“National Union” and Class Struggle

The militarization of labor relations accompanied the declaration of war against Germany and Italy in 1942. While the consolidation of labor legislation offered workers glimpses of a welfare state, their daily lives continued to be marked by overexploitation, accidents, occupational diseases, high inflation, and rationing. Unions, in most cases controlled by government-appointed intervenors and closely monitored by the political police, were, at the beginning of the 1940s, totally ineffective at defending workers’ interests. However, although wartime legislation had defined them as auxiliary instruments for the mobilization of production, as they became involved in patriotic anti-Axis mobilization, many trade unions gradually began to express workers’ collective interests. Communist militants played a prominent role in this grassroots work and capitalized on the growing anti-fascist sentiment to win sympathy and followers. On the other hand, the strategy “National Union” often put the communists into conflict with strike movements that sought to take advantage of the more relaxed political environment to overcome wartime wage losses and fight to secure new rights. These contradictions came to a head in 1945 when, amid the democratization process, the country experienced a wave of large-scale strikes of which many were led by autonomous factory committees.