Last Saturday (9 October), hundreds of fascists attacked and vandalised the premises of the national headquarters of the CGIL (Italian General Confederation of Labour) in Rome.

They did so during a demonstration against the so-called green pass (indicating one’s COVID-19 vaccine status), which the government imposed as mandatory in all workplaces on 15 October.

This measure is unleashing anger among a section of the workers (though not the majority), and especially from the petty bourgeoisie and the lumpenproletariat. This confused rage has opened up a certain political space for the right and the extreme right.

The fascists who assaulted the CGIL HQ were granted total impunity by the police, who stood idly by and watched for some time before intervening. The working class reacted immediately to this provocation, with demonstrations and sit-in of thousands of people the next day in front of CGIL offices throughout Italy, and with a planned demonstration on Saturday 16 October in Rome, which promises to be massive.

A new scenario of intensified class struggle is opening up in Italy.

In this talk at the International Marxist Tendency’s 2021 World Congress, Fred Weston defends the philosophy of Marxism against all the reactionary and counter-revolutionary trends assailed against it: particularly the recent vogue of ‘postmodernism’.