Security alert today for the demonstrations planned on the occasion of the general strike promoted by the USB union (Basic Union), together with other autonomous acronyms (such as SIAL Cobas, CLAP, ADL Cobas), against high costs of living and rearmament. The Ministry of the Interior has implemented measures to "isolate the violent" and prevent acts of devastation such as those which took place in Milan and Rome in recent weeks: the center of the Lombard capital and the Colosseum were sealed off. The agitation will involve schools, healthcare and public administration. Salvini announced the injunction of drivers.
Thousands of people (1500 for the police forces, 5000 for the organizers) are demonstrating in Palermo for the national general strike against the high cost of living, rearmament, for healthcare funds, organized by the USB which has been joined by several acronyms including Cobas and Cub. In the procession that started from Piazza Politeama there are many high school and university students with professors, as well as farmers, lorry drivers, but also pensioners and ordinary citizens. "Hands off our future the students shout." The procession will pass from the Teatro Massimo, then via Cavour, piazza XIII Vitti, via Crispi to arrive at Piazzetta della Pace. "The national maneuver is totally insufficient because it is not able to respond to the needs of this country and above all of those who work every morning" says Luigi Del Prete, head of the Basic Trade Union Union (USB) of Palermo. "We continue to allocate wealth in armaments - explains Del Prete - while public education receives reduced investments. We ask for a redistribution of wealth and for national and regional governments to change their policies by putting education, health and public transport back at the centre". Strong denunciation also on the front of local work and infrastructure: "In Palermo young workers earn 2, 3, 4 euros an hour with fake part-time contracts or without a contract" - explains Marco Militello, delegate of the social federation Usb Palermo - highlighting the link between the "logic of war escalation" and the precariousness experienced on a daily basis. On a regional level, the union launches an appeal to the island's government, reporting that "80% of schools in Sicily are not up to standard" and contesting the "continuous privatization processes" in healthcare and transport, as well as an unemployment rate that exceeds 30% in the region. "We think that a student-worker alliance is needed to completely change everything - says Giorgio, a student at the University of Palermo and exponent of the Cambiare Rotta organization - The cost of living is becoming increasingly unsustainable. For years we have seen the impossibility of being able to build a future, rent a house, change place to study or cover the costs of university texts".
There are thousands, around 7 thousand, of demonstrators who are marching along Corso Buenos Aires in Milan in the procession promoted by Usb, the grassroots trade union, against the high cost of living and against rearmament. There are many slogans against the government and against wars. Along the Milanese shopping route, all the shops are open, only one Decathlon has decided to lower its shutters, probably after the looting suffered by the store in Piazza Castello during the riots of last 17 and 18 October. The store will open after the passage of the procession as stated on a sign to inform customers.
A section of thousands of demonstrators broke away from the main procession of the general strike in Turin to march independently along Via Cernaia, without reaching Piazza Palazzo di Città. It includes students from university and high school collectives, together with the self-employed workers from the Askatasuna social center, which was evacuated last December 18th. At the head of the procession are the banners "Every pole will be a barricade. We don't pay for the war" and "Against war and high prices of living, let's block Italy". "We don't allow ourselves to be confined to the suburbs, we are Turin and we take it", they said into the microphone. The route of this procession is not known.
A photo of the Minister of Education and Merit Giuseppe Valditara was set on fire this morning in Padua by some participants in the protest procession on the occasion of the national strike. The demonstrators - several thousand - moved in procession between the Palazzo del Bo and the Basilica of Sant'Antonio. No accidents have been reported at the moment. The head of the demonstration, made up of the student community, denounces the state of the schools and of education in general. "We want money for education, and if you don't give it to us we will come and take it", one of the slogans.
Several thousand people gathered in the Piazza Mancini area in Naples, a few meters from the central station of Piazza Garibaldi, where the demonstration against the high cost of living and the rearmament policy has just started, which coincides with the general strike called by the grassroots union USB. University students and delegations from schools in Naples were present. Together with them the workers and also many families with children. In the center of the square, on the statue depicting Garibaldi, a large banner has been unrolled and affixed which reads "you don't change things with kindness". There is a massive presence of the police to ensure safety and to avoid the risk that the procession could deviate, creating inconvenience at the crucial public transport hubs. On this front at the moment there are no critical issues, for "reasons of public order" the Garibaldi station of the metro line 1 was closed for about an hour, which was reopened a short while ago.
The mobilization against arms trafficking, against the war economy and the high cost of living began in Genoa with the blockade of the Albertazzi port gate carried out with large tires and smoke bombs. The autonomous collective of port workers (CALP) with the union Usb Mare e Porti have launched an appeal "to all of Italy. The port workers do not want to work for the war". The dock workers will be joined by, among others, the students who will gather at 10am in front of the Genova Principe station. The parade is scheduled for 3 p.m.
Over a thousand high school and university students, together with ATA teachers and staff, left this morning from Palazzo Nuovo, in Turin, in the center and home of the humanities faculties, to reach Piazza Palazzo di Città and join the workers on the occasion of the general strike. At the head of the procession was the banner "From North to South: students and workers united. We don't pay for the war". Another procession is about to leave from the Einaudi university campus which has been occupied since Monday. The student group moved around 9.20 am from the headquarters of the humanities faculties of the University of Turin. In the procession banners and flags of Cambiare Rotta, Osa, Usb and Cub. A banner with the words "University against war" was hung in front of the entrance to Palazzo Nuovo. "Today is a historic day because for years they have tried to divide ATA students, teachers and staff - explains a spokesperson for the Osa collective -. Today we can change the course and we can say that the money must go to the school and not to the war. Today we travel this path together". "For years they told us that history was over and that we had to surrender, today we students, teachers and ATA staff demonstrate that we can take back history and wrest our future from the hands of the leaders who want us to go to war", said the protesters into the megaphone.
Around 500 people have currently gathered in front of Gate 4 of the port of Trieste from where the procession scheduled for this morning will start in about an hour, organized in continuity with the national strike called by the USB to contest the increase in the cost of living, the loss of purchasing power of wages and pensions and in opposition to the policies of war and rearmament. Many people, many in large groups, continue to gather in the area to take part in the demonstration. There is a large representation of students, with numerous banners. The vehicle of the USB union is also already on site and should be at the head of the procession. Many flags are flying, also favored by the Bora day; many are USB-based. The crowd is gathering near the access to the port, from where the mobilization will officially begin. Once started, the procession will head towards the city center.
The protest on the day of the strike begins in Bologna with the blocking of entrances to some high schools. Groups of students closed access to the Copernico High School, the Minghetti High School, the Fermi High School, the Arcangeli High School, the Laura Bassi High School and the Righi High School and the Serpieri Agricultural Institute. At Galvani, in via Castiglione, bins have been placed in front of the entrance doors. The marches have already started from some schools and should join the one leaving at 9.30 from the main square of the basic unions. In the center several shopkeepers have installed or are installing panels to protect their shop windows, for example in Galleria Cavour.
Student demonstrations against the high cost of living are planned in Trento and Bolzano. In the morning, announced marches will take place in the two cities, while an unauthorized protest was announced on social media for the afternoon in the South Tyrolean capital. Yesterday Police Headquarters staff identified four young people, only one of whom was an adult, who were inciting the looting of shops on social media. For this reason the police are carefully monitoring the situation in the historic center. In Trento, at 9.30, a demonstration begins under the government police station, while a procession is already on its way, starting from the Da Vinci high school. For the moment everything is taking place in a peaceful and orderly manner. In Bolzano the students gather in Piazza Mazzini at 10.30 am, and then reach Piazza Domenicani in the historic centre. The student movement 'Stc Bolzano' has clearly distanced itself from the second unauthorized demonstration that is circulating on social media.
The USB demonstrations in Ponte Genova in the port area had already begun in Livorno, around 6am, for the general strike over high prices of living, low wages and against rearmament. "There were already a lot of people at 6 in the morning", they say from the grassroots union. In addition to the demonstrations at the port gates, a demonstration with a procession will take place in the city for the protest which will start around 9am from the central Piazza Cavour and then parade through the Azeglio ports along the seafront, Via Grande, Piazza della Repubblica, Viale Avvalorati, Piazza del Municipio, Via San Giovanni, Piazza del Pamiglione and end in Piazza Micheli, in front of the monument to the Four Moors, symbol of the city. The participation of Francesca Albanese, UN rapporteur on the Palestinian Territories, was announced at the city demonstration.
The two marches scheduled for tomorrow in Milan on the occasion of the general strike proclaimed by the union union USB and the student mobilization against rearmament and high costs of living will head towards the northern areas of the city. Around 10 thousand people are expected. The first procession, the union one, will meet at 10 in Piazza Duca d'Aosta, in front of the Central Station, then proceeding along Via Vitruvio, Corso Buenos Aires, Piazzale Loreto, Via Costa. The demonstrators should then reach the Iraqi Martyrs of Freedom Victims of Terrorism park, in the Gorla district. The student procession will instead start at 9.30 from Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, in front of the Polytechnic, passing between Viale Gran Sasso and Abruzzi, and then join the demonstrators who will take part in the USB demonstration in Piazzale Loreto. The declared objective "is to block the city, up to the ring roads". The passage of the two processions through the central areas of the city, where the riots of 17 and 18 October were concentrated, is not officially planned.
The Colosseum, Circus Maximus and Termini station will be monitored with particular attention tomorrow on the occasion of the USB procession of Rome, which at 10.30 will leave from Piazza dei Cinquecento to reach Via dei Fori Imperiali. Around 20 thousand are expected, but it cannot be ruled out that even more people could take part in the event. In the square there will also be movements, pro Pal and students, who have announced pre-concentrations between 8.30 and 9 in Piazzale Aldo Moro, Piazzale Ostiense, Piazza dell'Immacolata and in various schools. The operational briefing for the management of public order, which promises to be challenging, took place during a technical table in San Vitale, chaired by the police commissioner Roberto Massucci, in which all the representatives of the police forces and bodies, Ama and Atac, participated.
"I did my duty as Minister of Transport who must guarantee mobility to all Italians, therefore I precepted the trade unionists who called a strike without respecting the requirements established by law". The deputy prime minister and minister of transport and infrastructure, Matteo Salvini, said this on Dritto e Rovescio on Rete 4. "So tomorrow the Italian trains will travel normally, there may be some inconvenience at municipal level", he added, hoping that "there are no criminals who sneak into these demonstrations tomorrow".
