More than 5,000 metalworkers took to the streets of Genoa as part of the sector’s general strike called in support of the struggle of the workers of the former Ilva steelworks. Workers used heavy vehicles such as trucks, cranes or tractors to block streets and highways, and faced brutal police repression to fight against the imminent closure of the steel mill that would leave 1,200 workers on the streets.
The Government responded to the mobilization with a deployment of armored police vehicles, which reminded many of images from the 2001 G8 summit. The police unleashed a hail of tear gas on the striking workers, who then continued their march to block some tracks at the Brignole station and marched back to the Cornigliano plant, where the protest continued into the night.
The march, which was called by Fiom, USB and FIM, had found its way blocked by police fences that prevented them from passing, so they had no choice but to tie cables to the fences and remove them with their vehicles, which unleashed police repression.
Genoa has been becoming a laboratory of class struggle. In recent months it was the scene of the call to block European ports in solidarity with the Palestinian people and the Sumud Global Flotilla and against the genocide perpetrated by Israel. This call became a reality on September 22 in the day between dock workers, grassroots unions and students in the “We Block Everything” day and then in a political general strike on October 3 in solidarity with Palestine, in which due to pressure from the base the main trade union center in Italy, the CGIL, was also forced to convene.
These actions recently had their correlation in a new strike and mobilization called by the grassroots unions, this time without the support of the CGIL, this past November 28 and 29.
Genoa became the center of deliberations, assemblies and actions of the worker and student vanguard, including, together with the port of Livorno, the blockade of ships carrying war material to Israel, and now in the fight against the war budget, armemntista and adjuster of the Meloni Government.
This general metallurgical strike in support of the workers of the old Ilva steelworks, and the confrontation with the Police, is just the latest example of a new generation that is being created from Genoa and that is an example not only for Italy but for the workers and youth of Europe and the world.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
