Nearly a million workers across Italy staged a massive general strike, transforming city squares from Val d’Aosta to Sicily into seas of protest against their government’s complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The action coincided with the World Federation of Trade Unions’ call for a “Global Week of Action” in solidarity with Palestine as well as several Western governments officially recognizing the State of Palestine.
The country ground to a standstill on Sept. 22 as a wave of walkouts and blockades, much of it organized by the rank-and-file union Unione Sindacale di Base (USB), a WFTU affiliate, in over 80 cities, shut down ports, train stations, factories, schools, and major highways. The message from the Italian working class was clear and unequivocal: “We are not complicit.”
The call to action came from the docks of Genoa, where workers declared, “Let’s block everything.” And block everything they did. The ports of Genoa and Livorno were paralyzed, logistics hubs froze, and local transport was halted.
In Rome, a crowd of 300,000 protesters occupied the city’s main railway hub, Termini, before marching through the streets, waving Palestinian flags and chanting, “Freedom for Palestine.”
“Workers have returned to center stage and are calling on citizens, all citizens, to stand up. They are not doing so for a contract renewal but to demand justice for a distant and tormented people,” the USB said.
“In this age of selfishness and individualism, this seems unthinkable. But no, solidarity between peoples and brotherhood beyond borders are not dead and buried values; on the contrary, they are alive and kicking.”
What’s notable is that this was not a strike for a new contract or higher wages. This was something far more profound, the WFTU said in their press release. Italian workers prioritized humanity over profit and internationalism over nationalism. They struck “to demand justice for the Palestinian people, who are suffering greatly.”
The strike was a direct challenge to the warmongering policies of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government, as well as to the U.S.-EU-NATO imperialist policies in general. The workers demonstrated in mass, demanding an immediate cease of supplying weapons and ammunition to the Israeli settler forces, as well as to break all diplomatic and commercial ties with what demonstrators called a “barbaric state acting contrary to every international rule.”
The response from the ruling class was telling. Instead of heeding the people’s demand for peace, police met the peaceful mobilization with violence, turning water cannons on those calling for an end to the arms sales to the Israeli state.
Among those leading the charge were firefighters’ union representatives, who made their position clear. “First responders will never be complicit in genocide, and we are protesting a government that is entrapping us in rearmament,” they told il manifesto. Their statement cuts to the heart of the class struggle. It is a rejection of a war economy that transforms workers’ labor into a service for the death and destruction of other workers.
This historic mobilization, which involved an estimated one million people, was a demonstration of concrete solidarity action to disrupt the machinery of Israel’s genocidal war. It came amidst a flurry of diplomatic wins for Palestine, as over the course of two days—Sept. 21 and 22—nine countries officially recognized the State of Palestine: Andorra, Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, France, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, and Portugal.
The shutdown of Italy is only one part of a larger struggle. As previously reported by People’s World, Italian dockworkers are now set to host an international meeting to coordinate with other unions capable of disrupting Europe’s arms flows to Israel.
Further national demonstrations are planned in Italy for Oct.4, with workers’ eyes fixed on the Global Sumud Flotilla to ensure its peaceful arrival to deliver much needed humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
CONTRIBUTOR
