The Confederazione dei Comitati di Base (Cobas) is a

rank and file Rank and file may refer to: *A military term relating to the horizontal " ranks" (rows) and vertical " files" (columns) of individual foot-soldiers, exclusive of the officers *A term derived from the above used to refer to enlisted troops, as oppo ...

trade union center Organizers within trade unions have sought to increase the bargaining power of workers in regards to collective bargaining by acting in collaboration with other trade unions. Multi-union organizing can take place on an informal basis, or on a ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. It was formed in the late 1980s by members who were dissatisfied with the leadership of the three main Italian confederations (

CGIL The Italian General Confederation of Labour (, , CGIL ) is a national trade union centre in Italy. It was formed by an agreement between socialists, communists, and Christian democrats in the "Pact of Rome" of June 1944. In 1950, socialists and ...

, CISL and UIL). Many of its members see it as

syndicalist Syndicalism is a labour movement within society that, through industrial unionism, seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through strikes and other forms of direct action, with the eventual goal of gainin ...

, but it has also courted the

Trotskyist Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...

group, the

League for the Fifth International The League for the Fifth International (L5I) is an international grouping of revolutionary Trotskyist organisations around a common programme and perspectives. History L5I was founded in 1989 as the Movement for a Revolutionary Communist Inte ...

with whom it shared a platform at the anti-G8 protests in

Rostock Rostock (; Polabian language, Polabian: ''Roztoc''), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (), is the largest city in the German States of Germany, state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the sta ...

in 2007. Cobas regard themselves as

unions in contrast to the traditional, hierarchical unions that impose compromises on their members.Gall (1995) quotation: Comparable "rank and file" labor unions exist in France: the

Fédération Syndicale Unitaire The Fédération syndicale unitaire is the main trade union in the education sector in France and the largest trade union in the public sector The public sector, also called the state sector, is the part of the economy composed of both ...

(FSU), and the

Solidaires Unitaires Démocratiques The Union syndicale Solidaires, Solidaires or Solidaires Unitaires Démocratiques (SUD) is a French group of trade unions. Political position They tend to favor progressive or even radical views and work with the alter-globalization or anti ...

(SUD) and their confederation in the Group of 10.Gamble (2007) p.209

History

The factory councils became more and more popular during the 1970s, and their co-existence with the traditional unions increased unionization. In 1978, the mainstream unions recentralised power to prevent rank-and-file practices and rules outside of their control.Changing industrial relations in Europe By Anthony Ferner, Richard Hyman
1998) p.471

Notes

References

* Gall, Gregor (1995
''The Emergence of a Rank and File Movement: the Comitati di Base in the Italian Worker's Movement''
in '' Capital & Class'' *Gamble, Andrew (2007
''Labour, the state, social movements and the challenge of neo-liberal globalisation''
Manchester University Press *Wright, Steve (1999
''Radical Unions in Italy''
in ''Direct Action'' (journal of the

Industrial Workers of the World The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), whose members are nicknamed "Wobblies", is an international labor union founded in Chicago, United States in 1905. The nickname's origin is uncertain. Its ideology combines general unionism with indu ...

in Australia), #171, Summer 1999-2000.

External links

Official site
- Italian only

National trade union centers of Italy Trade unions established in the 1980s {{Italy-org-stub

History

Notes

References

Further reading

External links