The Other Caste: a book on Italian unionism

While counting down the last day of the Italian elections, and so far 62.
5 percent of Italians having voted, it may be prudent to turn our attention to a different debate but one that will have importance in the future of the country, ever more pessimistic.

The word “caste” is not one we often associate with Italy, not being so informed of the country’s social history and noble ties.

But a recent book has been using “caste” with more laden political overtones.
After an investigative book by Rizzo and Stella in which the authors examined the term in revealing mechanisms of economics and power that perpetuate the privileges of class, a recent book is also using the term.

With the significant title of “The Other Caste”, Stefano Liviadotti, economic journalist for the Espresso, examines the workers’ unions of Italy.
In a period of profound crisis in union representation and the tussling of the three big unions (Cgil, Cisl e Uil), Liviadotti snoops around in the balance sheets of the organisations and the political ambitions of the leaders.
This is not only the formation of business deals, but also the development of a kind of bureaucratic caste that is always further from Italy’s reality, as is the political class.

Liviadotti’s book is the umpteenth nail in the coffin in an unmerciful analysis of the dramatic Italian situation in which the more or less powerful castes try to garner power, increasingly indifferent to what’s happening up and down the country.
In these election times, Italy is need of something more than the cynicism gripping the nation, but the book is another discomforting sign for the future prospects of Italy.