Snake Bites Lira

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Cuts Conference It seemed from last week's adlines that every currency capitalist Europe was ing devalued, and that with em was crumbling the sition of their governints.

The European "snake' , tying irencies to the value of the utschmark in the attempt to •blish a monetary bloc for the eumon Market, coiled out of atrol.

A wave of speculation, starting London, passed to Paris and iftly moved south to inundate i political situation in Italy. Although the pound is not part the 'snake', the attack on its ne which was triggered by gerian and Middle Eastern sel& of sterling assets, and for the # time drove its. value below i symbolic two dollars mark, ickly placed other weak brencies in the front line. French state reserves of foreign change drained away as selling the franc, and at the beginning last week President Giscard Estaing - after a midnight Empt to negotiate a joint raluation of the franc and valuation of the Deutschmark -• forced out of the snake' |From there the pressure moved Rome. As the delegates to the Delegates from 20 local ion branches, four Labour jups passed a fighting progane at the recent conferce of the Islington paign Against the Cuts. The programme in its final form luded the following demands: to it for increases in public expenkre and wages to keep pace with lation; the election of "open the iks" committees to investigate future plans of Islington ancil and the local Area Health thority; a call for union branches fight for a programme of useful Hic works to offset unemployat; and the demand that the your 'lefts' fight for a recalled ¡ference of the Labour Party in position to the cuts RECALL Much of the discussion centred and the demand for a recalled bour Party conference and the id to put demands on the 'lefts' fight to remove the right-wing dership.

In opposition to this there was f interesting line up between on i one hand those supporting nk-and-file" politics and on : other, two people from the thical "Islington All Trades ion Ailiance"

These latter also unsuccessfully posed an amendment to delete • call on councillors and MPs to it for this programme, and to Ete the demand for a programme public works monitored by comitees of trade unionists.

Instead, their amendment Pocated the usual WRP propada demands for nationalisation (the means of production comed with making the Wilson lemment resign. No hint was in as to who was to fight for r, oI how such a struggle could developed in the Labour moveat.

ACTION Proposals for action to fight the Is came from the second session. To begin the fighr in the sectors housing, social services (includthe under 5's), health and cation, the fist action is to be a Talianta Taharao for in branch, executivi - as the ' port it!

Even ation of tracked nd throa national congress of the Christian Democrats - the vast menagerie which does service as Italy's main capitalist political party -converged on the city, massive selling hit the lira, driving its total devaluation against the dollar to over 30% since the beginning of the year.

Thus two rescue operations became necessary - of the lira on the one hand, and of the minority Aldo Moro government, (lacking parliamentary support since the withdrawal of the Socialist Party from the 'centre-left' coalition) on the other.

And central to the rescue ot Italian capital was the Communist Party, its Stalinist leadership newly returned from proposing an 'Italian road' to socialism Moscow.

What this 'road, to socialism' means took form in the labyrinthine 'debates' amollg : Christian Democratic leaders in Rome's 'Palace of Sport' In the presence of a strong CP delegation the Christian Democratic magnates (their ranks sadly depleted by recent bribery and corruption scandals!), set about the intricate shadow-boxing necessary to arrange just the right Council on Tuesday 23rd March where they will vote on next year's budget, cuts included.

The major role being played nationally by the Communist Party - trying to hold back any struggle in defence of social services, jobs or Living standards - was shown in the fight for this Cuts Conference.

SABOTAGE The CP-dominated Trades Council has tried to sabotage the Campaign since last October when they saw it going beyond their protest limits.

They would not support the delegate conference. When support for the conference was called the North London NUT the Stalinist-dominated : ruled it "out-of-order" Trades Council did not supthe CP-dominated FederTenants Associations backon a previous decision to the conference and attackeu muse wild wiscu lu decenu. wha wichor to attend The support shown at the conference now gives the possibility of further intervening on a concrete fighting programme in all the working class organisations in Islington and removing this present forms of Stalinist support for a cabinet which can press on with the attacks on the working class necessary to underwrite the lira.

The essential political formula was hammered out on the anvil of the currency crisis - a popular front in content, but with a form to conserve the Communist Party leadership for future use. On the night of March 17th-18th Prime Minister Moro completed a rapid round of political 'consultations', starting with CP leader Enrico Berlinguer.

The following day he announced savage tax and interest rate increases to protect the lira, including a hike in the price of petrol to over £l a gallon.

Berlinguer bowed to both left and right. With the trade union organisations calling a token general strike for Thursday, he acknowledged the economic crisis was 'grave'; but at the same time he gave roundabout authority to the government 'package" by taking his distance from the earlier call from fellow Stalinist chief Amendola for the resignation of finance minister Emilio Colombo.

And at the Christian Democratic Congress this arrangement began to take on more permanent shape. A minority faction round Amintore Fanfani, who led the party through a virulently anti-communist local elections campaign last summer, spoke against CP entry into the Cabinet.

But CD party secretary Laccagnini picked up the suggestion that for the time being the minority Christian Democratic government should continue in office, but that it should continually renew its support through a series of semi-official "consultations' with the opposition parties, including above all the To which the CP replied? Not 'yes' ? but on the other hand, not precisely 'no'!

Far from calling action to force an immediate general election, and a bloc with the other working class parties to remove the Christian Democrats, the Stalinist leadership commented that Zaccagnini's address was:

'The serious speech of a man conscious of the severity of the crisis, and who does not wish to disguise with rhetoric the responsibility of his party"

Thus the Stalinists declared their intention to tie the workers' movement to the bourgeois parties, and at the same time prop up a government which could That Italian politics are not formed in Rome was clear. The intest government crisis was brought to a head by a currency crisis throughout Europe.

With the open splits exposed at and Spanish, as well as Italian workers, the reality of Cl support tor capitalst governments in the near future.

Kremlin boss Brezhnev And the latest Italian 'solution' could not have been agreed by the leading Christian Democratic factions without the unofficial endorsement of the US State Department, which allowed it to be understood in Washington last week that - while opposed to a formal coalition with the CP. - it saw no alternative to a more public political *agreement to differ' with them.

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