An infinity of drops can fall into a glass without consequence — but a single drop, though falling just like the others, can finally make it overflow. In Italy, over the past month, a dam has burst.
Italy has been swept by enormous popular mobilizations in support of the Palestinian people and against the Italian government’s complicity in the genocide in Gaza. The Communist Front of Italy and the Communist Youth Front have been an active part of this movement, committing the full strength of our organizations to the mobilizations. As of today, while the Italian government supports the project of transforming Gaza into a U.S. protectorate and “truce negotiations” are underway, the protests continue.
1. A radical mobilization against a government complicit in genocide
There are at least two major political merits to this cycle of mobilizations. First, it has expressed and maintained — even through the spontaneous participation of millions of people — a radicalism that goes far beyond the positions of the so-called “broad camp” of the center-left. This movement has directly targeted the Meloni government and its complicity in the genocide in Gaza. It has refused to flatten itself onto the plane of mere humanitarian solidarity, openly denouncing the government’s conduct and Italy’s political, economic, and commercial cooperation with Israel, and firmly rejecting the hypocrisy of media narratives that demand “condemnation of terrorism” as a precondition for speaking about Palestine — narratives that brand Palestinian resistance and its political-military organizations as “terrorism.”
Also thanks to this movement, there has been a significant shift to the left in the boundaries of what can now be said — in the streets, on television, and in public debate.
None of this could have been taken for granted. As is well known, this wave of mobilizations was set off by a combination of factors. First of all, the Global Sumud Flotilla, an international initiative that received considerable media attention thanks to the political cover offered by the European social democracies. This international initiative coincided with a distinctly Italian political dynamic — namely, the belated entry of the Italian center-left into the field after two years of shameful hesitation.
Within this context came the power of the class-struggle appeal launched by the Autonomous Collective of Dockworkers (CALP) of the city of Genoa, under the slogan “BLOCCHIAMO TUTTO” (“Let’s shut everything down”) during the major city demonstration of August 30, which was joined by the mayor of Genoa, Silvia Salis.
These two elements opened a new phase of mobilization, with numbers and potential far greater than in previous months. The CALP’s call triggered a domino effect leading to the highly successful general strike of September 22, called by USB, which brought massive crowds into the streets across Italy. This was followed by the immediate popular response to Israel’s attack on the Sumud Flotilla on the evening of October 1 — three consecutive days of mass demonstrations — and by the successful general strike of October 3, which CGIL was compelled to join under pressure from its own workers. The cycle culminated in the national demonstration of October 4, with more than a million people marching through Rome.
2. The weight of the working class and the popular character of the mobilization
Secondly — and by no means of lesser importance — it must be underlined that the working class and the trade unions played a decisive role in building the strike. This cycle of mobilizations arose around the initiatives, calls, and strike dates set by combative trade union organizations and sectors of the working class. In this phase, the calling of general strike days went beyond mere ritual, imposing upon Italian public debate the concrete reality of halting production, blocking logistics, stopping Israeli ships in the ports, and more. Participation in the strike — extraordinarily high in some sectors — restored the perception of the workers’ strike as a credible and necessary weapon. In the Italian context of relative weakness of the workers’ and trade union movement, this too was far from a given; it must be nurtured and strengthened with every possible effort.
At the same time, it must be recognized that the major demonstrations and strikes were concentrated mainly in the large cities. In an Italy marked by the North–South divide and by the fact that much of the population lives outside metropolitan areas, the question once again arises sharply: the difference between city and province or countryside, and the disparities in political and class consciousness across these contexts.
In addition to these considerations, there was a significant generational component: the presence of hundreds of thousands of young people attests to a reversal of the trend in youth political participation — a shift already hinted at by the distribution of the youth vote in recent electoral rounds.
3. The Meloni government’s stance against the mobilizations
The Meloni government’s defense of Israel has often taken the form of a systematic and uncritical repetition of Zionist propaganda talking points, even going so far as to openly deny the very existence of the genocide. This attitude, coupled with direct attacks on the demonstrations, has undoubtedly played a role in pushing a broad segment of workers and youth — who had already been expressing growing discontent or opposition mainly in virtual spaces — toward direct participation in the mobilizations. This is an important aspect to highlight, confirming previous assessments about the space for struggle that would open under the Meloni government, and showing that these mobilizations likely would not have reached such proportions under a center-left government.
The Italian government has found itself in serious difficulty in the face of what have become the largest pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Europe. It is no coincidence that it has maintained a highly aggressive posture toward the strikes and mobilizations — with statements such as the one dismissing the protests as part of a “long weekend,” or its self-victimizing rhetoric about a “climate of hatred against the government.” The national regulatory authority even declared the October 3 general strike “illegitimate.” The Italian state provided no assistance to Italian citizens aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla who were arrested in Israel and later reported degrading treatment and torture. Pro-government media sought to conceal or divert attention from the massive participation in the mobilizations, backing the government’s positions and constructing a narrative of a supposed “climate of violence,” centered on a few irrelevant incidents in some cities. In this context, in the days following October 4, the Italian Senate scheduled debate on a bill “against antisemitism,” whose clear aim is to criminalize the mobilization for Palestine by equating it with anti-Jewish hatred.
4. The need for an organized political reference point
In this context of sharp confrontation with the Italian government, we feel compelled to state that the main limitation of this movement today lies in the inability of the broad sectors that have entered into mobilization to identify with a clear, organized political reference point — one that stands as an alternative to the “broad camp” and to the social-democratic idea of a “humane” administration of capitalism.
It is a fact that this cycle of mobilizations, and the vast wave of spontaneous mass participation it has generated, were born outside the so-called “broad camp” of Italian social democracy, currently composed of the alliance between the Democratic Party (PD), the Five Star Movement (M5S), and the Green–Left Alliance (AVS). For months, these political forces have sought to present themselves as “pro-peace” and as “friends” of the Palestinian people — purely for electoral and propaganda purposes — in blatant contradiction with their actual conduct and real positions. For now, however, they have not succeeded in becoming the political reference point of the movement of solidarity with Palestine. The CGIL, whose leadership has represented the weak link of the “broad camp” by refusing to fully bring into internal struggle the momentum generated by the Global Sumud Flotilla and related initiatives, found itself forced to follow the lead of the rank-and-file unions in calling a strike — largely due to strong internal pressure from its own members, who pushed for mobilization after the setbacks of last June’s labor referendums and the September 22 strike.
The “broad camp” is trying — and will continue to try — to claim electoral credit for the massive demonstrations of recent weeks. So far, it has not succeeded. Center-left–aligned media have done their part, publishing cloying articles about “Gen Z revolutions,” spinning a completely artificial and idealized narrative that lumps together wildly different political phenomena.
Nonetheless, even if the center-left is not having an easy time, we are fully aware that the absence of a Communist Party recognized for its ability to guide the workers’ and popular movement in Italy inevitably leaves the field exposed. If this situation does not change, the only possible outcome for a great spontaneous mobilization is to be reabsorbed into the bourgeois political system.
5. The debate on the “representation” of the movement
In recent days, various reflections have been put forward from different areas, with legitimate attempts and differing proposals on how to give this movement a form of “political representation.” On one side, certain sectors are proposing the creation of “networks” and local assemblies, aspiring to present themselves as the “representatives” of the movement or of the Flotilla “brand”. Others — such as Power to the People! (PaP) — are convening more explicitly “political” assemblies, with the declared aim of relaunching political-electoral coalitions, also with a view to the 2027 general elections.
In relation to all these proposals, we want to highlight three fundamental problems.
The first is that one cannot build after the fact what, unfortunately, was not built in the streets — in the very heart of the mobilizations — when there was an opportunity to do so. The strikes of September 22 and October 3, as well as the October 4 demonstration, would have been an extraordinary opportunity to establish new relations of force on the political and trade union plane, to assert the protagonism of a political area, and to present a class-based political reference point to the masses that filled those rallies — in a context where the center-left had neither legitimacy nor leadership over that movement. None of this was done, and even now there is a real risk of “missing the train.”
In this sense, these days have by no means “overcome” or “swept away” the long-standing limits of the class movement in Italy, as some have written. Quite the opposite: they have reconfirmed them all, one by one. With the various local asymmetries in the strength of political and trade union organizations, many demonstrations were managed through the same old movementist practices and conceptions — minoritarian in posture and lacking political ambition — despite the massive crowds demanding a qualitative leap forward. No political force outside the “broad camp” has succeeded in presenting itself as a genuine reference point for those demonstrations. In the euphoria of finally being in such large mobilizations after so long, very few posed the problem of how to speak to the majority of participants who were in the streets without any organizational ties, or of rethinking the very form of the demonstrations — for instance, setting up stages and holding organized speeches. This aspect was largely ignored. Discussions about “what to do” in terms of the forms and routes of the marches remained bound to the old habit of seeking ways to make it to the news, even when the very scale of popular participation was the news. A wasted potential that once again leaves open a space which, in the absence of anything else, will inevitably be recaptured by the center-left.
The second problem is that representation and the consolidation of a movement into an organized form cannot simply be reduced to self-proclamation, to coordination among already existing militant structures, or to the artificial adoption of a “brand” like that of the Flotilla — following the pattern some previously attempted with Fridays for Future. The sectors advancing such proposals — whether openly or implicitly — underestimate or ignore the fact that the massive participation in movements like those of recent weeks is not mediated by, nor dependent upon, any organic link between these masses and the existing political or trade union structures. It cannot, however, dispense with the guidance of political and trade union organizations, which have the responsibility to put forward proposals that help keep the movement alive — but it remains, by and large, unorganized. A coordination of collectives and militant groups can certainly adopt the name of a mass movement, but the experience of recent years shows that this alone is not enough to determine or relaunch new mobilizations, which respond above all to the dynamics of political struggle and to their broad social perception.
6. The urgency of Communist reconstruction
The third issue, in our view, is the real underlying question — and it remains the question of the Party. For years in Italy, there have been discussions and attempts to build a new political force “on the left,” one capable of overcoming the threshold of political and electoral irrelevance. In this context, as is well known, the Communist Front of Italy and the Communist Youth Front have for years been engaged in a determined political and ideological struggle against those sectors that cyclically promote the creation of a new social democracy in Italy — the so-called “radical left,” tied to the Party of the European Left and the European parliamentary group The Left (to which, among others, both AVS and the Five Star Movement refer). Today the situation appears even more paradoxical than ten years ago, with several parties — M5S, AVS, Power to the People! and Communist Refoundation Party (PRC) — all presenting themselves in Italy as alternatives to one another while sharing the same international references.
In light of this, and in view of the enormous potential demonstrated by the mobilizations of recent weeks — which have shown the strength and capacities of the working class in a country as important as Italy — we feel compelled to once again advance, with determination, the perspective of building in Italy a modern, serious, credible Communist Party, organized to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. Such a party is both an achievement to be won and an indispensable goal: to give the masses consciousness and organization, and to reopen the perspective of the struggle for the political power of the working class — for socialism. Were such a party to exist in Italy today, not only the balance of forces in society, but even the immediate outcomes of a great popular movement such as the one we are witnessing would be vastly greater.
7. Developments in Palestine and the prospects for struggle in Italy
Finally, the question arises today of how to give continuity to the great popular movement of recent weeks.
The situation in Palestine is evolving rapidly, yet it is already clear that all the reasons that fueled mobilization in Italy in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle remain fully valid and relevant. Italy’s conduct has not changed: it continues to stand out as one of the countries most ferociously aligned with Israel and the Netanyahu government — second only to the United States — and now openly supports Trump’s plan. Economic and military agreements have not been suspended; Italy remains the third-largest supplier of arms to Israel and continues to engage in the trade of weapons and military technologies. During the World Cup qualifying match between Italy and Israel on October 14, full authorization was given to Mossad to operate in Udine against the demonstration protesting the match itself. ENI has not questioned its interest in exploiting energy resources in the Palestinian territorial waters off Gaza, through deals with Israel. Prime Minister Meloni personally took part in negotiations in Sharm El-Sheikh — only to be publicly humiliated by Trump — perfectly symbolizing the lengths to which the Italian government is going to secure for Italian corporations a share in the lucrative speculation over the so-called “reconstruction” of Gaza.
Given the weight of these issues, all of them constitute grounds for continued struggle — areas where energies must keep being invested in agitation and mobilization, especially among those sectors moved primarily by the humanitarian dimension of the genocide, who risk being demobilized by the deceptive propaganda surrounding the ongoing “negotiations.” This is already a potential terrain for uniting and organizing those who remain conscious of what is truly taking place.
A fragile truce — already broken by new Israeli massacres — now forms the backdrop to a proposed “agreement” that preserves all the fundamental premises which led to October 7 and everything that followed, while guaranteeing Israel’s impunity after two years of genocide. The criminal blockade of the Gaza Strip remains in place and unquestioned, while the United States, the EU, and NATO countries openly support the transformation of Gaza into a U.S. protectorate, fully safeguarding the interests of energy monopolies and real-estate speculators. The illegal occupation of the West Bank is not being challenged, while Israel continues to hold in prison important Palestinian leaders such as Ahmad Sa’adat and Marwan Barghouthi, with the clear intent of placing as many obstacles as possible in the path toward the establishment of a Palestinian state.
What imperialism is now “offering” the Palestinians is infinitely less than even the minimal restoration of so-called “international legality” — that is, Israel’s withdrawal to the borders recognized by the United Nations and the establishment and recognition of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. We are fully aware that even within such a framework many issues would remain unresolved — beginning with the actual possibility of exercising the right of return for Palestinian refugees. Nevertheless, it is essential to expose the hypocrisy of the United States and the European Union, who speak of “two peoples, two states” while continuing to tolerate Israel’s obstruction of a Palestinian state — knowing full well that its absence and non-recognition legitimize and strengthen the ongoing occupation and colonization of the territories. The reasons for the Palestinian struggle therefore remain entirely valid — including those of armed resistance, which is an inalienable right of peoples subjected to occupation.
8. Boosting the mobilization against the FDI-League-FI government and the budget law
Meanwhile, in Italy, the Public Finance Planning Document approved by the Council of Ministers outlines the fundamentals of the 2026 budget law, which will be centered on austerity and rearmament. It includes a series of minor, largely symbolic measures aimed at reconciling the combined pressures of the Stability Pact constraints with the skyrocketing military expenditures required to meet commitments to NATO and the EU’s ReArm Europe plan, increasing from the current annual 35 billion euros to the 130 billion projected for 2035.
The first milestone to focus on is the national demonstration called by CGIL for Saturday, October 25, in Rome. CGIL presents this as the centerpiece of its opposition to the budget law, also reaffirming solidarity with the Palestinian cause, but once again failing to give a clear signal regarding the perspective of a new general strike. The limitations of this initiative are inherently linked to the center-left’s efforts to intercept the popular movement of recent weeks and channel it into support for the existing parliamentary opposition. However, we must also recognize that a broad mass mobilization on that day could be politically significant and serve as a moment of participation that might fuel the larger popular movement of recent weeks, drawing support from sectors far wider than those traditionally mobilized by CGIL leadership calls.
The real challenge, however, remains relaunching — in the coming months — a general strike against the government and the budget law, against rearmament plans, against imperialist war, and against Italy’s ongoing complicity in the oppression of the Palestinian people, channeling as much as possible the massive popular mobilization into the broader terrain of political struggle. This is not an abstract perspective; on the contrary, it is already a process in which USB is engaged, around which participation from rank-and-file and combative union sectors can be gathered.
In this context, we believe that the forces of the class movement and the most combative unions have the responsibility not to abandon the terrain of the October 25 demonstration, but to use it to press CGIL and the workers mobilizing with it on the issue of strikes and the fight against the government, facilitating the continuation of mobilizations toward a new general strike in the following weeks.
There are many ways to do this: for example, building a unified political-union bloc with a strong political character within that demonstration, or calling an alternative gathering to merge into the march, with the goal of not separating the most advanced sectors of the working class from those organized within the “traditional” confederated unions. Based on what actually emerges in the coming days, the Communist Front of Italy and the Communist Youth Front will assess the scale and extent of militant participation in that demonstration.
Beyond this first moment, our commitment will be fully directed toward building the general strike, with the militant engagement of all our comrades in workplaces, regardless of union membership. We will participate actively in all forums and assemblies that can advance this perspective as the next essential step to keep the popular movement we have witnessed in recent weeks active and combative. In this regard, it is crucial that forces are not dispersed and that all rank-and-file and combative union sectors converge on a single strike date, seeking to replicate the union conditions that led to the October 3 strike — starting from USB’s correct decision on the September 22 strike and ensuring proper alignment with the most combative demands and aspirations of CGIL workers who wished to participate in that strike.
In the coming weeks, our guidance is to keep the level of political agitation as high as possible in every city, workplace, school, and university. We will actively participate in ongoing mobilizations across various cities. We will maintain constant commitment to presenting the perspective of a new general strike against the budget law, rearmament, and the government’s complicity in genocide as a fundamental and indispensable step for the mobilizations. We will work to strengthen cohesion around the correct slogans in the struggle, which are inherently irreconcilable with the perspective of the “broad camp.” We will devote all efforts to keeping attention high on what is happening in Palestine, in order to immediately transmit the necessary impulses for struggle in Italy.
Every day, every additional week of mobilization produces steps forward in consolidating the force that will sweep away the old world.
A dam has broken. But what is needed is to build the force capable of organizing and directing the surging river.
“There is no victory, no conquest, without a great Communist Party.”
Political Bureau — Communist Front of Italy
National Secretariat — Communist Youth Front
