THE UNQUESTIONABLE CISL No. 4 (final episode, perhaps...) "BLACK SMOKE FROM FUMAROLA"

"O Germany –

Hearing the conversations echoing in your homes, we laugh.

But anyone who sees you reaches for a knife."

Don't worry Marco Lai, Daniela Fumarola, lawyers, officials and the like, this "threatening" opening is nothing more than the introduction, entitled "A Politics of Friendship", to the Italian edition of Hannah Arendt's book "Humanity in Dark Times" (I recommend it to everyone, given the times we are living in...).

We are indeed going through complex times (as the late Aldo Moro would say...) and, alas, we cannot escape this complexity.

For my part, I hear the usual rumours coming from the third floor of Via Po 21 (obviously, as always, corridor gossip and unofficial), that my letter of dismissal has already been written and is ready, and that there is an official with his finger already on the computer key, ready to send the 'Certified Mail' message as soon as the unavoidable hearing on the late morning of 9 October is over.

I am not impressed. Fortunately, Italian law on individual dismissals, the result of important achievements and still based on Law 604/1966 and Article 2119 of the Civil Code, provides sufficient means of appeal and redress in cases of just cause (presumably ours) and justified subjective or objective reasons.

I recall that 'just cause' involves such a serious breach of contractual obligations that it does not allow the employment relationship to continue, not even for the notice period, which in my case, according to the CISL (in August), was unwaivably four months, but which now, again according to the CISL (in September-October), is zero days, zero hours, zero minutes, as the confederation has unilaterally waived it.

My thoughts, which are not light-hearted, return to that hot July of 2005 when, in Via Po (this time 102), I met the late Domenico Paparella and began my collaboration (free of charge, I never had any saints in heaven!) with Cesos, the Centre for Economic and Social Studies promoted by the CISL trade union, then chaired by Prof. Guido Baglioni, a research institute which, together with the equally defunct IRES CGIL, once participated in the European meetings of the Turi Network, just like the one I am attending today in Copenhagen.

My thoughts also turn to my first contacts with Daniela Fumarola, back in December 2020, when she had just joined the confederal secretariat and was participating (online in Covid times) in the days of historiography and trade union culture that I was coordinating for the CISL National Study Centre in Florence.

Adriana Coppola and I also edited the transcript of her speech and published it, from the first edition, in the volume: 'Dobbiamo creare tutto dal nuovo' (We must create everything from scratch) (buy it, it's really worth it, more than my other recent works... said, of course, regardless of the speech by the current CISL general secretary).

It brings me back to a cold, very cold morning in late December (again in 2020) when I had what was perhaps my only private phone call with Daniela Fumarola, in which she harshly (but with her usual icy politeness) reproached me for my public speech at the online staff meeting held a couple of weeks earlier.

The content of the meeting was supposed to remain confidential, but evidently there was no fear of treacherously recording the conversations and words of workers, then as now (sue me, I can prove everything, as usual...).

It was the difficult beginning of a non-relationship, which continued for almost four years during which I was the elected representative of the workers in Via Po (and peripheral offices, including the CISL Study Centre in Florence). A relationship which, despite having you as my main counterpart, beyond the Spaggiari-Battista duo (I recall that to date, something very rare in Italian, European and global trade unions, Fumarola holds the positions of organisational and general secretary), saw us meet only once, for an interim meeting which, in my opinion, was entirely perfunctory, useless and formal.

A bit like, presumably, it will be without the presence of Fumarola, who proudly signed my disciplinary measure on 9 October (11 a.m., fifth floor of Via Po, office of Danilo Battista, site director, according to the cold letter of urgent summons...).

Fumarola and I have met a couple more times over the years.

At the (wonderful) school camp organised by CISL Abruzzo Molise, which I directed in October 2022, and in March this year at CNEL, during an initiative on Marco Biagi, when he pointed out to me, Emmanuele Massagli, president of the Tarantelli Foundation, and Francesco Seghezzi, president of Adapt, that all three of us were chubby and needed to go on a diet (which, apart from Fumarola's advice, only I then undertook).

But who is Daniela Fumarola, apart from the famous wiretaps on Ilva with Girolamo Archinà?

Anyone wishing to read a summary of her biography can visit the 'authors' page of the magazine Il Progetto, which I founded and edited until the 'congress' issue last July:

https://ilprogetto.fondazionetarantelli.it/.../daniela.../

Also in the magazine promoted by the Tarantelli Foundation (which revives a glorious CISL publication, formerly edited by the late Eraldo Crea) and founded and edited by me (I reiterate this because some people, completely devoid of any sense of the ridiculous, question it...) you can find other contributions by Fumarola, including her inaugural speech as CISL general secretary and the interview I did with her (also signed by Emmanuele Massagli) during the last confederal congress.

The interview, which was actually very lofty and self-congratulatory, was on the CISL website's home page for the entire week of the EUR congress (the one to which I was NEVER invited, Ed.), just as the absurd escalation of my painful personal story was unfolding, which is about to put an end, after twenty years, to my militancy and working collaboration with the CISL.

Dr Fumarola concludes our (virtual) conversation about the Project as follows: 'At a time when many take refuge in nostalgia or sterile protest, the CISL must be a generative entity, capable of uniting, listening and proposing. This is our educational mission: to ignite the fire of participation, build bonds and restore meaning to collective time. Only in this way can we breathe new life into representation. And give new strength to democracy."

It would be interesting to define, in times of renewed and important mobilisations in the streets, what is meant by 'nostalgia' and 'fruitless proposals', but let's not ask too much.

I could go back to the days when Fumarola was secretary of the CISL Taranto (later Taranto Brindisi, then Puglia, then Puglia Basilicata, then Puglia again...) and when her original union, the FISBA (later FAI...), tried to prevent her general councils from reaching a quorum, complete with posters and Argentine-style 'stationery' protests. It was the CISL metalworkers of Taranto, forged by their experience in the steelworks, who repeatedly came to her rescue, in conjunction with the national, trade union and confederal leaders.

But, as usual, I would be going on too long.

I will not recount in detail how an important trade union secretary, whose surname is very close to a great discovery for humanity, treated me with his well-known 'brutality', which I am not afraid to define, in all forums and taking full responsibility, as endemic, obstinate and inflammatory malice.

At least, this is what I believe I have experienced first-hand, with his failure to respond to appeals from former general secretaries of CISL and UIL, university professors, trade union managers and European and international trainers, CISL grassroots union representatives, trade union secretaries, former directors of the Study Centre and ETUI, long-standing confederal operators and so on and so forth (I am told that in supporting me, given that there was a certain 'Ghino di Tacco' on social media, only Napoleon and Mother Teresa were missing, for obvious reasons...).

Referring to the portal (which will soon be multilingual) on the website www.sindacalmente.org: 'Fumi neri di Fumarola' (Black smoke from Fumarola), I come to my sad conclusion.

Even my appeal to meet, to look each other in the eye, heard by thousands of people on this and other links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQN9CIXJS1E is, incredibly, destined to fall on deaf ears.

Despite my many travels, I have reread in its entirety the recent, truly beautiful and dense volume by Prof. Franco Riva, Un'idea di sindacato. Giulio Pastore e la Cisl (An Idea of Trade Unionism: Giulio Pastore and the CISL), published (needless to say...) by Edizioni Lavoro.

I have studied the Mounier-Maritain duo, which is just as complex and deserves in-depth study, in greater depth than the (composite) duo Battista Spaggiari.

Their personalist revolution, variously reflected in the foundation and development of the CISL, has left a mark that can still be seen today.

The opening lines of Franco Riva's book quote two sentences from the founder and first leader (Fumarola's predecessor...) Giulio Pastore:

'We also see the union as a school on a moral and spiritual level (Speech to the CISL National Organisational Assembly, 1950)

"We have nothing behind us. No parties, no ideological movements; we don't even have a tradition, because it doesn't exist in Italy (...) We have to create everything from scratch (...). We have a duty to pursue the goals of fairness and morality" (Speech to the first national congress of the CISL – 1951).

These reflections will accompany me in the final text of my comparison of the CISL: the fundamental reflection on what, in my case, I consider to be substantial violations of the confederal statute, starting with the programmatic Article 2.

Violations, in my opinion, committed by (some of them have promised me seizures!):

Daniela Fumarola, Danilo Battista, Alessandro Spaggiari, Alessandro Potenza, Sauro Rossi, Ignazio Ganga, Alessandro Beccastrini, Fabio Franchi, Onofrio Rota, Roberta Roncone, Roberto Pezzani, Claudio Arlati, Andrea Benvenuti, and, of course, last but not least, Marco Lai (I hope I haven't forgotten anyone...).

This 'community' is united by my appeals to the arbitration board (and, in some cases, lawsuits), which have all been duly received and will soon be examined, as I was recently informed by the president of the confederal board.

My imminent and highly probable dismissal, although proceeding on a different, albeit parallel, track, can only be considered retaliatory in response to my actions (I have also asked, having never had any previous disputes in twenty years, that all positions be dealt with in a related manner).

Giulio Pastore stated in Naples in November 1951 that it was necessary to 'build, make, create a new trade union'.

For the Piedmontese-Ligurian 'l'attaccafili' (thread binder), a former child labourer whose biography should be rediscovered and recounted not only in the CISL but also in schools, a new trade union was not enough.

A new practice, a new culture, a new trade unionist and a new policy were also needed.

Franco Riva writes that what is 'new' is always tense, always at risk, always open to success and failure, to progress or regression.

The new is, in fact, 'sincere', it lays its cards on the table and commits itself.

The new idea of the CISL, however, like every true idea, every true creation, is not without loyalty.

It is original like all authentic originality that allows itself to be questioned and discussed.

The trade union, the CISL, must therefore:

- make 'choices';

- be 'sincere';

- be 'independent';

- be 'democratic';

- be 'thought out' (a bit like Danilo Dolci would write, perhaps using the participle 'dreamed');

- being "strong";

- be "credible".

Going beyond the CISL and reflecting on the entire union scene today (confederal and otherwise), we will seek to overcome an individual wound and transform it into a collective reflection on a project.

The event is scheduled for today at 6:00 PM (the event will also be recorded) on the Bruno Buozzi Foundation's YouTube channel (and Facebook page):

https://www.youtube.com/@fondazionebuozzi

Moderated by Marco Zeppieri, along with myself, Giorgio Benvenuto (former general secretary of the national UIL and President of the Buozzi Foundation), Gaetano Sateriale (former national director of the CGIL and mayor of Ferrara), and Mattia Scolari (general secretary of the Milan CUB), we will discuss:

"ECLIPSE OF PARTICIPATION AND REPRESENTATION:

WHAT SPACES, PLACES, AND WAYS TO OPPOSE DECLINE?"

Well, over the years, without arrogance and despite making some mistakes, I believe I have been all of these things: I have made choices, I have been sincere, I have been independent (far from being a trade unionist: 'anti-Meloni!'), I have believed in democracy and participation, I have thought, grant me the honour of the defeated, a great deal.

Especially in these last few troubled months, literally breathless, I believe I have been both strong and credible.

But everything, as if we were in the Tamburi district of Taranto in the early 2000s, ended up under, inside what the old CISL members, forged by the factory struggles in Turin in the 20th century, called 'Fumarola's black smoke'.

But life, and also the union, fortunately, as long as God wills it, continue...

Francesco Lauria