Book Review: Western Europe: The Italian Labor Movement
| Author | E. Cappadocia |
| Date | 01 December 1964 |
| Published date | 01 December 1964 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206401900427 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK REVIEWS
579
nation
to
industrialize,
but
the
record
is
there,
and
it
is
a record
of
growth.
American
Universities'
Field
Service
E.
A.
BAYNE
Rome
TiE
ITAijAN
LABOR
MovEm:ENT.
By
Daniel
L.
Horowitz.
1963.
(Cambridge:
Harvard
University
Press.
Toronto:
S.
J.
Reginald
Saunders.
xiii,
356pp.
$7.50)
Since
the
end
of
the
Second
World
War,
Italy
has
been
the
battle-
ground
between
political
Catholicism
and
Communism.
But,
while
the
former
has
held
the
reins
of
government,
the
latter
has
dominated
thM
field
of
labour
and
has
retained
the
loyalty
of
the
working-class
elec-
torate.
Mr.
Horowitz's
masterful
analysis
of
the
Italian
labour
move-
ment
shows how
the
failure
of
pre-Fascist
unionism
and
Socialism
have
been
skillfully
used
by
the
Communists to
secure
their
dominance.
The
nature
of
Italian
unionism
has
been
determined
by
the
course
of
politics
no
less
than
by
that
of
industrialization.
Unionism
and
Socialism
both
developed
in
the
1890's,
and
after
the
repression
of
those
years,
they
were
allowed
to
flourish
in
the
more
tolerant
atmosphere
of
Giolittian
politics. Before
1914,
within
their
organizations
both
unionism
and
Socialism
were
faced
with
the
clash
between
reformism
and
revolu-
tionism.
The
C.G.L.
(General Confederation
of
Labour) remained
in
the
hands of
the
reformers
in
spite
of
the
challenge
from
syndicalism,
whereas
the
Socialist
party
was
finally
captured
by
the
extremists
in
1912.
The
conflict
inherent
between
the
C.G.L.'s
"bread and
butter"
unionism
and
the
anti-bourgious
aims
of
the
Socialists
now led
to
the
break-up
of
working
class
solidarity.
The
Socialists
labelled
as
treason-
able
the
C.G.L.'s
failure
to
give
whole-hearted
support
to the
political
strikes
of
1914.
The
author, the
first
Labor
Attach6
appointed
by
the
American
government,
handles
with
remarkable
skill
the
intricate
political,
eco-
nomic,
social
and
religious
factors
that
affected
the
rise
of
the
labour
movement
in
Italy.
Mr.
Horowitz
is
particularly
anxious
to
disprove,
which
he
does,
the
Communist
myth
that
the
lack
of
working
class
solidarity
led
to
the
triumph
of
Fascism.
This
view,
until
very
recently
accepted
by
the
Socialist
leader
Nenni, has
been
exploited
by
the
Com-
munists to
retain
control
over
the
labour
movement
and
to
prevent
the
Socialists
from
abandoning
their
historic
refusal
to
participate
in
a
"bourgeois" dominated
government.
Actually,
the
failure
by
the
Socialists,
when
they
were
the
largest
party
in
the
country,
to
use
their
parliamentary
strength
constructively,
helped
to
create
an
impasse
that
facilitated
the
triumph
of
Fascism;
just
as
their
continued
refusal
to
encourage
the
recent
apertura
a
sinistra
could
have
strengthened
the
forces
opposed
to
reform.
Yet
remarkable
political
wisdom
and
a
willingness
to
forget
their
historical
antecedent
would
have
been
required
to
make them
collaborate
in
1919
with
the
newly
formed
Catholic
party
that
had
in one
election
emerged
as the
second
largest
in
the
country.
Moreover,
the
Socialist
party
was
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