![Sample our Politics & International Relations journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5947/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Politics-International-Relations.jpg"})
Abstract
The article retraces the steps which marked the transformation of Sesto San Giovanni to becoming one of the principal centres of Italian industry. The premises serve to better comprehend the case of Sesto San Giovanni. Its uniqueness lies, however, in being the outcome of action by a plurality of businesses which contributed to building the ‘factory city’. From 1905, their choice of setting up their plants caused a sudden increase in the population, which was followed by an equally sharp increase in the demand for lodgings and social infrastructures. The employers were forced to invest in building, at first with the intention of rapidly housing the workers, and then to proceed with a more rational planning of specific villages for the workforce. In the decades between the wars, Sesto San Giovanni was provided with a wide range of services in the fields of health care, schooling and even leisure. These policies permitted the creation of solid, close-knit company communities, founded on the intense participation of the workforce in the functioning of production activities. The social network, however, held together principally on the basis of the recognition of mutual obligations and responsibilities, rather than on mere subordination to paternalistic domination.
Notes
1. Garner, The Company Town.
2. For a more recent discussion of company towns, see Borges and Torres, Company Towns.
3. For a recent historical overview of paternalism from an international perspective, see: Bonin, Thomes, Old Paternalism; “Patronage, Paternalism, and Company Welfare;” Gueslin, Le Paternalisme “rivisité.” For a significant discussion on the nature of the paternalism: Price, “The Labour Process;” Joyce, “Labour, Capital,” 67–76; Price, “Conflict and Co-operation;” Joyce, “Languages of Reciprocity,” 225–31. The phenomenon of paternalism is further discussed in the studies of Tone, The Business of Benevolence; Mandel, The Corporation, and, arguing that corporate welfare has persisted over time, Jacoby, Modern Manners.
4. For a concise summary see: Benenati, “Cento anni;” Musso, Tra fabbrica e società, 43–8; Bigazzi, “Le permanenze.”
5. Darley, Villages of Vision; on the company as a “historical subject,” “governed primarily by affective logic and identity, based on faithful social relationships,” see Sapelli, Perché esistono, 120.
6. Frey, Le ville industrielle; Schneider et al., Les Schneider.
7. Sheare, “Shelter,” 19–27.
8. For a detailed overview of the various industrialisation processes in Italy and Europe, see Fontana, Le vie.
9. Crawford, Building the Workingman’s, 6.
10. “The system is seen as a family, with the patriarch as the central figure who defines business policy, including the rights of and the benefits for his workers, who depend on his goodwill, but without any legal claim,” (Bonin, “Issues Concerning,” 12).
11. Ibid., 14.
12. For an example – albeit an extreme one – see Guiotto, La fabbrica totale.
13. Trezzi, “Le opere sociali.”
14. Zahavi, Managers and Welfare.
15. Crawford, Building the Workingman, 45.
16. Ibid.
17. “The Company Towns;” Ciuffetti, Casa e lavoro; Nesti, I villaggi operai, 11–13.
18. Benenati, “Cento anni,” 71–5.
19. Carera, ed., Opere sociali. With regard to the importance of community, see Walsh and High, “Rethinking the Concept,” 255.
20. Bigazzi, “Le permanenze.”
21. Garner, “Company Towns,” 200.
22. Ibid., 201.
23. Melling, “The Company Town,” 685.
24. Ibid.
25. Fridenson, “Business History,” 19.
26. Davis, “Company Towns,” 119.
27. In the same period, in Italy, 3,730,000 people were employed in manufacturing. See Carreras, “Un ritratto,” 255.
28. Ciuffetti, “I villaggi.”
29. Doty, “The Italian Detroit;” Berta, “Torino: una company,” 9–22.
30. Morin, Beretta: the World's.
31. In order to evaluate the companies’ geographical distribution, their registered or main office has been taken into account since the source used does not supply adequate information on the location of the individual production units. Regional distribution can be broken down, albeit approximately, as follows: Lombardy 37 companies, 138,963 workers; Piedmont seven companies and 60,430 workers; Veneto seven companies and 15,492 workers; Liguria five companies and 15,492 workers; Emilia Romagna two companies and 1,150 workers; Tuscany two companies and 1100 workers; Friuli Venezia Giulia one company and 3911 workers; Umbria one company and 13,000 workers.
32. Villaggi operai, 130.
33. Simoni, Oltre la strada.
34. Fontana, “Formazione ed evoluzione.”
35. Fontana, “Dar casa agli operai,” 21.
36. Merlo, Proletariato di fabbrica; Musso, Gli operai.
37. For a discussion on enterprise communities, see Amatori and Colli, eds., Comunità di imprese.
38. For a recent historiographical overview, see Ciuffetti and Parisi, L’archeologia industriale.
39. Minesso, Welfare e minori.
40. Ciuffetti, “Le colonie marine.”
41. Raspadori, “Le opere sociali;” Martinelli, “Le politiche sociali.”
42. Ciuffetti, La città industriale.
43. With regard to the importance of the organisation of production in relation to the paternalistic approach, see Sapelli, Organizzazione del lavoro.
44. Varini, L’opera condivisa.
45. Sesto San Giovanni is situated in the immediate vicinity of Milan, with local and international rail links and easy access to labour from Lombardy’s nearby Alpine areas, especially those with a major steelmaking tradition; Pavese, “I caratteri originali;” Varini, “The Steel Industry.”
46. Trezzi, Sesto San Giovanni.
47. On the leading role of Falck, Marelli and Breda, see Amatori, “Entrepreneurial Typologies,” 151–80.
48. Carera, I confini dello sviluppo; Colli, “Cent’anni.”
49. Petrillo, La città delle fabbriche; Greco, Costruzione e trasformazione.
50. In addition to its main site in Sesto San Giovanni, consisting of four plants, Falck expanded to other mountain locations. The main ones included Vobarno, Dongo and Arcore in Lombardy and in the city of Bolzano; Frumento, Imprese lombarde; Bonelli, Acciaio per l’industrializzazione.
51. Breda concentrated its production of railway material, mechanical engineering, steel and aircraft in Sesto San Giovanni. It had other factories in Brescia and Rome, and a shipyard near Venice; La Breda.
52. Varini, “La genesi dell’impresa.”
53. Cenciarini and Licini, Magneti Marelli.
54. Sudati, Tutti i dialetti, 56–67.
55. Ibid., 152–3.
56. For an analysis of the lack of hygiene and the demand for housing during the 1910s, see Luigi Trezzi, “La società,” 156, 164–8.
57. In a letter sent in 1923 to the municipal authority, the general manager of Falck complained that “our initiative involving setting up and promoting social security for our staff … is virtually isolated.” Cited in Sudati, Tutti i dialetti, 193.
58. Research conducted on Ercole and Magneti staff shows how, from the years following the First World War onwards, the adoption of Taylorism was accompanied by the stabilisation of labour in order to counter high levels of staff turnover; Licini, “Operai e operaie.”
59. Unfortunately the workers’ voices are sporadic. It has been very difficult to find evidence of the workers’ judgement on the welfare company, above all due to the scarcity of sources.
60. Umberto Quintavalle, manager at Magneti Marelli, had the following to say on the subject: “The combination of welfare, humanitarian and recreational provisions that we have created and which are extended every day cost us extremely dear in terms of monetary sacrifices … for the legitimate moral satisfaction of creating good for our employees … as they are partly repaid by greater loyalty and productivity on the part of our workers.” (Quintavalle, “Le possibilità pratiche,” 24; Quintavalle, “Gli aspetti nazionali,” 288).
61. Trezzi, “La convergenza verso,” 125–6.
62. Ibid.
63. Alasia, La vita, 83–4.
64. At the beginning of twentieth century, Breda bought a farmhouse, Cascina Torretta, and Falck later bought Cascina Parpargliona and Cascina Rabina; Sudati, Tutti i dialetti, 183.
65. Fiorillo, “Il villaggio Falck.”
66. The first Falck village, built in the 1920s, completed the supply of houses already built in previous years (57 blocks of flats housing 483 families). The village project included “a school building, a gym, a church, bathrooms and showers, washhouses, an ambulance, grocery and general goods stores”, as well as “vegetable gardens.” The houses were small and made up of “two flats, with one, two or more bedrooms respectively”, making a total of “around forty blocks of flats, with over 70 detached houses grouped together and around 1,000 liveable rooms” (Società anonima Acciaierie e Ferriere Lombarde, Le provvidenze sociali, 6).
67. Information about the founder, Giorgio Enrico Falck, comes from the Archivio Falck (Falck Archives, hereafter AF), Minutes from the Board of Directors meetings, 15 January 1948. For information about his first son, Enrico, see the various writings collected in Falck, Scritti politici. For information about the last successor, Alberto Falck, see Il punto è.
68. On the high level of labour turnover, see Suffia, “Il caso della forza” and Licini, “Operai e operaie.”
69. Sudati, Tutti i dialetti, 232.
70. “Well, the ones who lived in the Falck village were all children of people who worked for Falck because at that time only women who worked for Falck could come and live there, like those, there was the Breda village, the Marelli village, each large company had this village ... Falck to put its employees, some of its employees, because Falck had one in Brugherio too, a Falck village, not just there, well, it had a village in Arcore for the factory workers;” “Raccolta di testimonianze operaie sulle dismissioni delle grandi fabbriche a Sesto San Giovanni,” available at http://www.fondazioneisec.it [Accessed 29 July 2015].
71. Le Acciaierie e Ferriere, 6.
72. Trezzi, “La convergenza,” 135.
73. In the 1930s, large companies came to control almost half the rented accommodation market of Sesto San Giovanni. Abbiati and Franceschini, “Settore edilizio.”
74. Sudati, Tutti i dialetti, 186–7.
75. For a discussion of the potentially paternalistic use of the houses built for the workers, i.e., their misuse as a means of worker/tenant control, see Consonni and Tonon, “La terra degli ossimori,” 129–33. Nevertheless, there is a lack of specific research concerning the housing policies applied by Falck and Breda that can corroborate these theories.
76. With regard to the precarious housing conditions, especially for those who were not employed by large companies, see Sudati, Tutti i dialetti, 189–210.
77. In 1960, Falck managed 7257 rooms. For a report on building by Falck for its own workers, see “1 vano ogni 2 dipendenti,” La Ferriera (July 1960), 1–10.
78. Trezzi, “Lo sviluppo della società,” 175.
79. AF, VCA, 28 February 1924; 24 September 1935; ASM Gab. Pref., II, sc. 374, Relazione sul programma di costruzione.
80. Case per i lavoratori, La Ferriera (December 1954).
81. In addition to residences, Falck made over 100 hectares of irrigated land available to “workers’ families” for the growing of “cereals and vegetables for their own consumption. They consist in approximately three hundred vegetable plots and constitute a benefit that is highly appreciated by those who use them” (Società anonima Acciaierie e Ferriere Lombarde, Le provvidenze, 6.)
82. Actions of entrepreneurs to meet the ever-growing housing demand was advocated by local authorities in the early 1920s, appealing to their “sense of civil responsibility;” see Municipality of Sesto San Giovanni, Relazione del R. Commissario, 8.
83. La Società Italiana Ernesto Breda.
84. For an examination of the low level of union conflicts found in Sesto San Giovanni in comparison with other areas with strong industrial settlement until the beginning of the 1920s see Longoni, “La nascita e l’affermazione.”
85. Nurra, “Un nuovo grande quartiere.”
86. Howard, Garden Cities.
87. Sudati, Tutti i dialetti, 187–93.
88. Trezzi, “Verso una più avanzata,” 96–7.
89. Regarding building activity, see Municipality of Sesto San Giovanni, Sesto San Giovanni.
90. At Ercole Marelli “the principle of order and wise organisation … (fostered) the worker’s health and prevention of accidents in the workplace;” see “L’Officina E. Marelli di Sesto San Giovanni,” La Tecnica d’officina, 31 July 1912.
91. Willson, La fabbrica orologio, 158.
92. The number of women receiving assistance in the period from 1927 to 1933 was 160, with 22,050 medicals, the distribution of powdered milk and clothing; see “L’inaugurazione del Nido Magneti Marelli,” Sprazzi e bagliori 10 (1933), 54.
93. Crespi, Capitale operaia.
94. Safety at work became the cause of bitter conflicts with the unions, especially in the 1950s and 1960s. See Patanè, “Prevenzione e infortune.”
95. Initially, the companies examined here limited their support to financing the school funded at the turn of the last century by “Società Operai di M.s di Sesto San Giovanni” and built proper company schools only later. Istituto per la storia dell’età contemporanea (Isec), Fondo Società di M.S. di Sesto, signature 4, Consorzio per l’insegnamento … Scuola di disegno della Società operaia di m.s.
96. ASB, Feb., signature 971, fasc. 1935, Fondazione Ernesto Breda, Relazione e conto consuntivo anno 1931.
97. Varini, L’opera condivisa.
98. ASB, Feb., signature 831, fasc. 1763, Opere di assistenza sociale.
99. Ercole Marelli established its own vocational school which in the 1930s saw student numbers increase from 152 in 1932 to 1500 in 1939, while Magneti in 1924 established a “factory-school” (scuola officina) for its employees which in the early 1930s had around 100 students (“In casa nostra,” Sprazzi e bagliori, no. 4 (1933); “La scuola interna alla F.I.M.M. in visita alla Fiat,” Sprazzi e bagliori, no. 2 (1934); “Preparazione delle maestranza,” Sprazzi e bagliori, no. 4 (1941).
100. Isec, fondo Società di mutuo soccorso di Sesto San Giovanni, signature 4, fasc. 4, Notizie statistiche. Anni vari.
101. Trezzi, “Verso una più,” 104.
102. Evidence collected in Ganapini, ed., “… Che tempi.”
103. Award ceremonies were one of the most celebrated occasions for companies. See in particular the annual celebrations at Falck described in the in-house magazine La Ferriera.
104. Trezzi, “Lo sviluppo della società,” 57.
105. Ibid.
106. Opera Balilla, Refezione scolastica.
107. Grazia, Consenso e cultura. For Sesto San Giovanni see Minella, “L’opera nazionale.”
108. For an overview of the workers’ club at Magneti Marelli see “Venti’anni di lavoro alla Fabbrica italiana Magneti Marelli,” Sprazzi e bagliori 1 (1937). Information for Falck in AF, Verbale assemblea dei soci (Vas), 23 April 1941, 17 April 1942. For Breda, see La società italiana Ernesto Breda.
109. Rifranti, “Una città industriale,” 514–9.
110. An example can be found in Pasquale Densi, who was responsible for the workers’ club at Marelli and never joined the Fascist Party, later accused of anti-Fascist activities. Similar opposition to the Fascist regime as far as the management of the enterprise was concerned could be found also at Falck, where the founder’s sons were also arrested in 1943 for anti-Fascism; see Manzini, Una vita operaia.
111. “Glorifichiamo l’uomo.” Sesto lavoratrice, 11 November 1911. Similar views were expressed at the death of Ercole Marelli as can be seen in La voce di Sesto, 2 September 1922.
112. The letters sent to the workers’ club repeatedly referred to “our great company” and acknowledged “the commendable assistance given to relatives in need.” See “Lettere al Dopolavoro della Ercole Martelli.” Annali 2: Studi e strumenti di storia metropolitana milanese (1993), 243–56.
113. Isec, Fondo Rossinovich (Ercole Marelli), Partito Comunista Italiano … Il lavoro del partito alla Ercole Marelli di Sesto S. G. per l’unità della classe operaia.
114. Investigations carried out by the prefecture in Milan highlighted episodes of dissent towards the decisions taken by the company management, especially during the deep economic crisis that started at the end of the 1920s. Nevertheless, these episodes were only few, mainly directed against the Fascist regime or complaints due to incidental situations. Archivio di Stato di Milano (Milan State Archives) ASM, Gabinetto di Prefettura, signatures 337, 342, 345, 357, 963, 1051, 1123.
115. “L’attività del Dopolavoro nell’anno XII,” in Sprazzi e bagliori 1 (1935).
116. For Falck, see the in-house publication La Ferriera, and for Breda, Notiziario Breda.
117. Willson, La fabbrica orologio, 112, 160.
118. “Workers and production managers are considered to be responsible for the good quality of the production … due to their experience and the competence they have acquired,” (Vannucci, “La qualità nella produzione,” 29).
119. Varini, L’opera condivisa, 130–1; Viani, “Il lavoro operaio.”
120. In Sesto San Giovanni, Falck was divided into four plants, according to the different production lines called Unione, Concordia, Vittoria and Vulcano.
121. Manzini, Una vita operaia, 21.
122. AF, from the records of the Board of Directors’ meetings, February 1947.
123. Manzini, Una vita operaia.
124. For the industrial organisation of post-war production see Varini, L’opera condivisa, and for specific referements to the ERP see Varini, “Technology and Productivity.”
125. Information on union disputes during the post-war years see Vimercati, “Storia sindacale;” Cingoli, “Fra cogestione;” Pozzobon, Mari, “Le Afl Falck;” Ganapini, Una città, la guerra.
126. In the reconstruction years, Breda saw a strong personnel reduction, from 15,872 in 1949 to 8,733 in 1952 (Varini, L’opera condivisa).
127. Trezzi, “Verso una più avanzata frontiera,” 81–4.
128. See various references contained in the minutes of the Board of Directors’ meetings held at Falck during the 1950s and even more so with the occurrence of the economic crisis at the start of the 1960s. AF, Minutes of the Board of Directors’ meetings.
129. Varini, “La metamorfosi industrial.”
130. AF, Balance sheet 1963.
131. Varini, “La metamorfosi industriale.”
132. Data on the number of tenants were approximate, as company sources did not always distinguish between the various factories located throughout Italy.
133. Varini, “Un welfare composito,” 121–69.
134. Over the years the whole system of companies was transferred to the town council; in particular the sports and recreational facilities were taken over by associations in the private sector or institutions in the public sector (ibid.).
135. Many photographs of these ceremonies appeared in the company’s in-house magazine La Ferriera during the years under consideration.
136. “Corsi speciali di addestramento sulle relazioni umane nell’impresa,” La Ferriera (December 1954), 8.
137. “The company is an organism that takes the form of a human community … for which everyone assumes a responsibility, precisely so that this community can fulfil a purpose that transcends that of the company”; “Concluso con successo a Sesto il corso unico UCID per i capi maestranza,” La ferriera (November 1960), 11.
138. On the Falck dynasty, see James, Family Capitalism.
139. Concerning the “scientific” management of the welfare initiatives at Magneti Marelli, see Bigazzi, “Le permanenze del paternalismo,” 50.
140. “We, however, concern ourselves, what is more, with endearing him to and having him play an active role in our organisation through appropriate social assistance measures … not as empty philanthropy, nor as empty charity, but as a means of improving the worker’s performance;” Quintavalle, “Le possibilità,” 7.
141. Benni, “L’assistenza ai lavoratori,” 43; Benni oltre alla carica di amministratore, fu negli anni Trenta presidente della Confindustria e Ministro delle Comunicazioni (Cannistraro, “Benni,” 67).
142. Sprazzi e bagliori 7 (1927), 11; for a more in-depth analysis see Willson, “The Golden Factory.”
143. “Our big Marelli family … I know that our Marelli organised, with his traditional magnanimity, a commendable service of assistance for the needy families of those called to service in the armed forces and that many families already periodically receive aid and benefits” (Guerrini and Pluviano, “La nostra bella,” 248).
144. For an interesting comparison, see Yacob, “Model of Welfare Capitalism?”, where the author affirms: “the paternalistic practices of welfare capitalism … were mutually complementary to both employers and employees” (ibid., 139).
145. The compliance "is a more useful conceptual tool in explaining the welfare contract between capital and labour than the model of industrial paternalism" (Barry and Melling, "The Problem of Culture,” 18).
146. For a perspective on this collaboration, see Hecksher and Adler, The Firm as Collaborative.
147. Bigazzi, “Le permanenze del paternalismo,” 63.
148. Scranton, Endless Novelty; Scranton, “Varieties of Paternalism,” 235–57.
149. The evidence collected from factory representatives at Magneti Marelli contained repeated references to “solidarity and … mutual respect among co-workers, moral support and teaching.” This is significant as it confirms the importance of shared values. Professional capabilities were the basis of relationships at work, which were comparable to those of a large family; see Ganapini, ed., “… che tempi”.
150. On the growth of the Welfare State in Italy, see Battilani and Fauri, Consumare il Welfare.