Strike for Palestine rejects Italian government’s war budget
The third general strike for Palestine swept Italian streets on Friday, uniting the Palestine and workers’ rights struggles
By Arthur Townend
Friday 28 November 2025
Around 15,000 marched in Milan in Italy
Tens of thousands of workers joined Italy’s strike for Palestine and better working conditions on Friday.
It marks the third general strike for Palestine this year. Trade unions such as USB and Si Cobas, which are independent of the major trade union federations, led the way.
Taking inspiration from the huge protests in France, protesters are rallying under the slogan “Blocchiamo tutto”—let’s block everything.
The strikes shut down transport services across Italy.
“In Florence, around 4,000 people protested against Italy’s participation in the genocide,” USB union member Roberto told Socialist Worker.
He said that thousands marched, chanting, “Florence knows which side to take, free Palestine from the river to the sea.”
In Milan, around 15,000 rallied behind a banner reading, “No to war finance and rearmament, let’s raise wages and social spending.”
Italian prime minister, fascist Giorgia Meloni, is pushing through a “war time” budget, freezing the wages of all workers while increasing military spending to over £28 billion.
In Torino, north Italy, the Si Cobas union organised logistics workers at Mondo Convenienza. “From the warehouse strike, a message of solidarity is also being sent to Imam Mohamed Shahin, arrested and at risk of deportation for his support of the Palestinian cause,” the union said.
“We demand the immediate release for Mohamed Shahin.”
As well as Palestine, workers were “striking against endless working hours and excessive disciplinary proceedings”.
“We are demanding relief from pressure on workers and a Christmas bonus in recognition of the extra work done during this period,” it added.
“We are also demanding a solution to workers’ health issues, which arise from overwork, deliveries to upper floors, and the heavy furniture they carry”.
“No to the war economy, repression, Islamophobia and the exploitation of immigrant workers.”
In Genoa, north Italy, striking dock workers in Si Cobas were joined by Greta Thumberg on the picket lines. “I wholeheartedly stand with and behind the striking workers from SI Cobas,” she said.
“No struggle for justice and liberation is isolated and we are all in this together.”
Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur for Palestine who joined the picket line, said, “The genocide continues, and we have a duty to move forward. Their struggle is ours too.
“Our politicians do not represent the people, but rather the economic and financial interests of multinationals. This protest aims to change the system, restore rights to workers, to the precarious workers who are everywhere in this country, but also restore dignity to the Palestinian people.”
At Port of Livorno, dockers in the autonomous workers group have been leading the way shutting down ports in solidarity with Palestine.
“Rearmament is not a safety measure—it is a political choice of this capitalist system that makes us complicit in a genocide and turns war into normality,” one striker said from the picket lines.
“They are dragging us into a machine of death while telling us that they protect us.
“Peace does not come from weapons, it comes from the bottom, from the social struggle, from the ability to say enough.”
Elsewhere, strikers and activists targeted Leonardo, the biggest weapons producer in Italy. In Trieste, hundreds completely blocked the road leading into the Leonardo site.
In Tessera, Venice, police attacked protesters with water cannons as they blockaded the Leonardo factory there. At the protest, one striker “We’re striking against the war, against this false ceasefire. We will never be complicit in Western neo-colonial plans for genocide.”
Italy is showing how workers can lead a wider movement for Palestine and hit the prophet system that helps to fuel the genocide.
