On the occasion of the 26th anniversary of the death of Luciano Lama, the former parliamentarians' association together with the CGIL and the association that takes its name from the union leader, is promoting today, May 31, a public initiative in Rome, at the Senate of the Republic, in the Sala Zuccari of Palazzo Giustiniani. It will be presented on that occasion the book “Next Generation Union: the reality of Forlì-Cesena”, which collects the results of a research on the reality of young people and their relationship with the world of work.
As far as I'm concerned, I think I have made several contributions to remember the life and works of Luciano Lama, a great unforgettable leader, with whom I had the honor of working and – if I may – have established a relationship of mutual esteem and friendship with him. The 26th anniversary of his death is not one of the canonical anniversaries in which an important personality is remembered. But today's initiative is significant for the authoritativeness of the promoters and certainly, also for the research that is represented with reference to a piece of that sunny Romagna that forever marked the profile, the character of Luciano Lama, in all aspects typical of those who were born in those generous lands: the passion for singing, the love of good food and the support for Juventus.
I'm interested in talking – today – about Lama, to ask myself how he would have behaved if he were still at the helm of the most important Italian trade union in the face of Russia's aggression on Ukraine. And obviously the comparison would fall on the line of conduct - in this tragedy - of the CGIL of Maurizio Landini and his companions. I am aware that I am venturing down a path dotted with se (a conjunction with which history is not made) and to take the liberty of interpreting the thought of a person who lived in other eras, according to ideals and values today blurred in the fog. But the Masters, the examples serve precisely to understand which is the right path to take when human events lead to the crossroads of a Yes or a No. What happened to second lieutenant Luciano Lama after 8 September 1943, when he chose to climb to fight with the partisans in the mountains from where he descended at the head of the formations under his command, months later, to free Forlì. Or what the trade unionist Lama had to decide every time he was called upon to open a dispute and find adequate solutions to close it, after the struggle, in the interest of the workers (which in the end is not so different from that of the corporate system or a single company).
The courage of Di Vittorio's CGIL after the USSR's invasion of Hungary
Luciano Lama was a child of the XNUMXth century and, like anyone with leftist ideas and feelings, he could not help but come to terms with the October Revolution and the USSR, whether he considered justice a priority (in reality it turned out to be a chimera ) with respect to freedom or vice versa. In any case, the USSR was proof – perhaps degenerated and deviated – that another world and another economic and social model were possible, once the errors and tragedies that accompany the turning points in history had been removed. However, Lama was the favorite pupil of Giuseppe Di Vittorio, for whom the idea of a socialist society was a reason for living that had led him to lead the labor struggles in Puglia, to suffer repression and exile until he fought in Spain in defense of the Republic. Yet when in 1956 the Red Army invaded Hungary to subdue that popular uprising in blood; when the communist deputies and a part of the socialists themselves stood up in Parliament praising the aggression, Di Vittorio's CGIL had the courage to condemn that event.
We report below the most significant passage of the communiqué issued in that circumstance: «The secretariat of the CGIL in the face of the tragic situation that has arisen in Hungary [...] recognizes in these mournful events the historical and definitive condemnation of anti-democratic methods of government and political leadership which they determine the gap between leaders and popular masses». The document then took note of "the positive evolution of the situation in Poland", and added that "faithful to the principle of non-intervention of a State in the internal affairs of another State", the secretariat deplored "that it has been requested and has occurred in Hungary the intervention of foreign troops».
Di Vittorio paid dearly, within the party (the PCI at the time was a tough and ruthless organization when Soviet hegemony and the general line of the party was called into question) this act of dissent (a year later Di Vittorio died following a heart attack that struck him in Lecco where he had gone to preside over a meeting); but he never wanted the CGIL to back down from that document. He limited himself to issuing a statement in which he explained the expediency reasons (to safeguard the unity of the CGIL) which had led him to share that historic position. Note, then for now and in Putin's face, the underlining of fidelity "to the principle of non-intervention of a State in the internal affairs of another State".
What would Lama say about the invasion of Ukraine?
With all due caution, I am convinced that Lama - in the face of the Russian invasion of Ukraine - he would not have embarked on that pro-Putin pacifism expressed by Maurizio Landini and which remains the line of the CGIL today. Above all, Lama would not have allowed so many whitewashed tombs of sinister humanity to acknowledge Putin's task of fighting American imperialism, which, according to them, has never ceased to be the true enemy of the peoples. For Lama, Putin would have been what he is: a murderous dictator, a war criminal, the leading exponent of an oligarchic-mafia regime, a financier and protector of the resurgent nationalist and neo-fascist forces in Europe. Ideals that proved to be betrayed and illusory traveled on the tanks of the Red Army, but were shared by millions of people (there lies the tragedy of communism: to have done abject things in the name of great ideals). The Red Army, armed by the USA, had made a decisive contribution to the defeat of Nazism. Today is the time for cutthroats, rapists, torturers, murderers of innocent civilians. Today it is force that once again prevails over reason.
