took part in a general strike last week in protest at government austerity measures which will mean huge public spending cuts and tax increases.
Transport workers were at the foretront of the the four hour walk. outs which paralysed industries and services on the day when parliament was debating next year's budget. The government of Guiliano Amato is proposing to cut Chesterfield Conference sector borrowing requirement, effectively dismantling the country's weirare state This follows a $18 billion package of spending cuts which was pushed through parliament a tew days earlier.
But workers criticised the response of union leaders, saying the four-hour general strike, which excluded many public sector workers, was an empty gesture. They are also angry about an agreement to end wage indexation the government in July. Anger spilled over into confrontations in some areas. At a rally of 50,000 workers in Milan, Sergio D'Antoni. general secretary of Italy's second largest union CISL, was met with a hail of missiles when he rose to speak.
Amato's government is just three months old and militants believe a radical response from the workers movement could put paid to its austerity measures. Mineworkers Defence Cam-