STUDENTS protested against the genocide in Gaza clashed with Italian police last Friday.
The students reject ‘the war economy’ imposed by Giorgia Meloni’s ‘reactionary and militaristic’ administration.
Last Friday, police clashed with Italian students protesting in Turin during a general strike against the policies of far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
‘We are against the government, which does not care about young people. We are against imperialist war,’ said one protester.
‘A genocide is taking place and whoever does not go out on the streets with us is an accomplice. We are teaching our teachers what it means to be human,’ said one high school student.
Hundreds of people participated in the protests and gathered near the Polytechnic University of Turin, where the most intense confrontations occurred, leading to the arrest of one protester.
The violence escalated when demonstrators attempted to enter the Polytechnic, prompting additional police action to repel them.
Violent clashes also broke out when students tried to march toward the headquarters of the Industrial Union.
The Young Communist Organisation and the Alternative Student Opposition (OSA) organised the demonstration under the slogan ‘Stop Imperialism, Win the Future,’ protesting against job insecurity and the war economy imposed by what they described as Meloni’s ‘reactionary and militaristic’ administration.
The Turin demonstration coincided with a general strike called by the Base Union Confederation (USB) against Meloni’s policies. Similar tensions had already occurred in recent weeks in the city.
During the general strike on November 29, there were also intense clashes between police and demonstrators, who attempted to break through police barricades and ended up confronting officers with kicks and blows at a train station.
The planned 24-hour general strike affecting public transport in Italy on Friday 13 December was reduced to four hours following a government order.
The USB transport union initially said that it would not respect the injunction issued by deputy premier and transport minister Matteo Salvini, and that the 24-hour protest would go ahead as scheduled.
A union statement said: ‘There are many reasons that led the USB to call the general and widespread strike on December 13th: a strike of all public and private categories, with demonstrations in Rome and Milan.
‘Why is it important to join? Contract renewals include salaries that go well below the inflation threshold, resulting in a loss of purchasing power that was unimaginable until a few years ago, while the 3 euros foreseen for the increase in minimum pensions are a slap in the face to pensioners and pensioners.
‘Rents are increasingly higher, while wages are increasingly lower and public housing is no longer being built.
‘Temporary work, contracts, exhausting shifts: in Italy you live to work! The confederal unions, however, continue to sign downward agreements, to the detriment of workers.
‘The Meloni government is leading us to war: it continues to spend on armaments, while cutting services. We do not want to be complicit in the logic of war.
‘No more privatisation of public services, no more differentiated autonomy, no more attacks on the right to strike and, above all, no more massacres of workers.
‘For all these reasons it is necessary to strike on December 13th.’
Salvini has used the same injunction mechanism several times to curb strikes in the past, a tactic that infuriates trade unions.
USB Trasporti secretary Francesco Staccioli said last Tuesday that the union’s strike action was legitimate and in line with ‘the most stringent legislation in Europe’.
Deputy premier Salvini said that while the right to strike was enshrined in the constitution, he would be tabling new rules governing strikes at the next cabinet meeting.
‘If you have to have a strike a day, because since this government took office we have reached a 1,000 strikes,’ Salvini argued ‘it means that the strike as a tool no longer works’.
His injunction affected public transport only.
The general strike impacted other public and private sectors over 24 hours on Friday, including healthcare, education and taxis.
In the case of healthcare, non-emergency services and diagnostic tests faced being cancelled, while schools were impacted by cleaning, catering and bus services.
Railway staff were scheduled to strike from 09.00 to 13.00, resulting in possible ‘cancellations and changes’ to rail services operated by Trenitalia, according to its website. Italo services would also be affected. The strike impacted long-distance, regional and local rail services.
The strike was also set to impact the local public transport sector in cities across Italy, affecting subway, bus and tram services.
Rome’s public transport services were at risk from 09.00 to 13.00, according to the ATAC website, with the ATM public transport services in Milan to be affected during the same hours.
The World Federation of Trade Unions, representing over 105 million workers in 133 countries, said it ‘stands in firm solidarity with the USB and the working class of Italy in their general and widespread strike on December 13, 2024’.
The WFTU said: ‘This strike, called by our affiliate, USB, is a bold and necessary response to the devastating policies of the Meloni government and the European Union that deepen social inequalities, exacerbate poverty, and intensify exploitation.
‘These policies prioritise the profits of banks and monopolies, fuel militarisation, and undermine democratic freedoms and workers’ rights.
‘The WFTU unequivocally condemns the Italian government’s actions that align with the broader imperialist agenda, which promotes war as a solution to the capitalist crisis.
‘We denounce the allocation of resources to the war economy, the escalation of military spending, and support for imperialist interventions, including in Ukraine and Palestine, while workers and people are left to suffer under precarious conditions, starvation wages, and deindustrialisation.
‘The struggles of the USB reflect the just demands of the Italian working class and the broader society for fair wages, decent work, quality public services, environmental protection, and genuine democratic freedoms.
‘The situation that the Italian working class faces, highlight the urgent need for resistance against the attacks on fundamental rights, the privatisation of public goods, and the assault on civil liberties.
‘We call upon all militant class-oriented trade unions and progressive forces worldwide to express their solidarity with the USB and the working class of Italy.
We reaffirm that international solidarity is our strongest weapon in the struggle against imperialism, exploitation, and war.’
Meanwhile, the CGT trade union federation held a day of mobilisation for employment throughout France last Thursday 12 December.
The union said: ‘In a context where companies are getting richer and richer, the waves of job cuts in industry are multiplying and are having a severe impact on France.’
Official figures showed nearly 300,000 jobs have been threatened or eliminated.
The CGT added: ‘For several months, the CGT has been warning about the disastrous industrial situation
‘An overall trend towards an acceleration in the pace of implementation of job cut plans is emerging, with more than 120 plans concentrated in the period July-November 2024, including 89 in the September/November period alone.
‘This day of mobilisation is organised to challenge the public authorities and the President of the Republic.
‘After years of ineffective supply-side policies and gifts to companies without any compensation, French industry is in a very bad way; urgent action is needed.
‘The CGT is demanding emergency measures:
- The establishment of a moratorium on layoffs to safeguard jobs and industry.
- Strengthen the Florange law, which currently requires companies with more than 1,000 employees to find a buyer but does not provide for any obligation for the company to sell;
- A national plan for maintaining and relocating industrial tools and jobs, led by a State assuming a role as a central player in industry;
- An immediate return to regulated electricity and gas sales prices;
- Industry meetings to define a major law for the reindustrialisation of the country that responds to the environmental challenge.’
Last Thursday, ‘More than 130 protest initiatives were organised, including more than 70 in workplaces, particularly in front of industrial sites:
- Michelin Cholet, AMIS, Vencorex, Poppe and Pothoff in Cluses, PPG in Genlis, Industeel Le Creusot, Cereal Partners France in Itancourt, Bosch Vendôme, Fonderies de Bretagne, Thales and Airbus Toulouse, Valti, GIMA-AGCO Beauvais, Weylchem Trosly-Breuil, Valéo, Sanofi Lisieux, Naval Group, Legrand, Lecas Nersac, Euralis, Magnetti Marelli, Solvay Salindres, Arcelor.
- In Toulouse, there were 500 demonstrators from Thales, Airbus, Continental, public services … almost 2000 job cuts identified at this stage in the employment area.
‘These numerous mobilisations illustrate both the depth of industrial destruction and the determination of workers to fight it,’ the CGT concluded.