Holding out? The
strategy of ‘civil obedience’.
The
second question in the 2011 referendum was directed against the guaranteed
profit of 7 per cent for companies involved in the provision of water, the
so-called ‘guaranteed capital remuneration’. Instead of simply abolishing this
charge in line with the referendum outcome, however, the
national regulatory agency responsible for water re-introduced this charge at a
slightly lower level of 6.4 per cent under a different name. In response,
several local water committees started a campaign of ‘civil obedience’, deducting
this charge from their water bills. As the initiators argued, by withholding
the 6.4 per cent of water charges when paying the bills they actually complied
with national law resulting from the referendum.
Additionally,
the Forum challenged the re-introduction of the charge in the Courts. However,
first the Administrative Tribunal of Milan decided against the complaint in
March 2014. When referred further up to the Constitutional Court, the Consiglio
di Stato, the latter first consulted three economics professors for an
evaluation of the charge. On the basis of these economists’ assessment in May
2016, the Constitutional Court then confirmed the earlier decision of the
Administrative Tribunal of Milan in 2017. The re-introduced charge, it was
argued, does not constitute ‘guaranteed capital remuneration’, but represents
the principle of ‘full cost recovery’, in line with EU legislation. In other
words, the re-introduction of the charge does not contradict the outcome of the
referendum according to the Constitutional Court.
As
a result, the campaign of ‘civil obedience’ collapsed. Households had to pay
back all the withheld payments and the Forum had to cover the costs of the
Court trial. Those households, which continued to hold out, were cut off from
the water supply. In Arezzo, one of the centres of the ‘civil obedience’
campaign, activists attempted to supply cut-off households with water in
containers and brought one case as a test trial to Court. When this was lost,
the campaign came to an end. Importantly, water activists had been unable to
form an alliance with water workers and failed to convince them not to cut off
water supplies. In Rome, there was an initiative called ‘Supermario’, which
reconnected water ‘illegally’, but this too did not work in the long run. Water
workers had been worried about losing their jobs, if they did not obey orders,
and the trade union organising the sector was not supportive.
Hoping for
political parties?
From
the beginning, the Forum had been very reluctant about relying too closely on
political parties. Water, it was argued, is an issue which goes beyond left
versus right divisions and is relevant across the whole political party
spectrum. And yet, the Five Star Movement
does offer hope to some water activists, considering its recent electoral
successes in various cities (e.g. Turin, Rome), as well as at the national
level, where it currently heads a coalition government together with the
right-wing League political party.
After all, one of its initial five stars had been ‘public water’.
Nevertheless,
there are question marks over the party’s commitment to public water. Although
elected in June 2016, it took the new Five Star Movement administration in Turin
until November 2017 to even start discussions about transforming the regional
water company into a public company with special status. No further concrete
developments have occurred since. In Rome, the new Five Star Movement
administration, also elected in 2016, started a roundtable to discuss the
re-municipalisation of water services, but participants criticise that it is
actually the party’s representatives at the roundtable, who block innovative
thinking.
The
recent coalition government of the Movement with the League does include a
commitment to implement the referendum outcome, but without specifying what
this means in practice. In any case, the Movement’s combination of populist
policies including increased welfare benefits for Italian citizens with
anti-migrant, xenophobic measures such as the coalition agreement on expelling
500,000 migrants from Italy make it a rather dubious ally for progressive
politics (The Guardian, 21
May 2018).
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| Photo by Nodoingola Blogger |
In
2007, the Forum had submitted a national law on public water to the Italian
parliament on the basis of a successful collection of 400,000 signatures in
support. This law, initially shelved and never debated in parliament, had been
re-introduced by an inter-parliamentary group of MPs from the Five Star
Movement, the centre-left Sinistra Ecologia Libertà (SEL), as well as a few members of the Partito Democratico (PD) in March 2014 and was finally debated in parliament in 2017.
Nevertheless, any hopes by water activists invested in this process soon evaporated.
The law was modified in a way making re-municipalisation a possibility rather
than mandatory, thereby losing completely its effectiveness. In the end, water
activists considered having successfully blocked this law to be a success.
What future for
public water in Italy?
Water activists point to the danger of
creeping privatisation pressures. While the Berlusconi government in the period
of 2008 to 2011 had intended to privatise water through direct legislation
forcing all providers to part-privatise services, privatisation pressures are
now being increasingly introduced by stealth. Ongoing public services
restructuring facilitates privatisation indirectly while cuts to
municipalities’ budgets incentivise raising finance through privatisation,
activists point out.
Additionally,
there is a tendency towards the creation of large water companies in Italy with
public and private participation. For example, a merger in the region of
Lombardy brings together a number of companies with the water company A2A,
which is quoted on the stock market like all the other large Italian
multi-utility companies. Yes, the majority part of this new company is held by
the still fully publicly owned water companies from Milan and Brescia.
Considering, however, that this company will operate like private companies,
profit-making will be at the heart of the company’s strategy.
Previous
PD prime ministers Renzi and Gentilone had even talked about creating four to
five large Italian water companies, which would then be able to compete on the
global water market for contracts. These are all developments, which clearly go
against the spirit of the 2011 referendum outcome. Despite the clear result in
the 2011 referendum, the political elites and forces of capital have used every
opportunity to delay and circumvent its implementation. This process is a stark
reminder about the limits of representative democracy in pushing for policies,
which go against the interests of capital.
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| Photo by Felix Zingarelli |
Against
the background of a very difficult economic situation characterised by high
unemployment, slow growth, high debt, the proliferation of part-time, insecure
jobs and increasing poverty levels (The Guardian, 2 March 2018), the future of
public water is highly uncertain in Italy. And yet, the struggle goes on.
Although the large trade unions are less involved in the day-to-day running of
the Forum and fewer local water committees are active across the country, the
Forum continues its activities and has organised regular meetings at the
national level with a focus on mobilising against new legislation facilitating
privatisation.
In a recent, comprehensive analysis the Forum outlines its vision for public water, the way this relates to the preservation of the environment and the need for direct, participatory democracy in running water services (Forum 2018). Water activists may be on the back foot at the moment, but the struggle for public water is far from over in Italy.
Andreas Bieler
In a recent, comprehensive analysis the Forum outlines its vision for public water, the way this relates to the preservation of the environment and the need for direct, participatory democracy in running water services (Forum 2018). Water activists may be on the back foot at the moment, but the struggle for public water is far from over in Italy.
Andreas Bieler
Professor of Political Economy
University of Nottingham/UK
Andreas.Bieler@nottingham.ac.uk
Personal website: http://andreasbieler.net
28 June 2018
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