[Bergamo] Voting instructions from P.Carc for the administrative elections • CARC Party

The context

Bergamo is a city with one of the lowest unemployment rates in Italy and in which a particular social cohesion persists, based on the role played by the Vatican, by Catholic associations and by volunteering on solidarity and welfare bases, which especially in the Italian metropolises it has been disintegrating more evidently.

However, the effects of the crisis, the war and the war economy are also being felt in Bergamo. Examples are the housing emergency, which hits some sectors of the population hard, and the acceleration in the speculative process to the detriment of public health. Bergamo, therefore, is not a “pacified” city at all.

It seems pacified because authorities and institutions do their best to make it appear so. Even the electoral campaign for the local elections was a demonstration of this: lots of chatter about secondary aspects and useless issues to keep the popular masses away from city politics, keeping them in the role of spectators of the theater of bourgeois politics.

The electoral campaign

Bergamo is not a pacified city because our country is not a pacified country, because there are no “happy islands” in the context of the advancing third world war and the undeclared war of extermination that the ruling class is waging against the popular masses (the consequences are deaths at work, for cuts to healthcare, for pollution and environmental devastation, for mental disorders, drugs and poverty). However, for a series of reasons, the electoral campaign for the local elections represented this reality of a “happy island” which in truth does not exist and the local elections did NOT become the setting for the irruption of the popular masses into the theater of bourgeois politics.

Let’s see the main ones of these reasons.

1. There is no anti-Broad Understanding list (and no candidate for mayor): all the lists present are an expression – directly or indirectly – of the Broad Understanding parties and their political system.

2. The political forces, associations and bodies that have the role of organizers and promoters of the mobilization of the popular masses (with a few exceptions which we see below), without a reference list to support and support, have behaved as if the there were no elections, that is, they did not use the electoral campaign to carry out their role, to strengthen and develop it.

The PRC tried to present its own candidate for mayor and in fact it could have been an alternative to the Broad Agreements): first it proposed a coalition to the M5s (but the M5s responded in spades) and then following the path of building a list civic project that also involved representatives of the city’s popular committees, but in the end this project also failed.

The local M5s, probably following the indications of the national one who was pushing to continue the deadly embrace with the Democratic Party, over time had and maintained a weak role, of false opposition to the Gori junta and arrived at the administrative elections split, weakened, trained . To the point that it cannot be defined as an alternative to the local system of Larghe Intese.

The combination of these elements determined that the electoral campaign flowed like a calm interlude in a general context in which, however, everything is in motion and the world, society and the country are shocked by the effects of the general crisis.

Our work in the past months

We worked in view of the elections and the electoral campaign in order to encourage the construction of a front of forces and bodies that was effectively alternative and antagonistic to the system of the Broad Agreements and we concentrated on fueling the fight for the defense of public health, promoting and strengthening popular committees of healthcare users and workers.

We sought dialogue in particular with the PRC, the only force that seemed to have real interest in presenting a list, and we also evaluated the possibility of nominating our comrades. But ultimately we were responsible for setting up the raid on the electoral campaign regardless of whether an anti-Larghe Intese list was present or not.

We therefore dedicated ourselves to building the Action Committee for Public Health (CASP), also using the moments and supports of the electoral campaign for this purpose.

With CASP we promoted demonstrations for the city and an initiative in which Medicina Democratica also participated on the history of the NHS, always inviting election candidates to intervene and support the fight for public health. We then raided a conference on healthcare promoted by the Democratic Party and, to prevent it from being just another electoral catwalk, evading the Democratic Party’s serious responsibilities in the dismantling of public healthcare, we showed up with various signs that captured the attention of those who participated in the event. Signs denouncing the dismantling of public healthcare and the diversion of funds towards weapons and war missions, the long waiting lists and the need to organize ourselves to re-establish healthcare in Lombardy and Bergamo.

The gathering that CASP convened was an example for another committee, which arose during the pandemic, which decided to go and challenge and press the Democratic Party like us.

Finally, with CASP we have launched the help desk to support the popular masses in the bureaucratic procedures needed to reduce waiting lists (the length is often due to unconstitutional and illegal practices, thus favoring private healthcare).

At the same time, with respect to the politics faced with the PRC, after we learned that they would not be candidates, we tried to start a discussion aimed at collaboration to break into the electoral campaign even if they would not present any list, but without receiving positive responses.

For a more precise reconstruction, please refer to the interview for the Staffetta Rossa Press Agency with the federal secretary on 30 May.

The forces in play and the voting indications

In the administrative offices of Bergamo there is no anti-Large Cartel list. There will be three lists on the ballot paper: the PD list with its satellites and mock lists, also supported by Azione and AVS which will nominate Elena Carnevali as mayor; a center-right coalition between Lega, FdI and FI with Andrea Pezzotta; finally the M5S list with Vittorio Apicella.

In continuity with the work of Gori’s council, the PD pole and the parties that support the Meloni government are competing for the majority of votes on a program which however is common.

It has been so in recent years and has been so both at a local, regional and national level. A program made up of real estate speculation, agreements to carry out useless works, complicity in the dismantling of public healthcare, support for the Zionists of Israel and the sending of weapons to Ukraine. Beyond the good talk for the theater of bourgeois politics, the program is the same.

Given the conditions, the indications of P.Carc for the administrative offices of Bergamo are: abstain or cancel the card. In this situation, a significant increase in abstention would further delegitimize the parties of the Broad Ententes and would contribute to breaking “democratic” illusions and prejudices among the masses (the idea that, albeit with some distortions, we are in a democratic country, the idea that it is about influencing, improving and “making the institutions of the ruling class bend to the left).

Abstaining, however, does not mean passivity. We appeal to make 8 and 9 June days of mobilization for public health, in solidarity with the resistance and the Palestinian people, against the NATO wars, against the Meloni government and all the parties of the Broad Ententes, subjected to the USA and to the EU and complicit with the Zionists of Israel.

Let’s organize propaganda initiatives together in front of the polling stations such as flyers, banners, putting up posters and for those who go to vote, let’s go to the polls with the Palestinian flag and the keffiyeh.

As regards the European elections, please refer to the press release from the National Directorate which you can find at this link.