Italian Labor: Gains and Losses

The dramatis personae in Joanne Barkan’s analysis of the contemporary Italian workers’ movement possess great subtlety and substance. There is a Communist party (PCI) that, even reluctant observers admit, has been unusually lucid in the face of social and political change. Similar things can be said of the PCI’s labor ally, the Italian General Confederation of Labor (CGIL). Arrayed around this communisant core are other forces—the Italian Confederation of Workers Unions (CISL), the Catholic union once linked to the Christian Democrats, an active women’s movement, and small leftist political groups. From Cold War weakness and division, this movement maneuvered skillfully through de-Stalinization and...