Reflecting on the growth of this struggle in the late 1960s and ’70s, sociologist Harry Cleaver wrote that “the reproduction of the working class involves not only work in the factory but also work in the home and in the community of homes… the working class had to be redefined to include nonfactory analysis.” 2 Hence, the analysis of class struggle has to cover the whole “social factory,” not just the workplace. First, how was the Forum able to bring together such a wide range of different groups into a successful campaign? Second, why, despite the overwhelming success in the referendum, was there only a partial implementation of the results?Ĭonceptually, this article focuses on class struggle, understood in a broad sense. The article seeks to answer two questions. This article examines one such effort, the Italian Water Movements Forum (also called just “the Forum”), a broad alliance of trade unions, social movements, development NGOs and environmental groups, and its successful 2011 mobilization supporting a referendum against water privatization. Efforts to combat this are ever more necessary.
IntroductionĪgainst the background of global and Eurozone financial crises, as well as the austerity sweeping across Europe, the pressure for governments to privatize public services is immense. 1 Sic Vos Non Vobis reflects well the dynamics behind the struggle for public water: water is there for everyone to enjoy, but nobody should own and make a profit from it. The use of the words as the title of this paper was inspired by an exhibition in the Parco Arte Vivente on water as a commons in Torino, Italy in spring 2014.
Sic Vos Non Vobis (“For You, But Not Yours”) were the words Vergil wrote on the wall when Bathyllus, another poet, had plagiarized his work. He is also grateful to colleagues from the Transnational Labor Project at the Centre of Advanced Study in Oslo (see ) for comments and the necessary time and space to complete this piece, which is part of his contribution to the collective project. The author would like to thank Chiara Carrozza, Margherita Ciervo, and Emanuele Fantini, as well as seminar participants of the Department of Political Economy at Sydney University, for comments on earlier drafts. Andreas Bieler is Professor of Political Economy and Fellow of the Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice (CSSGJ) in the School of Politics and IR at Nottingham University.
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