Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Italy Paralyzed as Anti-Genocide Protesters Take the Streets
The Cradle News Desk
24 Sep 2025
🖨️ Print Article
Protest
(Photo credit: Matteo Ciambelli/Reuters)

Walkouts in over 60 cities disrupted trains, ports, and schools to protest Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Originally published in The Cradle.

Workers across Italy launched a nationwide strike on 22 September to oppose Israel’s genocide in Gaza, halting public transport, rail services, schools, public offices, and ports in more than 60 cities.

Italian grassroots trade union, Unione Sindacale di Base (USB), called the strike to force Rome to “immediately break off relations with the terrorist state of Israel, which is the concrete way in which Italy can, and must, react to the genocide that is taking place.”

Rail freight was suspended on Sunday night, with ports including Ravenna, Livorno, Trieste, and Genoa joining the actions.

In Genoa, dockworkers blocked a vessel scheduled for Israel, while in Livorno, access to the port was restricted by protesters.

In Rome, several regional trains were canceled and others delayed for more than an hour, while in Milan, the city’s M4 metro line was shut down. 

Students in Bologna occupied university lecture halls under the banner of the Cambiare Rotta group. Demonstrators also marched through Milan in heavy rain to demand a ceasefire and express support for the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla.

USB said protests were taking place in 81 locations across Italy, declaring, “For a free Palestine from the river to the sea, we will shout in every square.”

UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese voiced support for the strikes, writing on X, “In Italy, the general strike has shut down train lines, ports, highways, schools & shops. With a genocide ongoing, there can be NO business as usual. Stay peaceful, everyone. Do not react to any provocation. Freedom for all allows no mistakes.”

Protest organizers said more than 200 lawyers had issued an appeal to end Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani recently told the Senate that Rome was prepared to consider EU trade sanctions against Israel, including measures targeting Israeli ministers over what he called “unacceptable” policies in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, on 17 September, threatened retaliation against EU member states if the European Commission moves forward with proposed sanctions on Israel.

Italy
Palestine
General Strike
protest
Genocide
Israel

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Anti-Imperialist Scholars Collective
AISC Red Paper #2: The Multiple Fronts of Iranian Anti-Imperialism
26 August 2026
The Anti-Imperialist Scholars Collective (AISC) offers an analysis of the Ramadan War and the multiple fronts of Iranian anti- imperi
Ramzy Baroud
Solidarity Is Not Enough
19 August 2026
Why the world must force accountability on Gaza now.
Hedelberto López Blanch
A Shady Figure Will Preside Over Colombia
19 August 2026
Colombia's new president has ties to paramilitaries and drug traffickers, but Trump's endorsement swept his crimes aside as he embraces Washing
Natalia Junquera , Elena Reina
Fergie Chambers, the Millionaire Activist Arrested in Ibiza: “I am a human rights advocate”
19 August 2026
The American's lawyers, led by Baltasar Garzón, denounce a "political persecution" by Trump for his support of Palestine.
x
Craig Mokhiber
No, Israel does not have ‘a right to exist.’ Quite the contrary, actually.
04 August 2026
"Unlike the Zionist claim that 'Israel has a right to exist,' my assertion is rooted in international law.
x
Gary Wilson
They came to Spain for work. Washington called it an invasion.
04 August 2026
"Israel and Washington use Ceuta and Melilla to attack Spain for naming the genocide in Gaza.
Nicaragua
Becca Renk Foster
Nicaragua to Raise Its Voice for Palestine in Another Landmark Case at the ICJ
04 August 2026
Against the backdrop of Israel’s renewed attacks on Palestine, the World Court is set to hold public hearings in Septembe
Ramzy Baroud
The Spark in Tell: How a Village Resistance Disrupted Israel’s West Bank Strategy
29 July 2026
Palestinians have the right to defend themselves under international law and they exercised it in the town of Tell on the West Bank. 
Carlos Aznárez
Zionist Expansionism in Latin America
22 July 2026
Free trade deals, water contracts, and military training programs are quietly binding one Latin American government after another to Tel Aviv.
Noah Hurowitz
Trump’s Sanctions Against the ICC Are Unconstitutional, Rights Groups Say
22 July 2026
The human rights groups’ suit came as the Trump administration vowed to destroy the International Criminal Court entirely.

More Stories


  • From Palestine to Colombia: The End of the White World Colonial/Capitalist Project?
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    From Palestine to Colombia: The End of the White World Colonial/Capitalist Project?
    12 May 2021
    Despite the quickening decline of the “West,” the US and its junior partners in imperialism are determined to hold humanity hostage to terminal capitalist greed and violence.
  • The acrobats are back…(gimme a bleepin’ break!)
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    The acrobats are back…(gimme a bleepin’ break!)
    12 May 2021
    The acrobats are back—riding bareback and backwards on Donkeys! They’re back juggling hocus-pocus focus groups; Back, spinning Wall Street straw into fools’ gold for the war-
  • The USA – Immoral, Illegal, Irredeemable, and Irrelevantto Global Africa’s Liberation Struggle
    Mark P. Fancher
    The USA – Immoral, Illegal, Irredeemable, and Irrelevantto Global Africa’s Liberation Struggle
    12 May 2021
    The U.S. can never be reformed to render justice to its African residents. “Our struggle must have Africa at its core.”
  • Police and the License to Kill
    Matthew D. Lassiter
    Police and the License to Kill
    12 May 2021
    Detroit’s wanton killing of hundreds of Blacks in the civil right era shows why most of today’s proposals to make police more accountable are bound to fail.
  • BAR Book Forum: Short Meditations on Christina Sharpe’s “In the Wake”
    Tiana Reid
    BAR Book Forum: Short Meditations on Christina Sharpe’s “In the Wake”
    12 May 2021
    There was no way to make light of this daunting book and its effects on me, no matter how much I thought I knew it.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us