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CISL - Confederation of Italian Workers' Trade Unions

CISL Confederazione Italiana Sindacati Lavoratori

by Jaume Ollé, 27 March 2005

Overview
Historical Flag
Regional Flags
- Lombardy
- Brescia
Federations Flags

See also:

Overview

Today's NY Times reports a demonstration of Italian Unions. Accompanying the article is a photo of a crowd in Rome, brandishing a zebra-striped flag whose significance is unknown to me.
Albert S Kirsch, 29 March 2002

I found a better photograph of the same demonstration in The Economist (20 April, page 47). The detail makes clear that the "zebra-striped" flag is in fact green and white, with a logo providing a red stripe as well; one version seems to have a flower on it.
Albert S Kirsch, 23 April 2002

I found <www.cisl.it> , the site of the Confederazione Italiana Sindacati Lavoratori, which I take to mean "Confederation of Italian Workers' Syndicates." The home page has the flag shown on it, apparently 13 stripes as follows: V-W-R-W-V-W-V-W-V-W-V-W-V and a white canton extending over the first four stripes, and the letters CISL in red on the canton, the L extending to form the red stripe. There also seems to be some kind of red device next between the hoist and the C.
Joe McMillan, 23 April 2002

I think the correct translation of italian "sindacato" (or perhaps "sindicato"?) is rather "trade union". The english cognate "syndicate" usually meaning "criminal association".
Anto'nio Martins, 6 May 2002

Actually, the English word syndicate does not primarily mean a criminal association, although that is a secondary meaning. The primary meaning is a group of people combining for a common purpose. Probably the most common use in American English is in referring to the groupings of newspapers that share the distribution of certain features such as cartoons, opinion columns, horoscopes, advice columns, and so on. Since today's the Monday after the Kentucky Derby, it comes to mind that thoroughbreds are also often owned by syndicates.
Many scholars writing in English translate sindacato/sindicato/syndicat and cognate forms with "syndicate" while others, referring to the same organizations, use "union." Provided that there is no difference in Italian practice between a "sindacato" and a "unione," I would have no quarrel with rendering CISL as Confederation of Italian Labor Unions, "labor" obviously being preferable to "trade" as a translation of "lavori."
And the CISL website spells the word "sindacati," so I assume that is correct in Italian. When I typed the original message, it seemed wrong to me, too.
Joe McMillan, 6 May 2002

It's right, according to my Italian dictionary. The word is derived from "syndicus", a Late Latin word (of Greek origin!) meaning some kind of city official. It comes to English from old French. Note also that "syndicalism" is a political movement advocating control of industry by labor unions (syndicates).
Al Kirsch, 6 May 2002

It's from Greek "sundikadzoo" = to judge together, co-judge, hence "sundikaste's" - co-judge; regular readers of Euripides, Platoon, Lysias and Aristoteles may recognize it...
Jarig Bakker, 6 May 2002