Genoa woke up on Friday, November 28, and part of its activity had been paralyzed. The grassroots unions, merged into the unionist federation, are promoting a day of strike protest against the “war economy,” increased military spending, social cuts, privatization of public services, and European alliances with Israel that facilitated the genocide in Gaza.
The strike was particularly noticeable in the rail transport sectors and in ports such as Genoa, where stevedores blocked the passage of ships heading to their final destination in Israel in October.
The European role in confronting the genocide in Gaza is one of the main issues today, with demands calling for severing relations with the Israeli government and imposing a comprehensive ban on military materials. They also demand the suspension of arms shipments to Ukraine, and warn of the dangers of militarization.
A few hours ago, figures of international importance arrived in this Italian city to support the mobilization on Friday. Among these are activist Greta Thunberg, the United Nations rapporteur for Palestine, Francesca Albanese, former Greek Minister Yanis Varoufakis, American journalist Chris Hedges, Palestinian-American Ahmed Al-Din, and Brazilian activist Thiago Avila, the organizer of the Al-Samoud Flotilla that was intercepted by the Israeli army in early October, when it was heading to Gaza.
Albanese, Thunberg, Hedges and Avila, as well as figures from the world of Italian culture, will also participate on Saturday in the demonstration called in Rome with the same demands, although it is more focused on Gaza, because it coincides with the International Day of Solidarity with Palestine, so there are also movements planned in other European cities, including several Spanish ones.
The United Nations rapporteur, Francesca Albanese, stressed that Trump’s plan for Gaza and the UN Security Council resolution that was approved along the same lines “have placed the Strip in the hands of a puppet administration, as the United States has become the new administrator of an open-air prison, further crushing the rights of the Palestinians and any path to peace.”
José Nevoe, spokesman for the USB base union and a member of the flotilla that attempted to reach Gaza in October, explains to elDiario.es that the strike slogan, “Let’s prevent everything,” seeks to mobilize to defend a decent minimum wage, retirement at 62, and to condemn Italy’s complicity in the Gaza genocide.
“The increase in the cost of living is a scourge on the economy of millions of people,” the USB says, and points to increased spending on arms and the European rearmament program as measures in favor of the elite and against the interests of the social majority.
The common thread uniting the thousands of people who attended Friday’s Italian protests links warmongering, rearmament, reductions and genocide in Gaza.
American rabbis also arrived in the coastal city from New York, defending a Judaism that has no connection to Israel, the Israeli occupation, and apartheid in Palestine.
The common thread uniting the thousands of people who attended Friday’s Italian protests links warmongering, the setback in social rights and widespread Israeli crimes against the Palestinian population. Organized unions point out: “We do not want to be complicit in genocide, which is why we have an obligation to mobilize against policies that continue to normalize it.”
At the demonstration that took place in Genoa this morning, the United Nations rapporteur, Francesca Albanese, noted that “the genocide has not ended and will not end as long as the political complicity and political and financial enrichment of states and private actors continues at the expense of crimes” against the Palestinian population. He also warned that more than three hundred Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the start of the “ceasefire,” including dozens of children.
“As long as the EU countries maintain their complicity, people will not do this,” he stressed with students, workers and other citizens of civil society gathered in Brignole Square and its surroundings. He stressed to the demonstrators that “many people are willing to speak out to stop genocide and apartheid, and the flotilla was an example of that, and this is an example of that.”
Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis denounced that “the genocide has not ended.” “Genocide exists StopBut it’s not over yet, it’s happening more quietly; “If international solidarity does not stop it, nothing will stop it,” he warned. Among the slogans raised, “No to war” and “Melonie, resignation” stand out.
This week, UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese issued a statement against recent UN Security Council Resolution 2803, which makes official several points raised by Trump’s Gaza plan.
Albanese highlights that Resolution 2803 “violates the Palestinian right to self-determination and the UN Charter,” and states that protecting international law means “lifting the blockade on the Strip, ensuring humanitarian access, supporting Palestinian-led governance and ensuring the right of return” for refugees expelled in 1948 and 1967 and in the following years and decades, up to today.
She, Greta Thunberg and several union spokespeople have highlighted that the genocide in Palestine, European rearmament, the climate crisis, incitement to war, and the state of social policies in countries that increase military spending are united by a backbone that harms “the interests of the peoples of the world.”
Italy’s main union centre, CGIL, did not join today’s strike and called for separate action in December. This strike is the third action of national scale in just over two months in Italy.
The first occurred on September 22, when hundreds of thousands of young people and workers took to the streets of major Italian cities and blocked roads, access to ports and strategic points, in response to the Israeli attack on the Global Resilience Flotilla that was heading towards Gaza to denounce the genocide.
These movements had an impact and led to the general strike on October 3, in which the main trade union center joined. On November 14, there was a student mobilization and blockade in the ports of Livorno and Genoa led by dock workers.
The Unione Sindicale de Base notes the importance of “stopping the war and changing Italy: starting with decent wages and pensions, a sliding scale in keeping with current times, truly progressive taxes and a general plan for housing, health, education and stable employment.”