Over two million Italian workers shut down their country’s economy on Oct. 3 in response to the seizure of the Global Sumud Flotilla and the continued U.S. / Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip. In a display of working-class unity and strength, Italian workers across sectors walked off their jobs and took to the streets.
This is the second such general strike called in as many weeks as Israeli drone strikes harassed the Sumud Flotilla ahead of Israeli naval interception. At least 40 Italian nationals were reported to be on the flotilla, including four parliamentarians. Significantly, Italy’s largest labor union, the Italian General Confederation of Labor, led the call for the Oct. 3 strike. Between the CGIL and the Unione Sindacale di Base, another large Italian labor union, the number of strikers swelled to over two million in 100 cities and towns.
Across the country, rail workers, pilots, dockworkers, subway operators, bus drivers, nurses, and teachers walked out of work to demand an end to the genocide in Gaza. Workers marched under the slogans “Free Palestine, Stop the War Machine” and “Hands off the Flotilla!”
Florence, Rome, Milan, Turin, Bologna, and Naples swelled with work stoppages and protests. This represents every major metropolitan region in the country. In almost all of these cities, the police attacked protests with crowd control weapons and were decisively rebuffed.
Defying Meloni’s opposition
Italian workers and activists were undeterred by fascist Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s stance against the strike. Meloni declared that the strike would in no way help the situation in Gaza. Interesting that a politician who gladly supplied Israel with weapons for the first two years of her term is suddenly concerned with the well-being of the Palestinian people.
In 2024, Italy finally suspended arms sales to Israel, but only after immense public pressure via protests and other acts of civil resistance. In reality, the suspension of Italian arms sales was not so much a genuine policy shift by the Meloni administration as it was a result of working-class intervention.
Before she attacked the strike, Meloni withdrew Italian naval support from the Sumud flotilla, proving that the frigate’s deployment was performative. If the Italian navy were serious about protecting the flotilla, they would not have left as soon as the flotilla neared Gaza.
In response to Meloni’s withdrawal of the Italian navy and the Israeli raid on the flotilla, the rage of the Italian working class reached a justified and righteous fever pitch.
The power of the strike
Without the workers, Italian society came to a roaring halt. Trains and planes stayed at the station. Hotels could not take guests. Children stayed home from school. And maybe, most importantly, the docks transmitted no shipments of any kind to apartheid Israel. The strike’s message to the Italian government, the EU, and really the whole world was clear: End the genocide, or we will shut the country down.
The entrance of the Italian organized working class into the global fight against the genocide could be a turning point in the entire struggle and must be supported at all costs by progressives and anti-genocide activists everywhere. As this article is written, masses of not just Italian people, but people across Europe, flood the streets of Barcelona, Paris, London, Prague, and Athens with one resounding message: Free Palestine.
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