meaning of this is to throw all the weight of the crisis onto the backs of the workers. The traditional workers parties and trade unions (along with the centrist groups), however, tend to stress the maneuvers of the state and the employers as the causes of the crisis. Supposedly, this is intended to demonstrate that the crisis can be avoided and thus to convince the workers that struggle is possible and that struggle pays off. If that were the case, the scientific inexactitude would at least have a noble political goal. In fact, however, it is easy to see that this is not the way things really are. The reformists (and the centrist tail-enders) say that the crisis "is not a product of fate, rather it is a deliberate decision of economic policy. " They say this because they want to convince the workers that it is possible to change the government's economic policy while remaining in the framework of the capitalist system, that it is possible to make a "turn, "even a "profound" turn, while nevertheless leaving the employers at their posts, that it is therefore possible to have capitalism without crises. We believe that this is not only a mistaken analysis, but also that it is an analysis that leads to political conclusions that are wrong and even suicidal. This is not because government maneuvers and employer speculation do not exist, but rather because these maneuvers and speculation are possible only on the basis of the objective laws of capitalism, which in any event, regardless of economic policies, will lead to recessions. The struggle against the "bad" capitalist who engages in maneuvers and speculation presupposes belief in the "good" capitalist, who is content with a "fair profit" (as it was explained once by L. Longo, former general secretary of the Italian CP), a capitalist who keeps his income down, does not restructure his company, and does not speculate. But this "good" capitalist does not exist, nor
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