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International Notes
Butros Butros Ghali, Secretary General UN.
•HE DEVASTATION T WROUGHT by civil war in
Bosnia and Somalia has highlighted the limited 'peacekeeping capabilities of the United Nations.
The benefits promised by the ending of the cold war and the new era of free market co-operation' have not materialised. While the number of civil wars around the world has not changed over the last ten years, there has been a virtual explosion of UN peacekeeping operations.
Two years ago, the UN had 15,000 peacekeepers around the world; today it has nearly 55,000 deployed in 14 different operations. In the two-year budget period 1990-91, the cost of UN peacekeeping operations was $819 million; last year the cost of peacekeeping rose to $1.5 billion and this year's budget is expected to reach $2.5 billion. Peacekeeping is now by far the organisation's biggest activity, costing 50 per cent more than the UN's non-peacekeeping budget.
The cost of operating under the cover of international legitimacy' is a price which imperialist governments have been prepared to pay. While the 1990-91 Gulf war, for example, was sanctioned
8 • International notes
by the United Nations, the military action remained under US command and control.
But the UN provided the US ruling class with an invaluable political shield. Without it, Bush would have faced far more opposition from the US Congress and capitalist governments abroad. When the Labour leaders in Britain voted for war, for example, they claimed that they were not supporting the Tory government, but voting for the United Nations' intervention.
Consequently, the US, which had previously withheld its UN contributions as a token of its reservations about many UN resolutions and pronouncements, promptly paid off its $600 million arrears. This was a very small overhead to pay to minimise domestic and international opposition to an operation the overall costs of which ran upwards of $70 billion.
But the unity of the UN Security Council during the Gulf crisis was unprecedented. It had been made possible by the willingness of the Gorbachev leadership in the former Soviet Union to reach an accommodation with the interests of US imperialism
By David Kaplan
in its war for oil. By its very nature, the UN is prone to deliberation: the contending national interests of its members will block collective action, robbing it of a coherent strategy when approaching intervention.
The situation facing the UN peace force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) is just one indication of the inadequacy of 'international cooperation' under the auspices of the United Nations. After Turkey's invasion and annexation of the northern province in 1974, 225,000 people, predominantly ethnic Greeks, were removed from their homes. UNFICYP forces were sent but were financed through voluntary contributions, some of which were never paid: the current arrears total £135 million and any attempt to place the Cyprus operation under general financing of the UN has been blocked by Russia, France and China. With no lasting solution and restricted domestic budgets, every contributing government is withdrawing its presence. The number of troops committed to Cyprus has dwindled from 6,000 to just 1,000. Denmark pulled out in 1992; Canada is leaving this September.
In the case of former Yugoslavia, the International Institute for Strategic Studies envisages the commitment of 500,000 peacekeeping troops for ten years, again, with no guarantee of a lasting solution.
Nonetheless, despite the problems of raising finance and unifying a dis-United Nations, imperialist governments will seek to include in its remit intervention in domestic conflicts for the sake of international security. The
hat ben di have been dubbed, will continue
'new interventionists, as they
to use the United Nations as a legal cover to safeguard their national interests. 01
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Italy's
corruption
crisis
'HE ITALIAN CORRUPTION
scandal has devastated the
political order that domiated the country for fifty years.
'HE ITALIAN CORRUPTION
scandal has devastated the
political order that dominated the country for fifty years. Bribery cases involving £70bn, the equivalent of nearly twothirds of the budget deficit, are under scrutiny from investigating judges. Every one of the established political parties has been tainted - three party secretaries have been forced to resign • over 100 MPs are under investigation. More recently, formal inquiries have been opened into the judiciary itself. And now the apparently untouchable Giulio Andreotti, seven times prime minister, life senator, the central pillar of Italian bourgeois politics for half a century, stalwart of the Christian Democracy (DC), faces investigation for conniving with the Mafia.
The collapse of Stalinism in Eastern Europe has had drastic consequences for Italian politics. From the end of World War Two and the fall of fascism, the Italian ruling class organised their political system to keep the Italian Communist Party (PCI) out of power, with the DC as their bulwark. The bourgeois were terrified by the revolutionary movements of the workers in Italy and particularly by the PCI, which had 2.2 million members at its height and was the biggest Communist Party in the West.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s the revolutionary struggles of the Italian working class struck fear into the hearts of Italian big business - indeed they were only saved by the betrayal of the labour movement leadership. Nevertheless, as a result of their struggles, the Italian workers gained amongst the highest wages and lowest working hours in Eu-
same again in Italian politics, argues Soraya Lawrence.
Things will never be the
Andreotti, charged with Mafia links.
rope, together with the victory of the 'scala mobile' sliding scale, which automatically raised wages to compensate for inflation.
Unfortunately for Italian capitalism it did not have a strong, coherent organisation through which to rule. The DC was not a homogeneous group but an amalgam of factions drawn together to ward off 'communism'. It developed a clientelare' apparatus which sustained its power on the basis of kickbacks and
bribes. The bourgeois cultivated the Mafia, and manipulated its links with the party to undermine further the labour movement.
The lack of confidence of the ruling class to control the Italian workers through parliamentary democracy is reflected in the preparations for coups, revealed with the discovery of 'Gladio' and the P2' masonic lodge plot. Gladio was a covert operation set up in Europe by Nato with the encouragement of the CIA
Italy • 9
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after the war. Secret armies were trained in preparation against 'communist take-over'. Many of the operation's members were fascists, some ex-SS, and they helped organise terrorist attacks by extreme-right groups. In Italy the CIA, the DC and the intelligence services plotted to instal a military dictatorship if the PCI came into the government. The P2 masonic lodge was a further arm in this struggle, linking politicians, big business, rightwing terrorists and financed by the CIA to control communist influence. Investigation into Gladio revealed the extent of the fear of the bourgeois of the PCI entering the government. When DC MP Aldo Moro was discussing inviting the PCI into coalition, his kidnapping and murder were arranged. At the time blame was laid at the door of the Red Brigade left-wing terrorists. Recently alarms have raised concerning the danger of an authoritarian takeover or coup. Former president Francesco Cossiga sparked off conjecture with a hypothetical scenario of the carabinieri being forced to 'drown revolt in blood'. This was the very man who drew up the plans for Gladio when he was defence minister. Whilst such action would be premature from the standpoint of the ruling class and is being raised more for scaremongering, it could not be ruled out in future. At the moment the former PCI, the PDS, is encouraging the rumours to justify its support for and possible entry into a bourgeois coalition. THY IS THE ruling class W now using a section of the magistrates (who in the past were told to look the other way) to rid itself of an entire layer of politicians who have served it for so many years? Throughout the years of economic boom the bourgeois could afford to maintain the bribes and kickback system upon which DC politics depended. The collapse of Stalinism, as explained above, together with the onset of the international economic • crisis, meant a change in priorities. 10 • Italy Faced with a massive national debt (106% of GDP), falling profits and an increased struggle competitivity (Fiat, the powerhouse of Italian industry, once challenging_VW for leadership of the West European car market, is now in fourth place with its uncontested dominance of the domestic market shrunk from 60% to 44%), the capitalists were obliged to deal with this enormous drain on the economy.
Furthermore, they had to be seen to be attacking corruption when they were demanding enorfinancial sacrifices workers, with lay-offs, redundancies, the end of the scala mobile and other attacks. At the same they are less afraid of the PDS which has already undergone a split. In 1991 150,000 members left to form Communist Refoundation (RC). Electorally too the party's support has diminished. In recent elections it has only achieved 15% of the vote, compared to the 37% the PCI won at its peak.
Undoubtedly, the revelations of corruption have gone much further than the bourgeois desired, as individuals scrambling to save themselves drag more and more figures into the mire. Now confidence in the political system is at an all-time low. Significantly the politicians themselves share this lack of confidence: 20% of MPs will not even stand again. H OW WILL THE ruling class try and restore confidence in the government? Great emphasis was laid by politicians on the 18 April referendum to end state funding of parties and proportional representation, which would end the system of revolving coalitions set up ensure the exclusion of the Communists. With this system no party was able to gain an absolute majority. Although the vote here applies to the Senate, this would eventually lead to changes in the Commons.
At the same time, with the established parties tainted, the bourgeois urgently need the creation of a new political organisation. The recent resignation from the DC of Mario Segni, an MP leading the movement for electoral reform, following months of distancing himself from the political scandal, could be a move in this direction. The basis of this new formation would probably originate from a wing of the DC but could later draw from other parties, particularly with the long-term implications of a YES win in the referendum for the smaller parties, which would lose out in a first past the post' system.
A revolutionary situation could have developed had there been a mass Marxist organisation in Italy.
The entry of the PDS into some sort of coalition is another card to play. But this too could have undesirable long-term effects for the capitalist class. The role of the PDS in government, supporting a savage austerity programme, would not only lose it votes but could provoke a further split in the party to the advantage. of the RC.
A revolutionary situation could have developed from the corruption scandals had there been a mass Marxist organisation in Italy: to hammer home that corruption is an organic feature of the capitalist system, to co-oraction, indinate and organise cluding a general strike against corruption, to bring down the government and demand a workers' administration. Nevertheless, things will never be the same again in Italian politics. The ruling class is correct to fear the mighty Italian proletariat - the demonstrations of hundreds and thousands against the corruption scandals are just a glimpse of days to come.
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