The October 11 General Strike in Italy – SI Cobas

On Monday, October 11 a general strike was called in Italy by fifteen alternative unions. It was the first such unitary strike in over one decade, in the effort to break the silence imposed on the working class by the official unions (CGIL, CISL and UIL), which prefer “concerting” with the government than organising struggles in defence of workers’ conditions.

The strike has been called against the government and the bosses to support a list of demands, among which:

· Wage increases to recover lost purchasing power and rising inflation (from petrol to gas and electricity rates);

· stop dismissals of workers; reduction in working hours, with wage compensation, in order to “work less, work everybody”;

· a living minimum wage and unemployment benefits;

· permanent jobs against precariousness of temporary and fixed time jobs;

· no taxes on living wages, 10 percent wealth tax on the wealthiest 10 percent;

· public, universal, free healthcare, aimed at prevention, not profit; safety measures against covid and workplace accidents;

· stop repression of workers’ struggles; cancel security decrees against immigrants and social struggles; freedom of organisation and strike, democratic representation of workers, end official unions’ monopoly;

· equal rights for immigrants, real parity for women, end gender oppression;

· no military expenses, withdraw troops from overseas.

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