The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 25, 1927, Page 7

ee AERP RCE AERO TE eal ‘The Rise of the Lira~Campaign for Lower Price Tr policy of the “gradual revival of the lira” announced by the fascist government has in practice led te a very violent rise, which, however, has not only failed to effect the economic recovery of Italy, but has made the industrial crisis still worse. The sudden rise of the lira not only strikes a blow at export industry, weakéning its competitive ca- pacity on the foreign market, but creates a state of indecision and lack of faith in the morrow in the whole economic life of the country, on which rapid deflation acts just as disastrously as inflation. The rise of the lira isin itself an unhealthy sign, bemg as it is, not the consequence of financial and indus- trial settling down, but the product of artificial measures, chiefly innumerable foreign loans, on such a footing that the foreign currency falls into the hands of the “Italian Bank,” the fascist govern- ment’s financial instrument, thus enabling it to speculate in the lira. This speculation is among other things a source of profit for the fascist business- men and tends to form a secret government for fascist agitation and dark machinations at home and abroad. One of the conscquences of the unhealthy growth of the lira is the discrepancy between its nominal value on the foreign market and its real purchasing power at home. While the lira stood at 24 gold centesimi on the foreign market in March last, its purchasing capacity in Italy (at wholesale prices) was only 17 cents. Even the most cautious spe- cialists, never weary of lauding the wisilom of the government, have been foreed to admit that if this giscrepancy is not compensated for by a lowering of prices it will inevitably lead to another fall in the lira. If, howev@r, wholesale prices cannot cone with the rise of the lira, retail prices bear still less relation to it. The campaign for lower prices so long waged with “undeviating success” by the fas- cist government, press and trade unions, has up to the present shown no real results. Special shops for the workers, limited prices, threats to the re- tailers and other palliative measures have so far led to néthing substantial. While the lira stood 32 per cent higher in Febru- ary last than in the preceding August (in ratio to English pound) the index of wholesale prices during this period had fallen from 691.35 to 600.85, i.e., 12 per cent, and the average-cost of living index in Italy (27 towns) from 151 to 147, ie., two-and-a- half per cent. In Milan the cost of living index far from falling even went up from 652 to 667. ATTACK ON WAGES: The employers have long been working at the lowering of prices in their own way. The argument as to whether the lower- ing of prices or the lowering of wages ought to take precedence has been answered by them in a practical manner by an attack on wages unfalter- ingly and a great deal more successfully than the struggle for lowered prices, carried out, either in spite of, or with the assistance of the fascist unions. At first the government organs and fascist party kept officially out of this attack, in some cases even trying to moderate the zeal of the employers. The Supreme Council of the Fascist Party passed a resolution against the lowering of wages until the cost of living should come down (in spite of which, however. Belucci, Minister for National Econoray, was able to announce in March last that wages had been cut by efforts of the employers, in 57 prov- inces). In his March parliameritary address Belucci ap- pealed to the employers nottto take the line of least resistance, i.e., not to try to bring down prices, but cutting wages, as industry required an extension of home markets. The greater, however, the strides Vrawing by Wm. Gropper. U.S. JS. R. “What cabalistic sign is that?” ~ Asked a most learned man. “U-S-S-R—it knocks me flat, Nor fathom it I can!” “T’ve searched the bible through and through, I’ve thumbed old velumes rare, The Atlas and the histories, too— I’ve looked most everywhere.” “T can not find this strange device In books of heraldry, I’ve seanned the dictionary twice— This word I cannot see.” “But this is my conclusion, sir, It must be Bolshevik— Red propaganda, as it were— Some Communistic trick!’ “And so a letter I shall send To Washington today— T'll tell my Congressman to end This red plot right away!” —HENRY REICH, Jr. the lira made in its “recovery” the worse became the economic crisis. Considerable groups of industrial- ists began to make their voices heard in a protest against heavy taxation and customs dues, the dan- ger of the ever-increasing foreign loans and in de- mand for—wage cuts. The government made up its mind. It undertook the formulation and limita- tion of the attack on wages. The famous: “Labor Charter” was the smoke sereen under cover of which the fascist government and the fascist, party are leading this attack. Two weeks had hardly passed after the publica- tion of the “Labor Charter’ when Augusta Turati, general secretary of the fascist party accomplished a veritable fascist miracle. Calling in Brescia a meeting of representatives of the f: st agricul- tural unions in this province, he “persuaded them voluntarily” to pass a resolution on the lowering ® of the wages established for agricultural workers in the collective agreements. This diminution was, according to the resolution, to assume “extent and form found most convenient and fair by Turati.” This turned out to be—a ten per cent cut! The workers concerned, were, of course not consulted. Mussolini and the directorship of the fascist party approved and made an example of the Brescia ag- ricultural “worlzers’” resolution, which they hoped would be a signal for further “generous acts by the workers and peasantry.” The example of Brescia was followed by Pavia, where the fascist unions.decided “to accept uncon- ditionally the wage decrease for seasonal agricul- tural workers in the Pavia and Lemelli districts, established by the decision of the Brescia agricul- tural workers. Tt should, moreover, be known that in these very districts a strike recently oc red on account of the attempts of the landowners to impose lower wages on the workers. The same thing oc- curred in other localities. After the agricultural workers came the turn of the urban workers. At the Bologna conference of union secretaries a de- cision was taken for a 10 per cent nominal decrease of the Cost-of-living bonus. -In compensation the workers were promised a society for the sending of sick children to seaside Watering-places. The Bol- ogna Federation of Empleyers’ Organizations took the greatest interest in these sacrifices made by the workers, and worked out rates for decreasing wages. It appears (1) the decrease will be 10 per cent, but rot from the cost-of-living bonus, but from wages vs a whole; (2) the decrease will come into force ‘vom the 9th of May, i.e., from the very day of the decision of the secretaries’ organizations, while (2) each organization will have the right to demand a revision of rates in case of considerable changes in the conditions of the respective industries and in the cost-of-living index. After Bologna came the turn of the Genoa dock- ers, ete. The tone, however, was given to the attack on wages by the fatherly fascist government itself. On the 5th of May the Council of Ministers ruled out the cost-of-living bonuses for the highest cate- gories of civil servants and lowered them 30 to 69 per cent for the lowest, including postal, telegraph and railway employes. The excuse given for this decrease was that wholesale prices had gone down considerably by the end of April. The Council of Ministers, it is true, acknowledges that the fall in the cost of living is far from corresponding to the fall in wholesale prices, but it contents itself with the remark that “in some towns the price of bread, macaroni and other products has fallen considerably during the last six months. 3