An endless tide. “I haven’t seen a march like this in twenty years.” “Maybe against the war in Iraq, but I’m not sure. Maybe since the 1970s.” Comments like these are being heard in towns and cities across Italy, after the incredible wave of participation in Friday’s general strike for Gaza.

The first signs came already with strikes on September 19 and especially September 22, when massive marches took place in many cities in solidarity with the Global Sumud Flotilla. The Israeli armed forces’ attack on the flotilla, starting around 7 p.m. this past Wednesday, prompted even stronger reactions. Under the slogan “Let’s Block Everything,” spontaneous marches of tens of thousands of people blocked roads and stations that same evening, with huge numbers in Rome, Milan, Naples, Bologna, and Florence.

This was the appetizer for the extraordinary events on Friday, with the general strike called by the Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (CGIL), as well as the Unione Sindacale di Base (USB) and other grassroots unions. Two million people took to the streets. These were not simple marches: roads, railway stations, ring roads, highways, bridges, airports, and freight villages were blocked. It was a real strike, aimed at shutting down the country and piling the pressure on Giorgia Meloni’s government over the ongoing genocide.