A number of key factors can be identified underpinning the success of the Italian water movement. First, its campaign was based on a broad alliance, coordinated by the Italian Forum of Water Movements at the national level. Both mainstream trade unions (e.g. FP-CGIL) as well as rank-and-file trade unions (e.g. USB, Cobas) supported the struggle against privatisation; partly, because privatisation of water services often implies downward pressure on salary levels and working conditions, but partly also because they understood that as trade unions they have to look beyond the workplace and at society’s needs more generally, with access to drinkable water and sanitation being important human rights.
Moreover, environmental groups
were part of the alliance (e.g. Legambiente, WWF Italia). They realised that
whenever the profit motive is part of water management, the environment is
likely to suffer. A number of important organisations and individuals from
within the Catholic Church also strongly supported the referendum campaign.
They understood water as a fundamental source of life, which should not be
treated as a tradable commodity in order to make a profit. Finally, it was
citizens’ committees up and down the country, which organised and rebelled
against the drastic water price increases of 100 per cent and more resulting
from private participation in the management of municipal water services.
Together with a network of municipalities and various development NGOs, this
alliance established a formidable force at the national as well as regional and
local levels across Italy, ensuring a large turnout on the days of the
referendum.
The second important factor was the water movement’s refusal to form a close alliance with political parties. Activists realised that they had to keep water out of the electoral arena and make the referendum into an issue beyond party politics in order to secure the votes from both people on the left as well as the centre-right. Since the early 1990s, centre-right and centre-left coalitions had been interchangeably in power pursuing similar policies of neo-liberal restructuring (Cozzolino 2021: 101-27). Winning elections and the benefits coming with government had become the sole purpose of political parties, while struggles over alternative policies receded in the background. It was, therefore, important to keep the referendum campaign outside this political party competition.
Third,
the Italian water movement excelled at developing imaginative strategies. When
the political parties refused to implement the referendum result fully in
relation to the guaranteed profit of private investors, activists devised the
strategy of ‘civil obedience’ and deducted seven per cent from their water
bills. It was called ‘civil obedience’ rather than
‘civil disobedience’, because the initiators argued that by withholding the
seven per cent of their water charges, they actually complied with national law
resulting from the referendum.
Finally, the Italian water movement’s emphasis on regarding water as a commons, to be jointly governed, jointly enjoyed and jointly preserved for future generations provided a clear alternative. It directly challenges the capitalist focus on commodifying ever more areas and submitting them to the profit logic of the market. Hence, it implies a move towards an alternative economic model, in which the means of production are held collectively. This focus is combined with a new, participatory form of democracy in the running of water services. Precisely in a situation perceived by some within the water movement as post-democratic, the focus on a new form of democracy proved attractive. “It is written water, it is read democracy” (Fantini 2014: 42) was a key slogan of the campaign. In other words, it is a new understanding of democracy and a new way of how to run the economy and, importantly, of how these two dimensions are closely and internally related, which brings with it a transformative dimension.
As
I write in Chapter 3 of Fighting for Water, capital has come
back and continues to challenge the outcome of the referendum. Struggles for
public water are ongoing. The victory by the Italian water movement ten years
ago, however, has had a lasting impact on struggles against exploitation in
Italy and beyond. The Italian referendum victory had convinced activists across
Europe that broad-based campaigns organised from below can challenge capitalism
successfully. It has transformed our understanding of what is possible in the
struggle against capitalist exploitation. There is no turning back!
This post was first published in Italian on the website of the Italian Forum of Water Movements on 9 June 2021.
Personal website: http://andreasbieler.net
12 June 2021
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