https://apnews.com/article/italy-gaza-protests-meloni-2-million-0fcc2fc85f53209100beb3dbff1256a9
ROME (AP) — More than 2 million people across Italy rallied in over 100 cities Friday for a one-day general strike to support the residents of Gaza and a humanitarian aid mission, Italy’s largest union said.
Italian unions proclaimed the strike after the Global Sumud Flotilla that was trying to break Israel’s naval blockade to deliver aid to Gaza was intercepted by Israeli naval forces Wednesday night. Protests and demonstrations have sprung up all over Europe and globally since then, but they have been particularly strong in Italy.
Italy’s conservative Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had sharply criticized the strike. She anticipated it would cause widespread disruption across the country and said it was politically motivated and targeted her right-wing government.
According to the CGIL union, 300,000 people marched through the streets of Rome alone, while the national average participation in the general strike stood at around 60%, halting all the main services in key sectors including transportation and schools.
In Florence, protesters approached the gates of the Italian national soccer team’s training center to demand its upcoming World Cup qualifier against Israel not be played because of the war in Gaza.
Italy is scheduled to host Israel in Udine on Oct. 14. But UEFA is considering suspending Israel over the war. The players were not at the Coverciano training center in Florence, but the squad will convene there on Monday.
Protesters appeared to behave peacefully on the opposite side of the street from the soccer complex, holding aloft a banner that read in Italian, “Let’s stop Zionism with the resistance.”
On Friday morning, around 100,000 people participated in a rally in the northern city of Milan. Clashes there briefly erupted after a group of protesters blocking the city’s highway started throwing bottles at police, who responded with smoke bombs.
Isolated scuffles also happened in Turin, Bologna and Naples but the majority of the protests were peaceful.
“I still believe that all this brings no benefit to the Palestinian people. On the other hand, I understand that it will cause a lot of problems for the Italian people,” Meloni told reporters Thursday, condemning the strike. “Revolutions and long weekends don’t go well together.”
The Italian leader has been facing mounting pressure to change Italy’s stance as a longtime supporter of Israel in the Gaza conflict, as growing calls have emerged to stop the massive humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza.
Italy’s conservative Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had sharply criticized the strike. She anticipated it would cause widespread disruption across the country and said it was politically motivated and targeted her right-wing government.
“cause widespread disruption” “politically motivated” “targets the goverment”
So… a strike then.
The issue is that the strike is a strike
In Europe the elites have long since reached the consensus that unions and strikes should be relegated to making and upholding collective bargaining deals (that do the bare minimum to appease the proles.) Anything beyond that is a misuse of the power allotted to them.
and said it was politically motivated and targeted her right-wing government.
I suppose being against genocide is against her political beliefs, yes. Please let this end with the Italian warships ignoring her and just bombarding Israel to the hell it deserves.
I recently had a guy try to tell me that opposition to genocide “isn’t a political act, it’s a moral one.” He used this to argue that a war to stop a genocide would be an “apolitical war.”
His reasoning was that “genocide is not something that I consider up for debate or think that people should be allowed to support” which, I’m 100% with him there, but he definitely had a confused idea of what “politics” meant
For the colloqiual definition of apolitical an invasion of Israel would be the closest possible to an apolitical war. Most countries are actually treaty bound to do it, we just ignore that obligation.
Not only are most countries treaty bound to invade Israel, all UN members are required to intervene to prevent genocide. Every country that isn’t bombing, blockading, or invading Israel is in violation of international law
I wonder if he would said the same about Donbas or Osetia, where the mounting genocides were actually stopped. I guess we can now call it “full scale apolitical invasion” XD
Acqua è bagnata
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One of the players in my D&D group is in Italy and she said that literally everything is shut down in her city. I don’t know what, if anything the strike will accomplish, but it’s great to see.
Hate the (Italian) government not the people.
Real based Italian hours.
said it was politically motivated and targeted her right-wing government.
Yes? No shit? They’re telling you to stop supporting Isntreal. They made it crystal clear and you still can’t understand. Seems like a skill issue
This is great, but damn it feels like there is no vanguard party to actually materialize change in the superstructure
“Revolutions and long weekends don’t go well together.”
Is this supposed to mean that once the weekend is over the government expects it to end?
Its more „you guys just want a longer weekend and dont care enough to actually do shit“ very much exuding „firebomb a walmart“
