General strike cripples Italy

ROME (AFP) - Italy ground to a halt as millions of workers observed a general strike in protest against the economic policies of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right government.

Office shutters rattled down and industries across the country came to a standstill as noisy and colourful columns of demonstrators filed through the centres of Rome, Turin, Milan and other main cities.

Unions claimed millions of protesters took to the streets as public service workers went on strike for eight hours and other sectors opted for four-hour stoppages.

"Millions of workers are on the streets" around the country the leader of the Catholic CISL union, Savino Pezzotta, told a rally in Venice's St Mark's Square, where around 35,000 demonstrators braved heavy rain and seasonal floodwaters.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041130/bs_afp/italy_politics_strike_041130145240&e=2

Everyone bitches about the DNC and Kerry...what are we doing?
Say the word, I'll walk out of work right now.
Edited to say:
Who's with me?

I hear about this and Ukraine and Romania and Puerto Rico. Are we all sheep in this country?

I have known many a sheep in my day and they are nowhere near as willfully ignorant as Americans. This country has praticed and perfected the art of denial, aided and abetted by mass media, government propaganda the likes of which have not been witnessed since the rise of Goebbels and the power elite that pulls all the strings.

:toast:

Americans are not.

more closely resemble the turkey farm the week before Thanksgiving.

Anyone seen Tom? How 'bou Bob? They wuz just here...and what's all that squawking in the shed about?

it would be best to organize this so that at least the rest of the blue states joined us. Come to think of it, the blue states are the wealthiest states and the largest producers aren't they? If they just walked for one day their voices might be taken more seriously.

I can hit up my e-mail list and convince all of them and no one would even notice we were missing.
How to spread the word, I wonder? Any ideas at all?
The response in the activism forum was tepid, at best.

The Article 40 in the Italian Constitution grants workers the right to strike.

It's interesting to add that when this article was introduced, the "wise" Italian legislators forgot to remove a Fascist Law (Rocco Code, articles 506, 512, 330, 331) which made striking a crime.

Welcome to DU! :hi:
Are you an Italian, perchance?

But I'm also an American.

As long as you're not one of those ugly Americans. :toast:

I live in one of the bluest areas in the US... and left Italy when the fascists took over in 94.

Was the build up the same as you see taking place in the U.S.? Where are you going to flee to next when the takeover is complete?

...chickens have juevos.

There are a bunch of folks here with no job to walk out of.
A little solidarity would be a powerful message...a lot more powerful than bitching about Kerry in any one of dozens (if not hundreds) of "We wuz robbed by the repukes, so pig-pile on Kerry" threads.

... he'll always be a slave to crypto-fascist profiteers.

...screw "speaking with my vote". They muzzled me.
I want to hit 'em in the wallet now.

actually FIGHT for their rights.

At this rate we're going to have to pretend to have WMD's so someone will come liberate us. We seem to have lost the touch sometime over the last couple of centuries.

Nope, no pretending need be done. We already have plenty -- but B*sh won't mention that tidbit.

The question is: if another country invades us, topples our government, and occupies the country (because of our WMDs), and the Freepers fight back -- you think they'll consider themselves "insurgents" or terrorists?

Martyrs! Hypocrisy enough to make you hurl.

no one forgot to turn my wheel of Parmigana Reggiano

I'll ask around... :D

haven't stopped roasting my Lavazza ...... I'm down to only 2 kilos in-house ... yanno?

They'll be stepping over our bleached bones and weather-faded picket signs to get into the importe shoppe. :eyes:

During those two weeks they had FOUR major strikes. A postal strike. A gas strike. A transportation strike. And the last one, I forget. Too many to keep track of. I must say, it kept the vacation interesting, trying to avoid the strike problems. :crazy:

was "Sciopero" Srike! I miss it. In Italy, everyone's hobby is politics and world/current events. Here, tractor pulls and Fear Factor.

We were in Paris this past spring and there was a one day strike that stopped a large part of the bus system (due to the striker's route of march). We were at the Eiffel Tower when we saw the strikers marching. The national police were in combat fatigues with automatic rifles on display and the streets around the tower were completely blocked for a while. We had no idea what was going on and, frankly, were a little frightened at the massive show of force.

The French, on the other hand, just went on with life.

Was the strike effective? :shrug: I suppose it was in that it was certainly noticed. It disrupted the city and was on the front page of the papers.