ITALIAN AFFAIRS

Hokitika Guardian, 15 September 1920, Page 2

ITALIAN AFFAIRS

RIOTS IN ITALY

(United Service Tplegr^ms)

ROME, Sept. 13. It is regarded as significant thqt the Confederation of Labour has ps? sumed responsibility in connection with the strike movement, meaning that the more level headed leaders recognlsb that the present position in impracticable.

The question, however, is whether the men. will follow the Confederation, seeing that they no -longer believe it is a question of wages, but complete expropriation, and a new life for workers. The Confederation, however, succeeded in opening negotiations with manufacturers, whose representatives have undertaken to place their demands before the general council/ The demands include the appointment of workers’ representatives on the Board’of Directors. \ The Confederation ordered the evacuation of all factories, except the met- . allurgical, but the only response so far as evacuation, was at Campaigna works in Turin, after some firing in which two . persons were In the Palerma district, the peasants occupied the large estates without resistance.

The Soviet workshops .are strongly, fortified. Some are guarded by men with machine guns. The workers are divided into three shifts, one works and another sleeps, the third keeps gxlard with rifles. Thjjf leaders, many of whom are young men, frequently harangue the workers, their slogqn being “Death before surrender.”

THE ITALIAN WORKERS ROME, §ept ; 14: According top. Milan message, representatives of eight hundred industries haw© resolved to subscribe' k tho funds necessary to right the workers illegalities. The representatives deplored the inactivity of the Government.