Luciano Lama

"[On the referendum on the sliding wage scale] As an activist, I signed, but I am opposed to the CGIL taking a position on the referendum. I do not feel that this is a contradiction."

"On the Years of lead) Italy took a big risk during those years... the battle absorbed us completely. As a result, we were unable to see the rest with the necessary clarity."

"Whether it makes us smile or irritates us, political satire encourages us to look inside ourselves and, more generally, at what is happening in society. [...] In any case, even an ungenerous and disrespectful attack is better than any kind of censorship. We can defend ourselves against the former, but not the latter."

"[On the 1996 elections] I want to shout out here, from my bed, the simplest and most important lesson I have learned from my experience: never stop seeking solutions through agreement."

"(Speech delivered on 16 March 1978, during the general strike following the via Fani ambush) [...] But on this day of mourning, a dramatic moment in the life of our country, we must not allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by emotion. We must oppose inhuman violence with reason and a determined will not to bow to the blackmail of murderers, enemies of democracy and freedom in our country. There is talk of civil war. We have known such things, but in this case we are not faced with the struggle of one part, albeit small, of a people against another part. That is not the case. We are faced with a handful of professional terrorists who are attacking our institutions and our freedoms, we are faced with a small group of murderers who are attacking the institutions of Italian democracy; it is true, however, and we must take advantage of this circumstance to reflect on the reality that around this tiny band of ferocious criminals there is a certain layer of acquiescent, passive people who, if nothing else, are morally disengaged or even sympathise with the criminals, with the terrorists, or who stand by and watch. This is not the time to stand by and watch, friends in Rome. At this moment, in this trial, we cannot stand by passively in the face of the destruction that is being attempted against the institutions, democracy, freedom and fundamental values of civil coexistence that we have won through our struggle."

"Natta is not Berlinguer, as is only right. I appreciate him for his idea of a secular, non-dogmatic character, free from party schemes and sacred cows."

"He was terrified of divisions within the union. And he theorised autonomy from political parties. Now that political parties no longer exist, this may seem like a dated discussion, but it is not."

"(About the entry of Italy in the European Union) Who can forget ‘the line of sacrifice’? I have always thought that it was more disastrous for the movement than the historic compromise itself. It was suicide. Lama may not admit it, but that was a gift that Confindustria could not even have dreamed of."

"The talented and loyal communist secretary of the CGIL trade union, Luciano Lama, made a mistake when he tried to enter the University of Rome protected by his security detail on 17 February 1977, which inevitably looked like a foreign invasion. But it was not the extreme slogans of madness and violence shouted at him by the Roman Autonomists that defeated him. What defeated him, proving beyond doubt that he was the wrong man in the wrong place, was the slogan scrawled on the university walls by the metropolitan Indians: ‘The Lamas belong in Tibet’. It was not force that forced Lama to give up, but irony."

"Luciano Lama was secretary general of the CGIL trade union at a time when terrorism was a particularly aggressive cancer in Italian society. He had the merit and great courage – together with others – to take the CGIL against political violence and terrorism. He was a true moral authority in this country, a role that – ungenerously – was not fully recognised."

"Luciano Lama had a great mentor in Di Vittorio: accompanying him on his numerous trips, he got to know the reality of southern Italy and understood the importance of direct contact with the masses."

"For Luciano Lama, negotiation was at the heart of the trade unionist's job. Sometimes Carniti, then general secretary of the CISL, and I were more inclined to break off negotiations. He would say to us: ‘Breaking off is easy, rebuilding is much more complicated. We must always negotiate. Even if an entrepreneur comes to you and offers you your wife in exchange, as a trade unionist, you must reply: let's discuss it’. A paradox, of course."