L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2019 www.italoamericano.org 10 L'Italo-Americano O n May 1, Rome cel- ebrates Labor Day with a rock concert in Piazza San Gio- vanni in Laterano. Organized by Italy's three biggest unions, CGIL, CISL and UIL, all headquartered in the city, this annual event attracts hundreds of thousands of spectators. Few actually belong to a union, but all buy T-shirts to support workers' rights. Watching the televised concert in the Testaccio district, blue- collar residents laugh. Labor Day, they joke, is becoming as gentrified as the neighborhood's bars. From 1923 to 1945, howev- er, the holiday was banned. Who was the Grinch who stole Primo Maggio? Benito Mussoli- ni, the renegade leftist turned right-wing dictator, who played cat and mouse with Italian unions. As a politician, Mussolini flaunted his working-class cre- dentials. Wasn't he a black- smith's son? Weren't his hands as calloused as a bricklayer's? Before World War I, he agitated for labor and edited the Socialist newspaper, Avanti! Comrades, however, suspected that he was less interested in advancing the cause than in advancing himself. After World War I, Mussolini the Socialist, who had organized strikes for workers, became Mus- solini the Fascist, who broke strikes for bosses. Fighting in the trenches, he claimed, had taught him that patriotism matters more than class solidarity. Perhaps, but the establishment also offered him status, money, and power to switch sides. Mussolini promised to reconcile capital and labor and restore order. Shortly after becoming prime minister, Mussolini visited Rome's Motor Transport Compa- ny. If his busy schedule permit- ted, he said, he would sing the praises of speed in this epoch of speech. Let bureaucrats doze behind their desks. The plant's steering wheel workers, his true colleagues, understood the words of Marinetti: all power to the man behind the wheel! Rome, he maintained, could become an industrial center, if Romans stopped living on mem- ories. The Coliseum and the Forum were glories of the past, but they must build the glories of today and tomorrow. They belonged to a generation of builders who, by work and disci- pline, with hands and brains, yearned to make Italy a nation of producers and not of parasites. To achieve this goal, however, workers must put their country before their union. Mussolini abolished Labor Day and required workers to join the Fascist Party. Easier said than done. While touring a factory, Giacomo Suardo, Undersecre- tary of the Ministry of Corpora- tions, asked the foreman about his men's politics. "One third are Communists," the foreman reported, "one third are Socialists, and the rest belong to several small parties." Suardo bridled. What?! And how many were Fas- cists? "All of them, Your Excellen- cy!" the foreman assured. "All of them!" Displeased, Mussolini consult- ed the late efficiency expert Frederick Winslow Taylor, another petty tyrant who believed in the one best way to do things. Taylor had revolutionized Ameri- can industry with stopwatch and slide rule. The Duce established the Italian National Agency for Scientific Management and held the Third International Manager Conference in Rome. No expense was spared to impress partici- pants. Flags and tapestries decked the Campidoglio. Soldiers lined the monumental staircase to the Sen- ate Chamber. As a fanfare blared in Piazza Madama, Mussolini entered, saluted, and lectured bean counters, brass hats, and tycoons on the importance of dis- cipline. Despite five years of Fas- cism, Italians workers remained easygoing, skeptical, and individ- ualistic: ill-disposed to take orders. For scientific management to plant deep roots in Italian industry, the soil must be tilled— with a harrow, if necessary. Speedups and quotas boosted production, but these profitable measures translated into longer hours and falling wages. During the Depression, conditions wors- ened. Since unions could no longer complain or strike, work- ers expressed their resentment at a party rally in Piazza Venezia. Like other rallies, this one used the standard ritual of call and response. From his balcony, the Duce cried: "A chi la vittoria? A chi la gloria?" Whose is the victory? Whose is the glory? And, as usual, the crowd roared: "A noi! A noi!" Our, ours! This time, however, Mussolini also asked: "A chi il lavoro?" Whose is the work? Who will sweat to make Italy great? The question was greeted with silence. Mussolini held a granite pose, but his henchmen fidgeted. To save the situation, the Party Secretary, Achille Starace, cried, "Saluto al Duce!" and the band in the square played "Giovinezza." At the Labor Day concert, the crowd chant slogans about job security and demands the next act. Old leftists might prefer a speech, but the promoters know better. Most young Italians want to hear Lodo Guenzi, lead singer of Lo Stato Sociale, perform Una vita in vacanza, not Susanna Camusso, head of the Italian Confederation of Labor, recite statistics. Pasquino's secretary is Antho- ny Di Renzo, professor of writing at Ithaca College. You may reach him at direnzo@ithaca.edu. ANTHONY DI RENZO LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE A Chi il Lavoro? Pasquino examines the labor question Piazza del Campidoglio, in Rome © Dennis Dolkens | Dreamstime.com Workers Unions flags. Every year Italian unions organize a the "Concertone" on the 1st of May © Elena Castaldi | Dreamstime.com

• Cover