Regular Catastrophes

From the Alps to Sicily, 12 million workers walked off their jobs in a one-day general strike that paralyzed Italy. With Communist and anti-Communist unions allied in protest for the first time in twenty years, demonstrators poured into the piazzas of Rome and Milan to demand higher pension and social security benefits and to curse the rising cost of living. Outside the Fiat automobile plant in Turin, police broke up a riot with tear gas.

All over the nation, students left high schools and universities to march alongside the workers and shout their own protests against an antiquated and inadequate education system. In Rome and Bologna, students occupied the universities to drive home their point. Next came the turn of state employees to demand more pay and social benefits. For 24 hours, trains halted, mail distribution stopped, schools were deserted and telephone service snarled. Reflecting the crisis of confidence, capital once again began to flee from the country, and the Milan stock market slumped to a three-year low. In the middle of it all, the government resigned.

Like a Phoenix. Thus last week, for the 29th time since World War II, Italy lapsed into governmental crisis. On the surface, this crisis seemed a bad one, with no solution in sight. "Siamo pronti per i colonnelli" ("We are ready for the colonels"), cried a young Roman in disgust at the nation's squabbling politicians. Indeed, in another, less patient land, the kind of chaos and confusion, disillusion and dismay gripping Italy would long since have provoked the army to take over. But appearances are deceiving in Italy, a country with its own peculiar laws of logic. As Luigi Barzini wrote in The Italians: "They rage against their fate today as they have always done. They have been on the verge of revolution for the last hundred and sixty odd years . . . The unsolved problems pile up and inevitably produce catastrophes at regular intervals. The Italians always see the next one approaching with a clear eye, but like sleepers in a nightmare, cannot do anything to ward it off . . . They console themselves with the thought that, when the smoke clears, Italy can rise again like a phoenix from its ashes. Has she not always done so?"

Yes, so far, always. Doubtless the Italians will also escape from the present cliffhanger. They are bound to come up on the other side of disaster with a patchwork government that will last until the next one, pointing again to their great miracolo, the economic miracle that the nation's leaders always cite as proof that there is really no cause for concern. The lira is so strong that some rumors speak of an upward revaluation. Gold reserves increased by $383 million in the twelve months ending Oct. 1, the largest increase of any country in the world for that period. The Italians must be doing something right. But they must be doing something wrong, too. While the miracolo has translated itself into cars and television sets for the working man, this has left him impatient for more--and newly aware of the staggering inequities of Italian life. The rich can dodge taxes, the wheeler-dealers can buy their way with graft. The little man is frustrated at every turn by a monstrous bureaucracy that seldom offers him redress from injustice.

Instant Replay. The latest crisis is rooted in the 1963 decision by the Italian Socialist party to break its postwar alliance with the Communists and join the Christian Democrats in a centerleft coalition, the much-discussed apertura a sinistra, or opening to the left. In the Socialists' opinion, the opening never came, because the government proved to be more center than left. The Socialists complained that the Christian Democrats never delivered on promised economic and social reforms. As a result, in May's general election, the Socialists lost one-quarter of their votes to the extreme left. The Communists gained 800,000 votes, while the Christian Democrats gained slightly. Even President Giuseppe Saragat expressed pique at the losses, and the party decided to quit the government. Saragat quickly wished he could have an instant replay of that decision. It became obvious that outside the government, the Socialists were going to lose all voice and influence on national policy --not to mention those comfortable Cabinet jobs.

The Christian Democrats, meanwhile, installed a minority government, temporizing until the Socialists could return to the fold. The Socialist pezzi grossi (big shots) expected to get support for the return at last month's party congress in Rome. "Here we are, five months after the election and in a worse position," declared Pietro Nenni, at 77 the party patriarch. But so badly divided was the party that in five days and nights, the only resolution it passed was for the removal of the word united from the party title, The United Socialist Party of Italy. Angered that the leadership was trying to steamroller them, leftist rank-and-file delegates hurled their badges at the shaken leaders and, amid shouts of "Farce!" and "Fakers!" stormed the platform, fists swinging.

Unreliable Partners. Nenni decided that within the party executive, away from the noisy rank-and-file, he might win agreement to reopen negotiations with the Christian Democrats. But even there he came up with only 52% of the votes. With partners like that, the Christian Democrats asked, who needs an opposition?

Last week, however, it turned out that the Christian Democrats were not so reliable themselves. On the eve of the annual party congress, Giovanni Leone, the Neapolitan lawyer who had guided the minority government during the five months since the election, abruptly handed in his resignation. He figured that his fellow Christian Democrats were going to fire him, so he quit. In rapid succession, Mariano Rumor, the Christian Democratic party secretary, resigned his post, and Aldo Moro, who held the job of Premier during the five years of the center-left coalition, surprised everyone by suddenly withdrawing his supporters from the majority group that rules the party. The country could only wait until the Christian Democrats settled their power struggle, but in the end another center-left coalition seemed to be the only solution.

If he can ever get his own party into line, Socialist Nenni hopes that he can persuade the Christian Democrats to accept reforms in divorce, education, welfare, housing, economic planning and labor. He also knows quite well that the Christian Democrats, who must live with their own strong right wing, are unlikely to vote all those reforms. But perhaps, he reasons, there finally are enough Christian Democratic leaders who are sufficiently disturbed by last summer's upheaval in France and the drift toward disillusionment in their own society to demand that after years of do-nothing government, the next one do something. It will not be a century too soon.

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