Austerity for Italy

[Hannah Bell]

The Berlusconi government is to cut 400,000 posts in the public sector. Only one in five civil service jobs will be filled on retirement. Public sector employment is to be reduced from 3.3 million to 2.9 million. The salaries of some civil servants will be cut, and a general pay freeze imposed.

Central government payments to cities, municipalities and regions will be drastically cut, and many are in a precarious position. As was revealed recently, more than 700 Italian cities and towns have tried to supplement their ailing finances through trading in risky derivatives, which they now have to write off due to the financial crisis.

The cuts will also affect the state pension system, which in Italy is particularly important in the absence of reasonable social benefits. Ten years ago, it was possible to retire at the age of 57, after paying 35 years of insurance contributions. This scheme was abolished under the Prodi government, which raised the minimum retirement age to 61. Now, the retirement age is to be raised again by one year, and then gradually raised to 65 by 2016.

In Italy, old-age poverty is rampant. Many senior citizens are already forced to make do with a minimum monthly pension of €500. Also, welfare recipients will face even more difficulties in future because welfare agencies are being merged and some closed...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jun2010/ital-j07.shtml

- 160,000 jobs in health care scheduled to be cut including 12,000 MDs on temp contracts
- 41,000 teaching jobs cut (follow-up to previous 80,000 cut)
- VAT tax increase
- employment protections cut
- right to strike restricted

[William Z. Foster]

1. wow

Here it comes. Austerity measures in response to an economic slowdown are like throwing gasoline on a fire to put it out. A cascading domino effect is happening and it is gaining momentum. "700 Italian cities and towns have tried to supplement their ailing finances through trading in risky derivatives." Good grief.

"Nearly 160,000 jobs in health care are being cut..."

"12,000 physicians with temporary contracts are to lose their jobs."

"Schools are to be hit again. More than 80,000 teaching posts were eliminated two years ago, now 41,000 jobs are to be slashed at state schools."

"It is also planned to increase VAT (sales tax), which will make petrol especially expensive. This will particularly affect workers who depend on a car or moped, as well as small traders and dealers."

"Employment protections are being undermined and the right to strike restricted."

A consistent struggle against the austerity measures requires a radical break with the unions and all their defenders among the middle-class ex-lefts. All those parties that belong to the “left” or the “far left” share two key traits that make them useful as an auxiliary force of the bourgeoisie.

First, they all demand that the social struggle must be led by the unions—just at the moment when workers are starting to break from the old bureaucratic apparatus. Second, they concentrate their fire solely on the hated Berlusconi government, and are willing to help the “centre-left” form a new governing majority to get rid of Berlusconi.

However, even if Berlusconi were replaced by a new government under the leadership of the Democratic Party (DP), this would not mean the end of the social cuts—quite the contrary. This was proved in Italy by the Prodi government, whose own unpopular austerity measures paved the way for Berlusconi to return to power. This is further shown by the Social Democratic governments of Papandreou in Greece, Zapatero in Spain and Sócrates in Portugal, who are all pushing through brutal austerity measures.

Same thing we are up against here - "you must work within the system" and "all we need to do is get rid of the Republicans."

[William Z. Foster]

2. kicking

Not much interest in what is coming this way, and soon.

[JDPriestly]

3. There is no minimum Social Security benefit in the U.S.

If you didn't marry and weren't paid for your work, you are in big trouble when you are 70+. Let's say that a woman helped her dad in his store and always lived at home -- she has a serious problem.

SSI does not pay much at all.

[Subdivisions]

4. Cheese 'n' rice! This shit is starting to spiral out of control. n/t