Italian Farm' Workers’ Strike

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25834, 20 June 1949, Page 6

Italian Farm' Workers’ Strike

Communism has made some headway among the Italian peasantry; and there is little doubt that the strike of 1,500,000 farm workers, followed last week by a general strike of 2,000,000 workers in country districts, has been caused by the Communists’s exploiting their grievances. The Communist-led General Confederation of Labour called the strike on May JB, when the landowners refused to grant a national agreement to farm workers, and the previous week called on its 6,000,000 members to strike in sympathy. The farm workers, however, cannot be blamed altogether for responding to Communist agitation. They have genuine grievances and good reason to be discontented. Irresponsible absentee landlords, particularly in Sicily and the south, have done little to remedy the lot of their poor and ignorant tenants. There are about 8,500,000 active workers on the land in Italy. Of these, about one-third work on their own family property, and a rather larger number on leased property or as share croppers. More than one quarter work as hired labourers, including 1,800,000 day labourers. This landless class, very badly paid in comparison with factory workers, has offered the Communist agitators a first-class opportunity. The greatest cause of discontent among the peasantry, however, is the unequal distribution of land. According to the census of 1930—since when conditions have scarcely changed—about. 3000 landlords have about 12,500,000 acres, or 18 per cent, of all the farming land in Italy; this gives them an average holding of more than 4000 acres. More than 650,000 smallholders farm 357,000 acres, or about half an acre each. The Italian Government has realised the need to reduce the large estates, and two months ago the Prime Minister (Mr de Gasperi) put forward a plan, not yet in force, to compel nearly 8000 landowners to surrender portions of their estates, to form a land pool from which wholly or virtually landless peasants could acquire property on a subsidised instalment basis. The cost to the Government for purchase and necessary development has been estimated atj

£220,000,000. Not more than 1,000,000 peasants would benefit; but the Government hopes that the scheme will allay present grievances to some extent and check the Communists’ success in their agrarian propaganda. When the scheme was first announced the Communists objected that it .did not go far enough; recently they have opposed it totally. It is easy to see why. Immediately, it will counter their propaganda; on a longer view, it will increase the number of independent smallholders, who everywhere resist Communism obstinately. The strike is disruptive and obstructive. But if it confirms the Government’s intentions and speeds its action, its long-run effect may be of a very different, constructive kind.