Gaza Has Sparked Italy’s Biggest Protests in Years
Today’s general strike in Italy paralyzed transport and brought two million people into the streets. Even after years of setbacks for organized labor, it staged a historic protest in solidarity with Palestine.
There is deep dissatisfaction with the Italian government’s foreign policy — overly servile toward Israel and silent on the ongoing genocide in Palestine.(Stefano Rellandini / AFP via Getty Images)
“The Italian people made us smile in Gaza.” With these words, Eman Abu Zayed, a Palestinian writer in the bombarded strip, described how Italy’s growing mass mobilizations for Palestine were resonating there. She wrote these words a few days after the twenty-four-hour general strike on September 22, called by the grassroots USB (Unione Sindacale di Base) “in response to the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army’s blockade of humanitarian aid, and the threats against the international Global Sumud Flotilla mission.”
Turnout far exceeded USB’s customary mobilizing capacity — and protests have only grown in size and spread since then. This reached the highest point yet today as the CGIL (Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro, the country’s largest union) joined the call for a twenty-four-hour general strike alongside the grassroots unions. Yet the strike’s success also owed much to two years of sustained organizing by associations, social movements, students, and Italy’s Arab communities.
Changing the Debate
Already this Wednesday night, when Israeli forces illegally boarded the Global Sumud Flotilla and arrested its participants in clear violation of international law, spontaneous rallies and improvised marches erupted in hundreds of Italian cities. The next day, large crowds again took to the streets nationwide, with occupations of railway stations, universities, and ports. Today, once more, massive demonstrations swept Italy from north to south, with over two million people in the streets, coinciding with another twenty-four-hour general strike — this time called by USB together with CGIL.
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