Strikes planned across Italy as anger reaches boiling point

Roberto in Livorno and Leda in Turin spoke to Socialist Worker about the revolt over food and fuel prices and against state violence

By Jude Mckechnie and Frankie Murden

Thursday 29 October 2026

Strikes and blockades over Palestine halted Italy in 2025

Young people in Italy have been protesting for weeks against the spiralling cost of living crisis and against European rearmament and the drive to war.

And now tens of thousands of workers plan a general strike in defiance of anti-union laws on Friday, 30 October. 

The smaller USB, ADL Cobas, CLAP, SIAL Cobas and Cobas unions have called the strike on the same day as dockers across the Mediterranean take action in solidarity with Palestinians. 

Roberto is a rail worker and USB member in Livorno, Italy. He told Socialist Worker, “We saw the dock workers international strike and the struggles across Europe—in France, Spain, Portugal and Albania. 

“We saw the movements of young people becoming very strong and standing against war, against all the implications of war in our imperialist economies.

“We decided that this was the time to get the workers to participate in the international struggle.”

He added, “The international strike of dock workers comes after one called in February 2026. 

“This is a continuation of the strikes and blockades that halted Italy in autumn 2025.” 

There is widespread fury with Italy’s far right government, led by fascist prime minister Giorgia Meloni. 

The protests in Italy, like those in France and the Spanish state, erupted over better funding for education and schools. 

“Anger is at boiling point” over Meloni’s government said Leda, a protest photographer based in Turin in northern Italy.

Leda told Socialist Worker that the explosion has fed off the general strikes for Palestine last year. “Since 2023, the support for Palestine has been getting people back out onto the streets,” she explained. 

“Universities have become sites of opposition to the government. Unions, campaigns and grassroots organisations fighting over the climate and migrant rights all came together for the marches for Palestine. 

“It is these groups organising together again now.”

Police brutality—and ever-expanding state repression—have galvanised large numbers of people. 

Leda said, “The far right Meloni government for years has been issuing ‘decreto sicurezza’—security decrees that limit our right to protest and silence opposition. They also give more powers to the police to racially profile and attack protesters.” 

The ninth security decree was issued last month in response to the youth protests. Its measures include making parents liable for damage by minors and sending 500 more soldiers to Milan until the end of the year to deal with protests and looting.

“People are starting to think that maybe the protesters were never violent to start with,” said Leda.

“The videos of police violence are everywhere online. One is of a street medic being beaten by police last weekend. Another is of a water cannon being used on peaceful protesters in Milan.

“It’s like people have woken up. They are saying maybe the real violence is that 8 billion euros is being used for defence spending while schools don’t have roofs.” 

Opposition to the Italian state’s racism runs through the protests. The government passed a decree earlier this year aimed at capping the number of “migrants” in classrooms to 30 percent and banning the burqa and niqab in schools. 

Leda said, “This decree is trying to create an enemy within schools and to blame migrants for everything that’s wrong.

“But the conversations that the children and the teachers are bringing to the demos is that the law is unworkable and that they won’t allow it.”

Energy inflation has risen by 4.4 percent in Italy and food prices have soared by nearly 6 percent since last year. 

Cumulative inflation since 2000 is at 67 percent. It means that Italian salaries have fallen 5 percent in real terms.

“The situation we’re living in is ridiculous,” Roberto said. “While energy bosses rake in millions, we can barely afford fuel.” 

The general strike this week follows an eight day strike by lorry drivers in Italy that disrupted fuel and food deliveries.

Roberto explained, “Parts of southern Italy didn’t have any food. But all this leads back to the cost of fuel, which leads us back to the war in Iran.

“This is one example where the war economy can be seen very clearly in Italy. All this inflation, all these prices, are connected to imperialist wars.

“But there’s a fighting sentiment among workers at home.” 

Leda said that some people who voted for Meloni are now turning on her government. “When the gas prices went up in September, truck drivers in southern Italy went on strike,” she argued. 

“They blocked roads in protest because it didn’t make sense to move produce because of high gas prices.

“These are working class people who are now beginning to question the government because they cannot feed their families.

“The important thing for us to do now is to unite the struggles in the south with those in the north.” 

“The port workers’ and dockers’ strike this Friday is a chance to do that.”