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{{short description|1969–70 strikes in Northern Italy}}
[[File:Sciopero operai Pirelli fuori dalla fabbrica, Milano 1969.jpg|thumb|Pirelli workers protesting in [[Milan]]]]
{{Communism in Italy|expanded=History}}
{{Campaignbox Years of Lead (Italy)}}
[[File:Autunno Caldo a Torino.jpg|thumb]]
[[File:Bergamo, Autunno Caldo 1968-1969.jpg|thumb]]

The '''Hot Autumn''' ({{langx|it|Autunno caldo}}) of 1969–70 is a term used for a series of large [[Strike action|strikes]] in the factories and industrial centers of [[Northern Italy]], in which workers demanded better pay and better conditions. During 1969 and 1970 there were over 440 hours of strikes in the region. The decrease in the flow of labour [[Human migration|migration]] from [[Southern Italy]] had resulted in nearly [[full employment]] levels in the northern part of the country, meaning that the workforce there now had the leverage to start exercising its influence.

==Overview==
Due to increased literacy levels in general and especially among workers, following a wave of student protests influenced by similar events in [[May 1968 events in France|May 1968 in France]], leftist students started agitating for social reforms and increased [[class consciousness]]. Workers joined in on these protests and began to demand increased wages. Many of them were being laid off because of increased efficiencies in factories. Not all of the workers' demands for [[Workers' self-management|collective control]] came about, but more basic demands such as a [[40-hour work week]] and increased pay were achieved.<ref>''A History of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics, 1943–1988'' by Paul Ginsborg</ref>{{page needed|date=October 2015}}

The reasons for discontent varied - while the usual demands for better pay and working conditions were a factor, the tensions were also increased by the fact that much of the workforce had migrated from the much poorer [[Southern Italy|South]]. They were generally unhappy at the society that had forced them to leave their homes in search of work, and wanted to get back at the employers who, in their view, had been exploiting them with lower than average wages for so many years.

The phrase ''autunno caldo'' has since been applied in the [[Italy|Italian]] press to describe other periods marked by significant strikes, although in later decades such seasonal strikes have more often been directed against the government's budget plans, which are usually planned and publicly debated during the autumn months.

==Origins==
{{main|1968 movement in Italy}}
The period known as the "Hot Autumn" in Italy began in the summer of 1968, which saw a series of strikes as workers demanded a flat-rate pay rise.<ref name="edwards">{{cite book |last=Edwards |first=Phil |title=More Work! Less Pay!: Rebellion and repression in Italy, 1972–77 |publisher=[[Manchester University Press]] |location=Manchester, UK / New York |date=2009 |pages=5–31 |jstor=j.ctt155j63v.8 |isbn=9780719078736}}</ref> The unrest that lasted from 1966 to 1972 began in the universities. These student movements set a precedent with their use of disruptive forms of protest which included strikes, demonstrations, and occupation of university buildings.<ref name="edwards"/> Students formed assemblies where the assembly was not only a mass meeting, but a body that made binding decisions. This student movement eventually shifted from university issues and moved toward industrial struggles. Examples of the shift to industrial struggles can be seen through the protests that occurred in the car factories of Turin in 1969.<ref name="JSTOR">{{cite journal |last=Pizzolato |first=Nicola |title='I Terroni in Città': Revisiting Southern Migrants' Militancy in Turin's 'Hot Autumn' |journal=Contemporary European History |date=2012 |volume=21 |issue=4 |pages=619–634 |jstor=23270688 |doi=10.1017/S0960777312000409 |s2cid=3858924 |url=https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/10657/1/Pizzolato_Terroni_in_citta.pdf |access-date=2019-08-20 |archive-date=2022-03-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220328120302/https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/10657/1/Pizzolato_Terroni_in_citta.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref> 

Turin was the center of FIAT factories, and became the focus of continual [[Wildcat strike action|wildcat strikes]].<ref name="JSTOR"/> Workers were supported by university students of the New Left, and demanded wage increases and the same conditions as [[white-collar worker]]s within the company. The protests were also a scene of major violence as some protests drew the hostility of the police. A strike against high rents outside the factory gates in Corso Traiano was attacked by the police and incidents like this led to a running battle with the police.<ref name="edwards"/> 

These protests were also influenced by the PCI, and often changed from [[Leninist]] to [[autonomist]] and ''[[operaismo|operaista]]'' or from parties to activist networks.<ref name="mohandesi">{{cite book |last=Mohandesi |first=Salar |title=Voices of 1968: Documents from the Global North |publisher=Pluto Press |location=London |date=2018 |pages=204–226 |jstor=j.ctv69tg98.12 |isbn=9780745338088}}</ref> The "Hot Autumn" was followed by the "[[Years of Lead (Italy)|Years of Lead]]", which was a period of far-right and far-left violence including bombings, shootings and kidnappings.<ref name="mohandesi"/>

==Context==
{{main|History of the Italian Republic}}
The Hot Autumn occurred at a time of major weakness within the Italian government. The [[Christian Democracy (Italy)|Christian Democracy]] had been in office for 20 years. During the latter stages of that time period, there was an overall degeneration, as people looked to vote for politicians who could give them favors, as the party could not be voted out.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Jenkins |first=Charles |title=Ready for a New Republic in Italy? |journal=The World Today |date=1995 |volume=51 |issue=12 |pages=238–242 |ref=JSTOR |jstor=40396673}}</ref> This overall clientelism within the Italian government led to both corruption and ineffective governance. The issues of the "Hot Autumn" can also be tied to the Confederazione Italiana dei Sindacati Lavoratori ([[Italian Confederation of Workers' Trade Unions]], or CISL). The CISL was based on two principles, which were the importance of firm-level union activity, and the professionalization of union activists.<ref>{{cite book |last=Locke |first=Richard |title=Remaking the Italian Economy |chapter=Building a "Mature" System of Industrial Relations |publisher=[[Cornell University Press]] |location=London |date=1995 |pages=68–102 |jstor=10.7591/j.ctv5rf53c.6 |isbn=9780801428913}}</ref> 

By the 1970s and 1980s, it can be seen that the CISL was a bureaucratic and politicized organization. It was tied to factions of the Christian Democratic Party, where the passing of favors was how the Italian government was run. Economic problems also surrounded the formation and fallout of the "Hot Autumn" period. In the six years following 1969 there was a massive redistribution of income, and the share of GNP accruing to dependent labor went from 57 to 73 percent.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Carli |first=Guido |title=Italy's Malaise |journal=Foreign Affairs |date=1976 |volume=54 |issue=4 |pages=708–718 |jstor=20039608 |doi=10.2307/20039608}}</ref> Redistributing that income led to increased consumption and reduced savings and this was a problem already in debt. The "Hot Autumn" protests started at the university, but their transition to the industrial stage pointed out the weak governance of the first republic, for economic policies were ineffective and sparked many of the frustrations of the blue-collar working class.

==See also==
* [[Years of Lead (Italy)|Years of Lead]]
* [[Workerism]]
* [[Autonomism]]
* [[Lotta Continua]]
* [[Potere Operaio]]
* [[Luisa Passerini|Autobiography of a generation, Luisa Passerini]]

'''Similar periods in other countries around the same time:'''
* The [[long hot summer of 1967]] in the United States
* [[Protests of 1968]]
** The [[May 1968 events in France]]
* The [[Winter of Discontent]] in 1978–79 in the United Kingdom
* [[Außerparlamentarische Opposition]] and [[German student movement]] in [[West Germany]]
** see also [[Red Army Faction#Background|Red Army Faction]]
** [[German Autumn]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://libcom.org/gallery/photo-gallery-hot-autumn-italy-1969 Italy Hot Autumn Photo Gallery]
* [http://libcom.org/tags/italy-60s-70s Italy 60s-70s collection at the Libertarian Communist Library]
* [https://www.academia.edu/16252188/_Hot_Autumn_Italy_s_Factory_Councils_and_Autonomous_Workers_Assemblies_1970s “Hot Autumn” Italy’s Factory Councils and Autonomous Workers’ Assemblies, 1970s]
{{1968 protests}}
[[Category:20th century in Italy]]
[[Category:Labor disputes in Italy]]
[[Category:1969 in Italy]]
[[Category:1970 in Italy]]
[[Category:Years of Lead (Italy)]]
[[Category:Protests in Italy]]
[[Category:1969 labor disputes and strikes]]
[[Category:1970 labor disputes and strikes]]
[[Category:Politics of Italy]]
[[Category:Communism in Italy]]