Today, September 22, Italy stops for the general strike proclaimed by the basic unions. Transport, schools, ports, logistics, taxi: entire sectors come together in a mobilization that concerns everyone. It is not just a day of inconvenience, but a political, symbolic and collective act. Because each strike brings with it a simple truth: protesting is never useless. The story shows that going down to the square, stopping and raising the voice can really change the course of events.
Strike means interrupting everyday life, removing strength to a system that stands on the normality of production and consumption and governments. It is a gesture that highlights a contradiction: not everything can continue as if nothing had happened when the rights are trampled on, when the injustices multiply or when peace is threatened.
Not surprisingly, the strike and public protest were among the main tools for conquering social, civil and political rights all over the world.
When the strikes changed history in Italy
Not everyone knows it, but Italy is a country that owes a lot to collective mobilizations:
Global protests that made the difference
Not only in Italy, but everywhere in the world, the squares have scored turning moments:
Today’s squares: from peace to climate
The manifestations do not belong only to the past. In recent times, movements such as Fridays for Future, born from the protests of Greta Thunberg, have put the climatic crisis back to the center of the world political agenda. In the same way, the great events for peace, the LGBTQ+rights, gender equality or against racial violence continue to mark (or at least trying!) Contemporary history.
Every time different people unite behind a common goal, something happens: political language changes, a public debate lights up, the institutions move.
Because we must not remain silent
To say that strike is useless means ignoring history. The achievements of which we enjoy – holidays, disease, working hours, freedom of expression, civil rights – are the result of sacrifices, strikes and protests.
Today, September 22, the general strike recalls once again to collective responsibility: do not remain indifferent to a genocide. Even those who cannot be physically in the square can still support mobilization, spreading information, participating in local garrisons, wearing symbols of solidarity or supporting peace initiatives.
Strike and protest has never been an empty gesture. On the contrary, it is an act of civil resistance that has changed and will continue to change history. Today like yesterday, the squares are the place where people remind the powerful that power does not belong to a few, but everyone. And that silence, in front of injustice, is never an option.
