THE general strike in Italy on October 5 demanding the government ends it complicity with Israel’s Gaza genocide was the result of tireless campaigning, education and alliance building with unions and students, The World Transformed Festival 2025 heard on Saturday.

Speaking at a panel discussion on the Palestinian diaspora in Europe’s struggle against the genocide, a member of Young Palestinians Italy (GPI), who did not want to be named, explained the timeline and progress of the mobilisation: “Italy has quite a strong radical-left history but currently is quite fragmented.

“We started from the grassroots unions, especially in the logistics sector.”

Those unions launched their first in a series of strikes in November 2023.

He said: “We needed the student component to join us as well. So while growing as an organisation and seeing how the student movement was also reacting in the US, we called for encampments around April and May [2024].”

On the first anniversary of the genocide, the GPI organised a protest in Rome. Despite being banned by the government, he said. “We decided that we were going to demonstrate regardless. Thousands of people went to Rome, there were clashes, there was violence, there was repression, many people got arrested, but the students and workers united.

“This year, not only did we managed to block the capital — and we were not [banned] — but a million people blocked Rome, which is something we haven’t seen in Italy for 30 years.

“Before this national demonstration, Italy was fully blocked for weeks,” he said. “We’ve seen workers, students, and civil society organisations blocking stations, ports, roads, whole cities.

“So, bringing the strike to Rome was part of three weeks of full mobilisations everywhere across Italy, and we just want to stress the fact that this was not out of nowhere: we have been building with unions for over two years.

“Much bigger unions were forced to strike with us because the people demanded to strike for Palestine: not because they wanted to strike for Palestine but because the people demanded that.”