{"id":1002,"date":"2020-11-07T12:23:59","date_gmt":"2020-11-07T12:23:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.minorcompositions.info\/?p=1002"},"modified":"2026-03-17T18:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T18:26:09","slug":"the-magneti-marelli-workers-committee-the-red-guard-tells-its-story-milan-1975-78","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.minorcompositions.info\/?p=1002","title":{"rendered":"The Magneti Marelli Workers Committee"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script src=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/sdk\/js?client-id=BAAZVqDzpOe4wiR8CaLD_oJEvsW8k_r43j2m8f0nPZpK9MqpD3c_nCgZ1_fgqtEOiF3kkO3be21V5NnwRU&#038;components=hosted-buttons&#038;disable-funding=venmo&#038;currency=GBP\">\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Magneti Marelli Workers Committee \u2013 The \u201cRed Guard\u201d Tells Its Story (Milan, 1975-78)<br \/>\n<\/strong>Emilio Mentasti<\/p>\n<p>In a large factory in Milan in the mid-70s, a few dozen workers organized themselves against both the management and the unions in an autonomous Workers\u2019 Political Committee. Soon, this \u201cRed Guard\u201d consisted of hundreds of workers fighting against layoffs and relocation. The Committee did not stay shut up within the walls of the factory. It participated in numerous other struggles, such as strikes and demonstrations, which were raging across the whole of Italy. Crucially, it took part in attempts to unify the movement of workers\u2019 committees on a regional level. And it also participated in the radical struggle against inflation, where workers refused to pay ever increasing prices. This movement of <em>autoreduction<\/em>famously inspired Dario Fo\u2019s play <em>Can\u2019t Pay? Won\u2019t Pay! <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Magneti Marelli was not the only factory in Italy to create autonomous workers\u2019 organizations, but its Committee served as a reference for all the others because of its bold initiatives and its capacity to help workers in the surrounding smaller workplaces to benefit from its experience. Its exemplary fight was a vital part of the revolutionary struggle in Italy during the hot decade 1968-1979, and one that still contains important lessons for class struggle militants today.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bio: <\/strong>Emilio Mentasti is a historian who has published several books on the history and organization of the autonomous workers movement in Italy.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ordering Information<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"paypal-container-UHSBJMDTBP9BY\"><\/div>\n<p><script>\n  paypal.HostedButtons({\n    hostedButtonId: \"UHSBJMDTBP9BY\",\n  }).render(\"#paypal-container-UHSBJMDTBP9BY\")\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p>Official release to the book trade in May 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Available direct from Minor Compositions for the special price of \u00a310 + shipping.<\/p>\n<p>You can also download it here: <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/theredguardtellsitsstory\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"attachment noopener wp-att-1004\">The Magneti Marelli Workers Committee \u2013 The \u201cRed Guard\u201d Tells Its Story (Milan, 1975-78)<\/a><\/p>\n<p>184 pages,\u00a06 x 9<br \/>\nUK: \u00a318 \/ US: $24<br \/>\nISBN 978-1-57027-363-6<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Magneti Marelli Workers Committee \u2013 The \u201cRed Guard\u201d Tells Its Story (Milan, 1975-78) Emilio Mentasti In a large factory in Milan in the mid-70s, a few dozen workers organized themselves against both the management and the unions in an autonomous Workers\u2019 Political Committee. Soon, this \u201cRed Guard\u201d consisted of hundreds of workers fighting against [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mentasti"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.minorcompositions.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.minorcompositions.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.minorcompositions.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.minorcompositions.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.minorcompositions.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1002"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.minorcompositions.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1843,"href":"https:\/\/www.minorcompositions.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002\/revisions\/1843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.minorcompositions.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.minorcompositions.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.minorcompositions.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.minorcompositions.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}