Factory council in Italy: an organ similar to Betriebsrat in Germany
Workers’
well being and their problems are similar in all the countries across
the globe. No country has special provision made for the workers.
They have to struggle to get their piece of profit in the
organization where they spent major portion of life and yet are left
high and dry. This injustice was acknowledged long ago and the nod
was given to form unions to protect the rights and safeguard the
interests of the workers and employees. All over the world these
workers councils are formed and are in place for performing their
duties. In Italy they are known as factory council. They have similar
functions like that of Betriebsrat
in Austria and Germany.
It
is a movement of Italian workers in favor of the creation of factory
councils or Betriebsrat
to act as organs of the proletariat’s struggle for power. It begun
with the initiative of the Ordine Nuovo group, this movement was
carried out in 1919 and 1920, under the conditions of a revolutionary
upsurge. The tasks of the factory councils included not only
defending the interests of labor but also establishing workers’
control over production and organizing the proletariat’s mass
struggle for political power. The first Betriebsrat
appeared at units in Turin and thereafter they rapidly acquired
considerable influence overall Italy. Betriebsrat
gained its due importance very rapidly and became one of the most
evident elements in the industry. Their
influence was particularly evident during the general political
strike in northern and central Italy on Dec. 2–3, 1919. In March
1920 the metalworkers of Turin went on strike in defense of the
rights of the factory councils against the attempts of the
Confederation of Industrialists to abolish the councils; in April the
entire proletariat of Turin joined the strike, along with 500,000
industrial and agricultural workers of the Piedmont region. The
leaders of the Italian Socialist Party and the General Confederation
of Labor outright rejected to support the movement which was carried
out on a nationwide scale; however the strike ended in defeat. The
rights of the factory councils were curtailed, and the councils were
deprived of their control functions. During the movement in September
1920 the factory councils played a vital role to take over the
factories, especially in Turin. After the fascists assumed power in
1922, however, the councils were dissolved. This is the rise and set
of the factory councils in Italy.