On 22 September 2025, a 24-hour general strike called by grassroots unions Unione Sindacale di Base (USB), Confederazione Unitaria di Base (CUB), Sindacato Generale di Base (SGB), Associazione Difesa Lavoratrici e Lavoratori (ADL) and Italian Syndicalist Union (USI) was held across Italy to protest the country's complicity in the Gaza war, and saw the participation of hundreds of thousands of citizens. Protests also took place in San Marino and Bellinzona, Ticino, Switzerland, and continued in Italy for the next days, fuelled by Israel's attacks on and boarding of the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF), with a second strike proclaimed on 3 October. The events have been identified as part of the wider Gen Z protests phenomenon.
Background and goals
Amid Israel's daily escalations in the Gaza Strip, including its mass killings, naval blockade and man-made famine, coupled with its attempts to thwart humanitarian efforts like the Global Sumud Flotilla, the grassroots unions proclaimed a general strike against what they defined as the complicity of Giorgia Meloni's government in a genocide. The strike, marked by the slogan Blocchiamo tutto ("Let's Block Everything"), was aimed at implementing a nationwide block of ports, roads and workplaces to stop the shipments of arms and supplies to Israel. USB called for "the immediate break-off of relations with the terrorist state of Israel". Before the protests, groups such as Christians for Israel Italy, Evangelicals of Italy for Israel (EDIPI), the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ), the Bney Efrain Association and the Gesher Center sent a letter to Giorgia Meloni, asking for her to oppose the protests.
The protests followed a separate day of more limited industrial action, lasting four hours and excluding essential public services, that was called for 19 September by the Transport Federation of the Italian General Confederation of Labour (CGIL), Italy's largest trade union. CUB Trasporti, which joined the 19 September action, withdrew from the 22 September strike along with USB Lavoro Privato. The Catholic Italian Confederation of Trades Unions (CISL) and the moderate Italian Labour Union (UIL) did not participate, opting instead for fundraising and solidarity initiatives.
On 20 September, protests in support of the general strike, and with its same goals, continued in various places of Italy, such as in Mestre where over ten thousand people protested, blocking the entrance to the city entirely, with the official support of CGIL, USB, parties that include the Five Star Movement (M5S), the Democratic Party (PD) and the Greens and Left Alliance (AVS), and organizations such as ANPI and the Italian-based NGO Emergency. Another ten thousand people also gathered in Turin on the same day, sponsored by Rete Torino per Gaza ("Turin Network for Gaza"), local mosques and political parties such as M5S, Communist Refoundation Party and Power to the People. A minor protest was also scheduled in Rome where the organization Last Generation proclaimed an unauthorized hunger strike protest supporting the general strike and the Palestinian cause, which was however halted before its start with the arrest of 4 activists.
The general strike of some metropolitan lines started to be applied as early as 21:00 local time, on September 21.
Events
First strike and aftermath
During the 22 September strike, violent clashes broke out between protesters and police forces, most notably in Milan, where the former smashed a window at the Centrale railway station and threw smoke bombs, bottles and stones, and the latter beat and fired tear gas and pepper spray at them. At least 10 people were arrested, 60 police were wounded, and the M4 metro line was shut down. Major clashes also occurred at the Napoli Centrale railway station in Naples, where protesters broke through a security deployment and reached the platforms. A protest at a highway in Bologna was dispersed by water cannon and smoke bombs, with at least eight arrests, while a separate group disrupted lectures at the University of Bologna. Protesters in Rome gathered outside the Termini railway station, forcing the cancellation of several services, and broke during lectures at Sapienza University, while dockworkers in Genoa, La Spezia, Ravenna, Trieste, Venice and Livorno halted all arms transfers to Israel and other protesters blocked the entrance to the ports. Other major student and workers' actions took place in Turin, Palermo, Catania, Potenza, Bari, Lecce, Brindisi, Sassari, Cagliari, Bolzano, Pisa, Calenzano, Campi Bisenzio (the location of a Leonardo weapons factory), Brescia and Novara.
On 24 September, the Italian minister of defence Guido Crosetto expressed his condemnation of the recent drone attacks on the Global Sumud Flotilla and announced that, after consulting with the Chief of the Defence Staff General Luciano Portolano and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, he had authorized the immediate dispatch of the multipurpose frigate Virginio Fasan to assist Italian citizens on board the flotilla, of which he had informed the military attaché of the Israeli Defence Forces in Italy.
The attacks had caused protests in many places of Italy. The very first reaction was from CGIL, which announced an immediate protest in Piazza di Monte Citorio in Rome (where the Chamber of Deputies is located). Another protest in Rome, protesting armament sale to Israel and involving action in front of a Rheinmetall factory, continued even after the arrival of law enforcement, with some individuals chaining themselves to the entrance of the building. Student movements in Rome also occupied various universities and schools, protesting the attack on the Flotilla; students at Sapienza University announced a permanent occupation of the faculty until agreements with Israeli universities are suspended, following the example of other Italian institutions. In Turin, at least over two thousand people reunited in Piazza Castello, making its way to the Torino Porta Susa railway station; after reaching the station, some of the protesters entered the trains where they shouted and hanged various slogans and posters, whilst others, around 20:00 local time, occupied the railway track of the station, blocking the circulation of the local train. In Florence, students organized a protest which started in Via Santo Spirito and ended in front of the local U.S. consulate. Meanwhile, at the port of Livorno and the port of Taranto, protests prevented Israeli ships from docking. In Milan, a protest sponsored by CUB started in Piazza della Scala before going towards Piazza Castello, with protesters chanting "Bella ciao". In Pisa, a protest started in Piazza XX Settembre, before the protesters occupied the San Rossore railway station, preventing various trains from circulating. In Bologna, the Prima Piazza del Nettuno and its surrounding areas were occupied by a protest which counted thousands of people with many of them asking for Israeli exclusion from the Giro dell'Emilia; the University of Bologna was also occupied. Protests also took place in Osnago, Cuneo and Verona. On September 25, protests continued, including one in Macerata in which the group "Saturdays for Palestine" protested in Piazza della Libertà, one in Spoleto and one in Chieti. CGIL Catania also protested in Piazza Stesicoro with a partial strike and demonstration.
USB announced that on 26 September a new general strike, with the same goals as the last one, was going to be held due to the renewed Israeli attacks of 24 September. Starting from that day, USB, along with Global Movement for Gaza and Palestinian associations in Italy, set up a permanent mobilization across squares and public spaces in the country, named 100 Piazze per Gaza and beginning in Piazza dei Cinquecento in Rome. Organizers vowed to escalate the pressure on the government on the next national demonstration, to be held in Rome on 4 October. On 26 September, neofascist party Forza Nuova participated in the protests, condemning Italy whilst also ridiculing and antagonizing left-wing protesters. Despite moments of tensions the two groups did not have an escalation. In the late hours of 27 September, dockworkers at the port of Genoa blocked a weapons cargo from being loaded on the Israel-bound Zim New Zealand vessel, forcing it to leave empty; this followed a day of public demonstrations organized by Collettivo Autonomo Laboratori Portuali (CALP), Music For Peace, USB, CGIL, UIL, student unions and the local Catholic clergy, and led by the mayor of the city Silvia Salis and the president of Liguria Marco Bucci; it also saw the continued occupation of the University of Genoa and a public assembly among delegations of dockworkers' unions from around Europe, including France, Greece, Slovenia, Cyprus, the Basque Country and Hamburg. In the following days, dockworkers in Livorno refused to work for another Zim vessel, the Virginia, while a protest in Taranto blocked an Eni oil cargo to Israel, the Seasalvia, for several hours before it was able to depart.
Second strike and aftermath
October
CGIL and USB threatened another strike in the event of an Israeli attack on the Sumud Flotilla; this was confirmed by both trade unions on 1 October, when Israel started boarding GSF ships, with general strikes proclaimed for October 3 in conjunction with an alteady planned railway strike. CGIL secretary Maurizio Landini called the Israeli interception "an act of war", while Minister of Transport Matteo Salvini stated that the government "would not tolerate" a second strike. In the hours following the attack and all through the next day, spontaneous protests and mobilizations erupted in the main cities of the country, namely Rome (university, Piazza dei Cinquecento, Termini station and facing Palazzo Chigi), Milan (university, Cadorna station and Piazza della Scala), Naples (Federico II University, L'Orientale University and Centrale station), Turin (university and Porta Nuova station), Bologna (university
and Piazza Maggiore), Palermo (Piazza Sant'Anna), Florence (Piazza Santissima Annunziata and Santa Maria Novella station), Genoa (university and port), Livorno (port), Pisa (university, Centrale station and Palazzo Ricci), Bari (university and the municipality itself, led by Vito Leccese), Siena (Piazza del Campo) and others, with student collectives setting up permanent occupations in their faculties and schools.
The San Marino Confederation of Labour supported the general strikes openly and supported those willing to protest.
On the day of the strike, which was shorter than the previous one but was equally joined by hundreds of thousands of citizens, there were delays and cancellations in railway transport, and several highways and ports were blocked by protesters. Clashes with police forces occurred at the RA 1 and A 51 highways outside Bologna and Milan, respectively.