Italy Faces Slum

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Irish Free State soldiers in action against Republicans r last year's relativeeconomic growth in latest economic suggest that the economy is plunging ig into a new and month industrial profell by 10% even when factors had been for. For the first five of the year the trade deficit soared to 7000 million lira.

These intimations of economic catastrophe underline the serious situation which led to the latest set of crisis measures introduced last week.

The main aim of these measures is, of course, to impose the burdens of this crisis on the working class.

This is to be done by price increases on a whole range of public utilities such as electricity and telephones and increases in VAT and petrol tax.

Even these measures will cut the public sector borrowing requirement only from 40,000 million lira to 38,000 million lira.

But it is the most that the pathetically week Cossiga government can possibly hope to get away with.

But, despite the fact that the main union leaders have agreed to Cossiga's attack on the working class, there are already signs that he may not be able to get away with it.

Militant trade unionists have launched a very widespread attack on the union leaders for their collaboration with Cossiga and his Finance Minister Pandolfi.

Surcharge

The measure which has angered workers more than anything else is the 0.5% tax surcharge on wages, the revenue for which will be used for investment in the underdeveloped South of the country or given to companies in difficul ties.

Cossiga and the union leaders present this measure as an alternative to abandoning the limited sliding scale included in Italian collective wage agreements.

The unpopularity of the measures is so great that the Communist Party leadership has untypically leapt into an oppos itional stance towards the econ.

CP leader Berlinguer omic package in a clear effort to hold back the working class and prevent a frightening rift between the rank and file and the leadership of the workers' movement.

With the trade union leadership clearly exposed as a result of their miscalculation of the rank and file reaction to these measures the CP bureaucracy has stepped in as the only section of the leadership immediately able to head the movement and make sure that it is kept under control.

ITERNATIONA

LIAISON COMMITTEE Public meeting *For a full discussion on the crisis in the vorld Trotskyist move ment *Reconstruct the Fourth International!

WEDNESDAY 23

JULY at 7.30 p.m.

Conway Hall, Red

Lion Square, London ›peakers from WSL TILC sections Other speakers invited from IMG, SLG, ICL and Workers Power Admission £1