ITALY: Creeping Toward The Compromise

For nearly a week, mounds of garbage piled up in Rome, disfiguring historic piazzas and reeking in the narrow streets. A wildcat strike of street cleaners and truck drivers called by right-wing unions showed no sign of letting up. Meanwhile, urgent administration pleas to send the strikers back to work had—as usual—no effect.

In a scenario becoming familiar to millions of Italians, the situation was saved largely by the Communists. Mobilizing neighborhood committees throughout the city and 80 Communist youth federation centers, the party called out 350 private trucks and 1,500 volunteers. In two days, an estimated 10,000 tons of garbage...