Strike, tyres set on fire at the port of Genoa and manure dumped outside Turin's City Hall

In Genoa, tyres were burned at the Albertazzi port gate on the morning of Friday, October 30, as part of the national mobilisation called by the Usb. The dockworkers’ sit-in was scheduled for 9:30 am precisely at the Albertazzi gate, while the gathering of other categories for the march was set for 10 am outside Genova Principe station. According to the Rai Tgr Liguria newsroom, several thousand students and workers also joined the Genoa march.

In Turin, the protest took a different form: some farmers overturned two bins of manure in Piazza Palazzo di Città, outside the City Hall, as a demonstrative gesture as part of the same mobilisation day.

Both initiatives are part of the 24-hour general strike called by the Unione sindacale di base against the cost of living, low wages and rearmament, already underway since morning with demonstrations announced in more than 50 Italian cities, from Bolzano to Cagliari, from Pesaro to Lecce. In Rome, the march stopped outside the Ministry of Transport to protest against Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Matteo Salvini.

On the rail front, there has been a development compared to what was expected in the morning: the Guarantee Commission found that the time window set for the sector strike had not been respected, and the strike was consequently revoked. Trenitalia, Italo and Trenord operated on their ordinary schedule for the entire day, without the restrictions initially planned for the rail sector.

Among the slogans of the Rome march, a banner by the Usb read: “We produce wealth, you are thieves of the future.”

The mobilisation day, born as a response to rearmament policies and the loss of purchasing power of wages and pensions, thus resulted in forms of protest that varied by territory: blockades and symbolic fires at ports, demonstrative gestures outside local institutions, mass marches in major cities, while rail transport remained regular due to the revocation of the rail component of the strike.