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Giorgio Benvenuto

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Person.png Giorgio Benvenuto   TwitterRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
politician,  labour leader)
Giorgio Benvenuto.jpg
Born8 December 1937
Nationality Italian
PartyItalian Socialist Party, Democratic Alliance (Italy), Democrats of the Left
Italian trade unionist and politician, attended the 1980 Bilderberg as general secretary of one of the largest Italian trade union centers. Opponent of Soviet gas pipeline to EU.

Employment.png Italian Senator

In office
28 April 2006 - 28 April 2008

Giorgio Benvenuto is an Italian retired trade unionist and politician. He was general secretary of Italian Labour Union (UIL),[1] one of the largest Italian trade union centers from 1976 to 1992.[2] He attended the 1980 Bilderberg meeting, then became Chairman of the National Council for Economics and Labour (CNEL), a constitutional assembly of experts that advises the Italian government. Of possible relevance for his attendance at the April 1980 Bilderberg meeting was that he in August 1980 opposed a Soviet gas pipeline to the EU, a cancellation much supported by the US deep state.

He was general secretary of Italian Socialist Party (PSI) succeeding Bettino Craxi in 1993.

Background

Benvenuto was born in Gaeta, where his father served as officer of |Navy. Soon afterwards his father was transferred to Pula. In 1943 the family went on holiday to their maternal grandparents in Chieti and never returned to Istria where they lost their home and all property. After the armistice on September 8, the father went underground, finally managing to cross the front. After the liberation of Chieti, Giorgio Benvenuto and the family joined their father in Messina where they lived from 1945 to 1947.

Career

He joined the Italian Labour Union (UIL) on 1 October 1955 where he held operational positions in the confederation and metalworkers' union. He was secretary general of the Italian Union of Metalworkers (UILM) from 1969 to 1976 and founded the Metalworkers Federation (FLM) with Pierre Carniti and Bruno Trentin in 1972.

In 1976, succeeding Raffaele Vanni, he was elected Secretary General of the UIL where he remained until 1992, when was appointed Secretary General of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. According to a CIA report, "his election helped the Socialist challenge communist predominance in the labor movement".[3] He was part of an government-aided effort against support for the Red Brigades in labor unions, Benvenuto himself "dedicating a good part of his time studying documents, periodicals and pamphlets of the Red Brigades and associated organizations".[4]

A 1980 US analysis said that:

[On July 28, the United Federation comprising the communist-dominated CGIL, the Catholic oriented CISL and thesocialist/lay UIL, issued a statement which urged the government to intensify efforts to complete the Italian contribution to the Soviet gas pipeline construction. Barely a month later, August 29, UIL Secretary General Giorgio Benvenuto repudiated the statement by calling on Italy and the rest of Europe to "re-examine" the Soviet gas pipeline question in light of the latest developments in Poland. He stated that "we cannot award money at an interest rate which is generally only given to third world countries to a nation like the USSR which most probably will use it to overcome its own internal difficulties to turn even more tightly the screw of repression…" Benvenuto said that continued adherence to the pipeline contract should be contingent upon two "essential conditions": (l) that facilitative credit should not be given to the Soviet Union and; (2) that the Soviets provide "precise guarantees" regarding the future of Lech Walesa, Solidarity, and Poland in general. While calling for a tougher line on the contract, Benvenuto did not speak out against the imminent delivery of Italian turbines to the Soviet Union for a pipeline pumping station.[5]

He was vice president of the European Metalworkers Federation (1971–1976) and vice president of the European Trade Union Confederation (1978–1981; 1987–1990). He was a member of the National Council for Economics and Labour (CNEL) from 1981 to 1991.

On 14 February 1993 Benvenuto was elected Secretary of the Italian Socialist Party, succeeding Bettino Craxi. He held office for 100 days, until May of the same year, trying, unsuccessfully, to dismiss the people investigated from political positions in the PSI at the time of Tangentopoli.

After leaving the Socialist Party, he was one of the founders of the Democratic Alliance together with Giorgio Bogi, Ferdinando Adornato and Willer Bordon. On the occasion of the 1996 general election, he joined with the Democratic Alliance the project of the Democratic Union of Antonio Maccanico, member of The Olive Tree coalition, and was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in the Turin-Mirafiori constituency .

In early 1998 he joined the Democrats of the Left, subsequently, he was President of the National Directorate of DS as coordinator of the Reformers Movement for Europe, which was one of the founding components of the DS. In 2001 he was re-elected MP in the same constituency as the previous election.

He was also a senator from 2006 to 2008. In 2007 he participated in the constitutive act of the Democratic Party in Florence on the occasion of the States General of the Left.


 

Event Participated in

EventStartEndLocation(s)Description
Bilderberg/198018 April 198020 April 1980Germany
Aachen
The 28th Bilderberg, held in West Germany, unusually exposed by the Daily Mirror
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References

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