Italy
IMAGO/ZUMA Press Wire
Labour solidarity is at the heart of the Blocchiamo Tutto movement
Although it had been simmering for months, few foresaw the magnitude of what unfolded between 22 September and 4 October 2025, when Italy — long perceived as apathetic, politically demobilized, and fragmented — suddenly came to a standstill. Under the cry “Blocchiamo Tutto”, Let’s Block Everything, a mass mobilization for the people of Gaza spread from the ports of Genoa and Livorno to the schools of Naples and the railway stations of Milan, Rome, and Bologna.
What began on 22 September as ...
read more "The Days Italy Stood Still"
read more "The Days Italy Stood Still"
IMAGO/ZUMA Press Wire
It had been in the air for some time. The massive rally in Berlin over the weekend was only the latest sign of a growing continental momentum. The mobilisation in Italy has taken this dynamic to a new level. No one expected a wave of such magnitude: On Monday 22 September, tens of thousands marched across Italy to condemn the genocide in Gaza, taking part in strikes and blockades in a demonstration under the Slogan “Blocchiamo Tutto” ("Let’s Block Everything").
The general strike called by grassroots trade unions, primarily the Unione Sindacale di Base (USB), and ...
read more "If Not Now, When?"
read more "If Not Now, When?"
“Macron 2017 = Le Pen 2022” — upon the first election of France’s uber-neoliberal president, a slogan graffitied across Paris echoed left-wing common sense about the collapsing political centre. After Donald Trump’s ascent to the US presidency and the Brexit referendum, corporate liberalism stood accused of driving the losers of globalization into the arms of nationalists promising to protect them.
Yet during the pandemic, the centre-left claimed a series of victories that, some claimed, marked the ebbing of this threat. With Trump out of office, the ...
read more "The Far Right Is Here to Stay"
read more "The Far Right Is Here to Stay"
Italy received the largest allocation of funds ever for a member state at European level as part of the Recovery program. The €235 billion Italian Recovery Plan (NRP) are to grow the aims to revive the economy after the shock caused by Covid-19. This unprecedented European investment program is also supposed to drive the energy transition and help achieve Italy’s climate objectives. One of the first consequences of the recovery program was political instability that has already consumed to two governments and put in place an ...
read more "Italian Recovery Plan: a short sighted plan guiding the future"
read more "Italian Recovery Plan: a short sighted plan guiding the future"
These national elections have been characterised by the lowest electoral turnout in the history of the Italian Republic. Abstention is higher among low-income social classes, suggesting a worrying return of voting based on the census. The electoral system penalises the lists running out of the main coalitions, such as the new-born Popular Union, pushing leftist voters to express a “responsible” vote for the major parties. Overall, the victory of the right-wing coalition with 44 percent is not striking: it is true that the ...
read more "The heritage of Draghi: abstention triumphs, the right wins"
read more "The heritage of Draghi: abstention triumphs, the right wins"
About the book
The agricultural produce that ends up on our table from supermarket shelves and market stalls does not tell the story of the lives of the countless men and women who toil in the fields and greenhouses of Italy in conditions and at a pace that are often reminiscent of modern slavery.
In this production chain, thousands of “invisible” workers, many of them migrants, are isolated by Italian law and easily blackmailed due to the indifference of the European Union and its inability to agree on harmonisation processes for the effective ...
read more "The Struggle of Farm Workers in Italy"
read more "The Struggle of Farm Workers in Italy"
Right in the middle of this second wave of the pandemic, just ahead of the presentation of Italy’s recovery plan, a political crisis inside the government majority has deepened the current uncertainty. While it is hard to understand at first sight, there are reasons for the political crisis – and there is already a winner.
Long-standing tensions inside the majority
Ultimately, the cracks in the governing majority broke wide open. Tensions had been high in the government majority for months. The political crisis ...
read more "Political crisis hits Italy right in the middle of the pandemic"
read more "Political crisis hits Italy right in the middle of the pandemic"
Left-wing responses to the economic crisis after CoronaWhile politicians argue about whether it is "socially legitimate" and "economically acceptable" to tax the wealth of the rich, a recently published study reveals a growing social and economic gap between workers and capital owners. What have been the fiscal and economic policy responses of the Italian government to this growing inequality and what left-wing solutions are being put forward?
When considering Italy's current economic and financial crisis, one must take into account two premises. Firstly, since ...
read more "From one crisis to the next?"
read more "From one crisis to the next?"
After the three-month lockdown from March to May 2020, Italian national and regional government has done little to prepare adequately for the second wave. This has led to a deepening of the health and social crisis: According to experts, the virus is almost impossible to control, the intensive care units in hospitals are overloaded and healthcare workers are reaching their limits.
"With this level of new infections, the number of tests carried out no longer makes sense. It made sense to do 400,000 tests a day to break the chain of infection. But now the virus has got...
read more "An announced catastrophe"
read more "An announced catastrophe"
The health and social crisis is worsening in Italy. The government is threatening a new lockdown, but supporting measures for workers remain insufficient. Meanwhile, social protests are spreading all over the country and caused a public debate going far beyond national borders.
At the beginning of July of this year the Italian interior minister, Luciana Lamorgese, in an interview on Italian state TV, expressed fears that the country was headed towards crisis: “I think there’s a real risk of a new 'hot autumn' because in September we will start to see ...
read more "Social protests in times of pandemic"
read more "Social protests in times of pandemic"