Can't Pay? Won't Pay!

[4] Regarded as Fo's best-known play internationally after Morte accidentale di un anarchico,[5] it had been performed in 35 countries by 1990.

[2] The play is written to criticize merchants and landlords responsible for raising the prices of necessary goods and rent, and the bosses who cut jobs, salaries, and benefits.

However, the "real political target of the play was the moderatism of the [Italian Communist Party] as represented by Antonia's husband, Giovanni."

At the time the play was written, its leader Enrico Berlinguer had launched a program of "historical compromise".

This meant that members were to follow a "policy of sacrifices" for the "national interest", reluctantly acceding to lower working-class living standards.

Rank-and-file Italian communists were critical of this policy, which gave no hope for their living standards to improve.

For example, not included in the English version is when Antonia tells Giovanni:[11]I'm fed up with your hot air... your speeches about responsibility about sacrifice...about the dignity of tightening your belt, about your pride about being working class!

But you can't see a thing because your eyes are tied up like you were playing blind man's buff...and you sit around like god knows what mouthing off your slogans"Additionally, as the play goes on, Giovanni's character grows more critical of the "policy of sacrifice" and the powerlessness he feels from them:[11]You can't just say to the bosses... "Excuse me, could you just move over there; we need a bit of breathing space.

Fo responded to these allegations, commenting:[11]It emerged during cross-examination that the prices fixed by the supermarkets were out-and-out robbery.