ITALIAN workers and youth clashed with police during a ‘Let’s Block Everything’ General Strike and massive mobilisation for Gaza on Monday, which was called by ‘grassroots’ trade unions and students unions.
The strike involved all sectors, from public transport, ports, schools, docks and all public services.
Tens of thousands of workers and students took to the streets in more than 80 cities, from north to south and coast to coast.
The entire country became the scene of blockades, strikes and mobilisations under the slogan of ‘block everything’, demanding an end to the Israeli offensive in Gaza, full recognition of the Palestinian State, and international sanctions against the Israeli government.
Demonstrators marched through Milan in heavy rain to demand a ceasefire and express support for the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla.
The thousands-strong march invaded the central station and attempted to break through barriers.
Police charged the protesters, using truncheons and smoke bombs, injuring many.
In Rome, more than 30,000 people gathered outside the Termini train station shutting down access, waving Palestinian flags and chanting ‘free Palestine’.
The general strike march in support of the people of Gaza started from Piazza dei Cinquecento.
A march of over 30,000 formed a long line stretching from Piazza Vittorio to Termini Station.
Firefighters led the march, waving the Palestinian flag. Chants and slogans against the Israeli government rose from the march: ‘Zionists and fascists, you thought we would be free, you were wrong. This is the revolt against the Zionists and the governments that support them.’
Trains were cancelled and delayed for hours and Metro stations were closed.
Michelangelo, 17, said he had turned up to support ‘a population that is being exterminated’.
Alessandra, a political science student, said: ‘This doesn’t mean we’re anti-Jews or antisemitic, and we’re tired of the media and politicians playing on this misunderstanding. It just means we’re against a government that’s committing genocide while the international community looks the other way.’
In Turin, 10,000 people attended the Gaza demonstration, which marched through the centre of Turin.
Starting from the Porta Nuova station, whose main entrance was closed by security forces, the main march proceeded along Via Madama Cristina.
Protesters from ‘Turin for Gaza’ (social centres) broke away from the march and then occupied the traintracks, near the city’s main train station.
The A1 toll booth in Calenzano (Florence) and the Fi-Pi-Li highway were paralysed.
Clashes erupted on Monday evening in Brescia between protesters and police, while beginning at 6pm in Rome, a march wound its way through the city streets to the station which was sealed off.
Protesters approached riot police and attempted to break through the cordon, but police charged and fired tear gas to drive the protesters away.
Gass bottles flew and a trash canister was thrown at police.
‘We too must empty the classrooms because it is in schools that all of society is reproduced,’ the student committees wrote, adding: ‘Let’s shut down the schools, let’s shut down the cities, let’s shut down the world, because in Gaza there are no more classrooms, no more hospitals, there’s no more time.
‘Let’s shut down everything for Gaza; we can no longer postpone the construction of a decent world.’
In the port city of Marghera, police opened water cannons at the over 15,000-strong protest before the two sides collided, then began to advance.
Some protesters responded by throwing bottles before retreating, shouting ‘fascists’. The protesters then slowly began to leave the port entrance.
Tension erupted during the demonstration for Gaza and Palestine in Ravenna, attended primarily by students.
Hundreds of people set out from Piazza del Popolo and, by mid-morning, reached the drawbridge over the Candiano River.
A group of protesters, approximately 6-7, broke away from the march and lay down in the middle of the road, displaying banners and flags, chanting ‘Free Palestine’.
This symbolic gesture, which lasted just a few minutes, blocked traffic on one of the city’s most important transportation infrastructures. Police intervened, and three people, two men and a woman, were taken to the police station and reported for blocking the road.
Cities across Italy saw pro-Palestinian protests, strikes and blockades following union calls to ‘denounce the genocide in Gaza’ and demand diplomatic and economic sanctions against Israel.
Italian grassroots trade union, Unione Sindacale di Base (USB), called the strike to force Rome to ‘immediately break off relations with the terrorist state of Israel, which is the concrete way in which Italy can, and must, react to the genocide that is taking place.’
USB said protests were taking place in 81 locations across Italy, declaring: ‘For a free Palestine from the river to the sea, we will shout in every square.’
Students in Bologna occupied university lecture halls under the banner of the Cambiare Rotta (Change Course) group.
In Milan, the 50,000-strong protest was especially tense, with thousands of people entering the Carriage Gallery, the main entrance to the central station, breaking through the police cordon, knocking down doors and furniture.
The police responded with riot forces, batons, and tear gas.
The march approached within a few hundred metres of the American consulate, which was being guarded by law enforcement officers, and shouting ‘murderers’.
A moment of silence then fell in Piazza della Repubblica, and the eerie sound of drones crashing into Gaza could be heard for a long time. ‘You must always hear this noise in your conscience,’ they said through a megaphone. A US flag was then burned.
A protest of more that 10,000 in Bologna organised by grassroots unions and students, entered the Bologna ring road and effectively blocked it.
Some protesters also entered the highway with smoke bombs and flags, disrupting traffic. The police station located halfway along Via Stalingrado opened up and let the protesters pass, amid cheers of joy from the marchers, who, escorted by police, reached the ring road.
Dock workers in Genoa, Livorno, Trieste, Piombino, Ancona and Ravenna, blocked the ports and called for a halt to arms shipments to Israel.
The actions of the dockworkers and port workers stood out, with the protesters determined to halt the use of Italian ports for loading weapons destined for Israel.
In Genoa, workers established direct coordination with international movements and independent unions to prevent shipments linked to the conflict from leaving.
UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese issued a statement supported the strike, saying: ‘In Italy, the general strike has shut down train lines, ports, highways, schools and shops.
‘With a genocide ongoing, there can be NO business as usual. Stay peaceful, everyone. Do not react to any provocation. Freedom for all allows no mistakes.’
‘Grassroots’ unions across Italy had called for the 24-hour general strike on Monday in solidarity with the people of Gaza, citing reasons that included the ‘inertia of the Italian and EU governments’.
Under the slogan of ‘Let’s Block Everything’, those taking part in the general strike called on the government to end commercial and military cooperation with Israel and expressed support for the Global Sumud Flotilla.
Nationally, the general strike called by the USB union paralysed key sectors: schools and universities closed, logistics routes interrupted, and essential services stopped.
Organisers reported that the mobilisation had an unprecedented unitary character, rejecting the complicity of Giorgia Meloni’s government with Israel and demanding the immediate cessation of Italian military support for the Israeli government.
The movement was accompanied by strong social support: almost two-thirds of Italians consider the humanitarian crisis in Gaza extremely serious and demand that the Italian state officially recognise Palestine.
The protests, from the Mediterranean to the Alps, show the revolutionary internationalism of the Italian working class and youth, and their leading role in the fight for victory to Palestinian and a Palestinian state.
