It's happening something is moving. Hundreds of thousands of people some
even say a million! - took to the streets on Monday, September 22,against the war and the genocide in Palestine, responding to the general
strike called by USB, CUB, and other grassroots unions. ---- The
novelty, however, does not lie so much in the numbers which are
exceptional in recent years for a strike organized by base unions nor
in the concrete force of the slogan "Let's block everything!", which
undoubtedly managed to transform protest into material action.
What is new is that, at the end of the demonstrations held in more than
80 towns, in some cities people did not go back home. That same day or
in the immediately following days, permanent encampments sprang up in
public squares, industrial zones, and port areas, with tents, gazebos,
and assemblies.
Similar initiatives have continued to appear even days later. After
weeks of local assemblies and protests against the genocide in Palestine
and in support of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which took place at a rapid
pace at the beginning of September, the general strike opened a new and
more intense phase of mobilization.
With agitation spreading to ports and many workplaces, and with
permanent protest camps, the movement is gradually moving beyond single
days of action and beginning to build an everyday dimension of struggle.
This is a developing dynamic in which we see participation and
involvement expanding to social sectors that had not previously taken to
the streets.
Certainly, union leaderships influenced by authoritarian political
tendencies still play a central role.
But it must be acknowledged that opposition to the war has already shown
it can engage workers regardless of their union affiliation and involve
far broader social sectors.
For this reason, it is essential that we play our part, clearly putting
antimilitarism at the center wherever possible, aware that in such a
fluid situation not only libertarian practices and methods can find
space, but also new and radical issues and goals.
September 22 surprised many. It has been called unexpected, but in
reality it was long prepared.
The antiwar strikes of recent years - in which the anarchist and
anarcho-syndicalist components present in base unionism were deeply
involved - have certainly provided common ground for trying to bring the
general strike back to the forefront of opposition to war. The belief
was that only the working class has the power to stop the production and
trade of armaments, to halt the arms race, and to resist the recruitment
of society as a whole into the war policies of governments.
The work of some groups of workers - such as the Autonomous Collective
of Port Workers of Genoa, the Autonomous Group of Port Workers of
Livorno, Railworkers Against the War, and the Observatory Against the
Militarization of Schools and Universities - though starting from very
different positions and often with small numbers, has built solidarity
networks and targeted campaigns over the years, raising awareness about
the role of infrastructure and institutions in militarist policies and
creating conditions in workplaces to take the initiative against war.
The conditions that made this day of strike successful were created by
the arrogance of governments themselves - especially the current
government led by Giorgia Meloni and the main parliamentary parties - in
supporting rearmament policies, increased military spending, Italy's
deeper involvement in wars, and backing the State of Israel.
Moreover, this strike was prepared in some local contexts through
expanded organizational processes and was called in a climate of growing
public attention on Gaza and the Flotilla.
Thus, despite disinformation about the right to strike, the low
visibility in mainstream media, and the intervention of the Strike
Guarantee Commission against some unions - in particular against USI-CIT
- nothing could stop the momentum of September 22.
Even the strike called by the CGIL for Friday, September 19 - falsely
presented as a general strike - did not, as some bureaucrats would have
hoped, undercut the general strike on the 22nd but instead almost had
the opposite effect.
This outcome was by no means guaranteed, since it was a wholly political
strike - in solidarity with Gaza, with the Global Sumud Flotilla,
against rearmament and the war economy.
But precisely because of this, it succeeded in channeling the antiwar
sentiment already present in society and bringing to the political level
the humanitarian urgency that had mobilized tens of thousands of people
in recent weeks in collecting supplies for the Flotilla.
At a time when the world's powerful are playing with war more
dangerously than ever, risking an escalation of the conflict in Eastern
Europe, while the State of Israel pushes its plans of deportation and
genocide against the Palestinian population of Gaza to the extreme, it
is clear:
Many are saying we are witnessing the birth of a new movement.
What is certain is that no one will be able to claim any longer - as
many have until now - that opposition to war exists only in opinion
polls and not in the streets.
With blockades of port gates, highway exits, train stations, and major
transport arteries, this opposition has been given a concrete political
outlet.
In Livorno, Taranto, and Genoa, there have been victories - partial,
yes, but victories nonetheless - because the mobilization of workers and
a broad solidarity movement effectively blocked the unloading of ships
carrying military cargo or otherwise implicated in the genocidal and
militarist policies of the State of Israel.
Now we need to go all the way.
This means not only bringing an antimilitarist, internationalist - in
short, revolutionary - perspective into these mobilizations.
But above all, it means spreading the practice of direct action, outside
and against institutional mediation; fostering forms of
self-organization and horizontal decision-making to broaden
participation; and multiplying blockades until they become a mass practice.
Let's make those tremble who seek to impose a regime of terror and fear
upon us.
Let's make the ground crumble under the feet of those who wage war.
Dario Antonelli
https://umanitanova.org/blocchiamo-tutto-3/
_________________________________________
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