HUNDREDS of thousands of workers and youth took action throughout Italy on Monday after Italian trade unions called a nationwide strike in support of Palestinians in Gaza and against the support given by the right-wing government of Giorgia Meloni to the genocidal Israeli regime.
While the governments of the UK, France, Australia, Canada and Portugal gave formal recognition to the Palestinian State, the Italian government has, along with Germany, resisted the overwhelming pressure from workers and youth to make even this token gesture.
While the US is the biggest provider of weapons to Israel, Germany is the second biggest supplier of arms and military equipment to the genocidal state, followed by Italy.
The staunch support of the Meloni government to Israel and its murderous drive to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza – for a war that has been massively stepped up with the bombing and ground invasion of Gaza City – has produced a mass movement by workers and youth across Italy.
On Monday, this mass opposition erupted following a call by Italian trade unions and pro-Palestinian groups for a one-day strike to force the Italian government to ‘choose whose side it is on’.
The strike demand was issued by the Autonomous Dockworkers Collective (CALP) and the Basic Union (USB) national grassroots trade union confederation.
Protests and strikes struck 81 towns and cities across Italy under the slogan ‘Let’s Block Everything’, the same slogan of the massive demonstrations in France recently, over government plans to slash workers’ pensions in order to cut 44 billion euros from the French national debt.
In Venice, thousands marched with banners reading ‘Gaza is burning, we will block everything’. Trains and buses were cancelled, schools and universities closed as transport workers, teachers and students came out on strike.
Italian dockworkers have been in the forefront of action against Zionist genocide. Last week, two container ships carrying explosives to Israel were blocked at the port of Ravenna after dockworkers reported their cargo to the authorities and refused to load them. In early August, dockworkers in Genoa prevented a Saudi-owned vessel from being loaded with Italian-made weapons destined for Israel.
Members of the dockworkers union (CALP) from Genoa are on board a boat that set off from the port on 30 August to join the Sumud Flotilla of over 70 ships loaded with medical supplies and humanitarian aid headed for Gaza to break the Israeli siege of the Strip.
50,000 workers and youth took to the streets of Genoa in a massive demonstration of support, while the dockworkers issued a warning that if the flotilla is attacked, as Israel has previously attempted, then the dockers will block all goods headed for Israel and halt all trade across Europe.
One dockworker told the rally held as the boat departed: ‘If we lose contact with our boats, with our comrades, even for just 20 minutes, we will shut down all of Europe.’
This is no idle threat. The port of Genoa is the key Mediterranean shipping hub for Italy and the EU with 2.74 million containers passing through in 2023, closing the port would indeed shut down Europe. The dockworkers and trade unions in Italy have demonstrated the enormous power of the working class.
Their actions stand in stark contrast to the complete refusal of the TUC in Britain to organise anything other than lunchtime meetings to ‘discuss’ Palestine or pass harmless motions condemning the mass murder of Palestinians. The time for simply condemning genocide in Gaza is over.
The UK, EU and US working class have the power to end Zionist genocide by forcing their trade unions to immediately call indefinite general strikes to bring down the governments that are enablers of all the war crimes and genocide being committed in Gaza, going forward to workers’ governments and socialism.
Workers’ governments will break with the Israeli regime, and not only recognise the State of Palestine but provide it with all the material support required for the victory of the Palestinian Revolution. This is the way forward!
