{"id":5158,"date":"2026-05-20T11:30:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T09:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eurof-wftu.eu\/?p=5158"},"modified":"2026-05-20T11:37:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T09:37:44","slug":"usb-on-18-may-take-to-the-streets-for-palestine-against-rearmament-and-the-complicity-of-the-italian-government-and-the-eu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eurof-wftu.eu\/?p=5158","title":{"rendered":"USB: On 18 May, take to the streets for Palestine, against rearmament and the complicity of the Italian government and the EU"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

And so in Marmaris, Turkey, the 300 activists who have decided to risk their own safety to denounce Israel\u2019s barbarity and come to the aid of the Palestinian people have set aside all reservations: the voyage to Gaza is resuming. There has been no shortage of attempts in recent days to dissuade them and make them turn back. Israel tried, with the illegal arrest of Thiago and Saif, the beating of many of their comrades, and the disabling of several boats left adrift, with crews on board and the sea in a storm. Then various European governments tried, starting with the Greek government, which demonstrated full complicity with Tel Aviv by failing to exercise any sovereignty over waters far removed from the Israeli coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yestarday, 12 May, the European Union has made it known that the Flotilla will not enjoy any protection on its voyage to Gaza: this is nothing new, it has already happened on previous occasions, but stating it explicitly has a certain impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Italian government remains silent, or rather reveals itself to be pro-European, in the sense of falling in line with other countries that are failing to defend their citizens who are courageously setting out simply to uphold the rights of a people, to bring aid, and to denounce the unbearable daily horror emerging from the rubble of Gaza and much of Palestine and Lebanon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only ones lending a hand to this group of brave souls are the people themselves, the workers, the \u2018Gaza generation\u2019 or the \u2018people of autumn\u2019, whatever one chooses to call them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The general strike serves this very purpose: to allow this world to make itself heard once more and to act as a ground crew to propel those boats forward \u2013 the boats of hope, the boats of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strike must embody all the issues we have been raising in recent months and which have been at the heart of the sectoral strikes carried out in recent weeks, from public sector workers to dockers, from transport strikes to protests against redundancies in the logistics sector, from the school strike just a few days ago to the national strike by social cooperatives, which coincidentally falls on 18 May. Each of these protests has its own specific character, yet they all speak to a state of working life in Italy that is under constant attack in terms of rights, wages and organisational structures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is right that the strike on the 18th should give voice to these causes, which are once again fuelling a social conflict for which there is a great need. But this general strike also speaks to us, above all, of the desire to put a stop to barbarism and to force the Meloni government to sever ties with a terrorist state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a strike to tell our brothers and sisters on the Flotilla: we are here, you are not alone, and we will do everything we can to protect you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a strike to support the trampled rights of the Palestinians and to assert their sacrosanct right to live in peace on their land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a strike against rearmament and the many aggressions against peoples that this rearmament supports; it is part of the constant and concrete initiatives such as the strike against arms, conscientious objection and the international mobilisations that USB has been carrying out for months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In every city and every town, it is time to prepare for a general mobilisation, without fear and without hesitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strike was called by the USB but belongs to all workers; it was called in full compliance with the damned current regulations, and is open to everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us recall the events ahead of us: on 16 May, the two demonstrations in Rome and Milan for Palestine to mark the anniversary of the Nakba \u2013 18 May, demonstrations in all cities to mark the general strike \u2013 23 May, a national workers\u2019 demonstration in Rome for wages and against the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here some of the photos from the general strike in all Italy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And so in Marmaris, Turkey, the 300 activists who have decided to risk their own safety to denounce Israel\u2019s barbarity and come to the aid of the Palestinian people have set aside all reservations: the voyage to Gaza is resuming. There has been no shortage of attempts in recent days to dissuade them and make them turn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":5163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-latest_events_across_europe"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eurof-wftu.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eurof-wftu.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eurof-wftu.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eurof-wftu.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eurof-wftu.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5158"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eurof-wftu.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5165,"href":"https:\/\/eurof-wftu.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5158\/revisions\/5165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eurof-wftu.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eurof-wftu.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eurof-wftu.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eurof-wftu.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}