Autonomia

The Autonomia was a social movement in Italy in the 1970s, resulting from workers , students and young people composed. The characteristics of the Autonomia included the struggle against work , the rejection of established forms of politics ( party politics ) and institutions (including traditional trade unions ), the non-recognition of bourgeois legality and the state monopoly of power , the direct appropriation of social needs (through " proletarian shopping ") , collective dodging , squatting , rent strikes , etc.) and their own structures of an autonomous counter-culture ( social centers , private publishers, independent radio stations and alternative media). The Autonomous Movement in Germany relates historically to the experience of Italian Autonomia.

Autonomia Operaia

Autonomia has its roots in the militant workers 'movement of the 1960s, which is closely related to the concept of workers' autonomy (autonomia operaia) and the theory of operaism . In the 1960s, a trend developed within the labor movement that opposed the tutelage of political parties and trade unions and used its own, self-determined forms of factory struggle. There were spontaneous " wildcat strikes ", the duration and demands of which were determined directly by the workers and not mediated by union bodies. This movement of workers' autonomy turned against work itself, which was expressed in the fact that assembly line sabotage and “celebrating sickness” were important forms of factory struggle. The workers' “insubordination” (disobedience) to the strict work discipline and alienating effects of assembly line work was an important part of autonomous politics. These forms of articulation were directed against the work ethic propagated by the workers' parties ( PCI , PSI ) and trade unions (increase productivity so that social reforms are possible) and against the work organization of companies that was newly introduced in Italy in the 1950s and massively implemented in the 1960s (assembly line work - Taylorism ). Autonomous workers 'organizations were founded, such as Potere operaio (workers' power) in Pisa and Lotta continua (continuous struggle) in Turin. These organizations chose the so-called worker survey as an important method, a form of analysis of working conditions that should be carried out by the workers concerned themselves. The autonomous groups found a theoretical reference point in the journal Quaderni Rossi (Rote Hefte) and the theses of operaism ( Panzieri , Negri , Tronti, etc.). A central demand of the autonomous groups was for a “political wage”, that is, a guaranteed income for everyone, decoupled from work and productivity. During demonstrations by the autonomous labor movement, around 1960 together with students and activists of the Resistance against the meeting of the fascist MSI in Genoa, or in 1962 as part of a labor dispute in the Piazza Statuto in Turin, there were sometimes militant clashes with the police or with fascists, where workers were often shot by the police, especially in southern Italy.

The hot autumn of 1969

Criticism of the reformism of the workers' parties and unions led to the establishment of numerous autonomous base committees in the factories (CUB - Comitati Unitari di Base ) , especially in northern Italy at the end of the 1960s . Strikes broke out for the abolition of different wage categories and reform of the pension system. From 1968 onwards, the labor disputes reached a hitherto unknown intensity and mass basis. This expressed a strong influence of the autonomous labor movement and the CUB, since the demand for decoupling of wages from work and equal wage increases for everyone in these struggles became generalized and articulations such as sabotage of the machines and insubordination (refusal to face the company hierarchy) showed here. In the spring of 1969, industrial action flared up again at Fiat in Turin, the largest company in Italy and at the same time a pioneer of Taylorist work organization. A partial link also developed between the workers and the student movement of 1968 . While students picketed, workers took part in student demonstrations. As part of a strike in July 1969, residents of the Mirafiori district of Turin took part in clashes with the police, which was an expression of the societal expansion of the demands of the autonomous workers. Strike activity peaked in the autumn of 1969. As a result of this “hot autumn”, enormous wage increases were achieved, the wage level approached that of neighboring Italy in 1970, and the 40-hour week and the reduction of wage groups were implemented. In May 1970 a new workers' statute was passed in parliament, which guaranteed extensive protection against dismissal and introduced freedom of trade union activity in the company. The CUB were politically recognized as the representative body of the workers.

The 1977 movement

Massive state repression meant that the autonomous labor movement experienced a decline in the course of the 1970s. During this period, the social struggles increasingly shifted from the factory to the social sphere. This was preceded by an economic development, namely the increasing automation of industry and the associated decline in the classic workforce and increasing precariousness of the employees. In operaist theory this was expressed in the idea of the "social worker". The groups of workers' autonomy disbanded in the course of the 1970s in the course of repression and due to internal contradictions. However, many of their activists remained politically active and continued their involvement in the emerging autonomia. Autonomous collectives now often formed in the districts that were connected to the conflicts in the factories. A broad social network emerged, consisting of bookshops, publishers, social centers and artist collectives, from which the autonomia movement was to emerge. Different currents converged in the Autonomia: A significant impetus came from the “autonomous” women's movement , which fought against patriarchal structures, not least within the emancipatory movement. There were two basic directions within the movement, the "spontaneous" Autonomia creativa and the "more political" Autonomia organizzata. What they had in common was the rejection of traditional party politics , which also brought them into - sometimes militant - conflict with the parties of the labor movement. The area of reproduction and not the factory was the field in which the conflicts were increasingly being fought. The Autonomia tried e.g. B. in the centri sociali to try out alternative forms of coexistence and fought for their freedom, for example by occupying empty houses and factories. In these free spaces, everyday needs should be politicized and lived out in collective and self-determined forms. The alternative structures ranged from communication ( free radios and alternative magazines) through culture (street theater, wall painting) to direct appropriation (“proletarian shopping”, rent strikes, collective fare dodging). In 1977 the Autonomia peaked and at the same time it was the year of its defeat. In 1977 hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets at the demonstrations of the Autonomia. At the same time, many Autonomi got involved in militant clashes with the police, which resulted in deaths on both sides. The issue of violence eventually became an issue within the movement. Due to the growing confrontation with the state organs and the subsequent repression (long prison terms), the Autonomia lost much of its power. As part of the wave of repression, the social networks of the Autonomia were also deliberately smashed, for example by evicting squatted houses and banning the media and publishing houses. Some activists of the Autonomia organizzata subsequently joined armed groups such as the Prima Linea. In 1981, out of a total of 4,000 political prisoners in Italy, 1,000 belonged to the Autonomia.

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Left company intervention, wildcat strikes and operaist politics 1968 to 1988, special issue of the journal Arbeit - Bewegungs - Geschichte , Metropol-Verlag, Berlin 2016.
Frombeloff (ed.): ... and the time of autonomy began. Political texts by Karl Heinz Roth a. a. Hamburg 1993.
Geronimo: Fire and flame. On the history of the autonomous. Berlin - Amsterdam 1995.
La sola soluzione - la rivoluzione The example of the Italian Autonomia trend.net From: Geronimo, Feuer und Flamme - On the history of the autonomous
Friederike Hausmann: A Brief History of Italy since 1943. Berlin 1994.
Primo Moroni & Nanni Balestrini: The Golden Horde. Workers' autonomy, youth revolts and armed struggle in Italy. Berlin 1994.
Thomas Stahel: Chronology of Events> Italy 1976/77
Renaissance of Operaism? Wildcat No. 64, March 1995, pp. 99-110