The European office of the World Federation of Trade Union expresses strong concern about the provisions contained in Bill 1660, which the Italian Parliament is currently approving and which contains numerous repressive regulations, including on trade union activity.
The European Bureau of the WFTU emphasises that the plans to toughen penalties for crimes such as roadblocks during demonstrations, occupation of buildings by the homeless, imprisonment even of mothers with newborn children, arrests of those who deface monuments or government buildings during environmental demonstrations, the toughening of penalties for protests and disturbances in prisons and for passive resistance, etc. are unacceptable, they reveal the will of the Italian government to severely punish combative trade unionists, to limit social and trade union conflict through a harsh repressive crackdown instead of working to address the serious social and labour problems that generate conflict behaviour.
The European Regional Office of the World Trade Union Federation stands by the struggles and supports all mobilisations to reject this repressive drift and demands the cancellation of the bill.
