{"id":19786,"date":"2024-11-30T05:41:22","date_gmt":"2024-11-30T05:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=19786"},"modified":"2024-11-30T05:41:22","modified_gmt":"2024-11-30T05:41:22","slug":"general-strike-in-italy-opposes-fascist-prime-minister-melonis-austerity-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=19786","title":{"rendered":"General strike in Italy opposes fascist Prime Minister Meloni\u2019s austerity budget"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Last Friday, half a million workers across Italy went on a one-day nationwide strike. The strike, called by several unions in response to mounting pressures from the rank and file, reflects broad working class opposition to the austerity policies and deepening social inequality overseen by fascist Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. <\/p>\n

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Workers hold a banner reading “wrong budget law, general strike” as they gather during a public and private sectors’ national strike called by the labor unions to protest against government’s budget law in Rome, Friday, November 29, 2024. [AP Photo\/Gregorio Borgia]<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many sections of workers participated in the strike action, and protest marches were held in dozens of cities. Public transport was affected in numerous cities, as bus, subway and tramway drivers walked off the job. Baggage handlers at Milan and Venice airports went on strike, as did WizzAir Malta pilots and cabin crew. Public schools were significantly impacted as teachers struck to demand better funding and to oppose austerity measures. Stellantis workers struck in Naples, as did workers at the Fincantieri shipbuilders and auto parts maker Marelli.<\/p>\n

Italian workers oppose the Meloni government\u2019s 2025 budget, which includes massive cuts to all social programs but increases the military budget by \u20ac2 billion, bringing it to a record \u20ac32 billion. This aligns the Meloni government with NATO\u2019s spending objectives amid its war with Russia in Ukraine. Proposed, across-the-board 5 percent cuts would devastate Italy\u2019s public healthcare system, already teetering on the brink of collapse due to underfunding and staffing shortages. The same would apply to education, transportation and other essential services.<\/p>\n

Public sector workers are being offered a paltry 6 percent wage increase over three years, against a cumulative increase in essential living costs since 2021 estimated at 16 percent. Furthermore, pensions are set to rise by a tiny \u20ac3 per month, while the Fornero Law raising the retirement age remains in force.<\/p>\n

Workers also protested increasingly perilous working conditions leading to deaths on the job, dubbed by workers as \u201cworkplace homicides.\u201d Moreover, the government\u2019s draconian \u201cSecurity Decree 1660\u201d has introduced harsh penalties against various forms of protest and dissent, aimed at workers in general and immigrants in particular.<\/p>\n

Against the strike and its impact on public transport, far-right Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini threatened to invoke minimum service requirements, which seek to curtail the right to strike inscribed in Article 40 of the Italian Constitution.<\/p>\n

These measures are part of an escalating, global class war waged by the capitalist ruling elites on the workers that is provoking mounting opposition. The bourgeoisie\u2019s savage movement to the right is epitomized by Meloni\u2019s close ties with the cabal around fascist US President-elect Donald Trump, which is preparing a staggering $2 trillion austerity program against US workers to be overseen by the world\u2019s richest man, billionaire Elon Musk.<\/p>\n