Italy's general strike brings marches to Turin, Trieste and Naples, and a Naples metro station closes

Turin and Trieste mobilise

In Turin, more than a thousand students from secondary schools and universities marched with teachers and ATA administrative staff. They left Palazzo Nuovo, the seat of the humanities faculties, at about 9.20 and headed for Piazza Palazzo di Città to join workers taking part in the general strike. The lead banner read 'Da Nord a Sud: studenti e lavoratori uniti. La guerra non la paghiamo', and another procession was due to leave from the Einaudi university campus, which students had occupied since Monday, 26 October.

The Osa collective, one of the groups in the Turin march, put its message in the words of a spokesperson:

“Today we can change course, and we can say that the money must go to schools and not to war.”

In Trieste, around 500 people had gathered at Varco 4, the port gate, by 8.28. The march was due to set off about an hour later and head toward the city centre. Students made up a large part of the crowd, with many banners and a strong presence of Usb flags, while a vehicle of the Usb union was positioned to lead the procession in a strong bora wind.

Naples station closed and rail strikes postponed

In Naples, the Anm, which runs the line, closed the Garibaldi station on Metro Line 1 from 8.30 on Friday, 30 October, citing public order. Passengers who had planned to use the metro to reach the march's starting point were told to get off at Duomo or Centro Direzionale instead. A State Police armoured vehicle stood outside the Feltrinelli bookshop beside the station, while the Autonomia Napolitana movement held a sit-in across from bar Mexico and was expected to move to Piazza Mancini. The procession was scheduled to leave Piazza Mancini at 9.30. Bus and train services were not reported to be affected at that point.

Transport disruption and the requisition

The general strike called by Usb also covered the transport sector, and Matteo Salvini, Italy's minister of infrastructure and transport, had requisitioned it in the days before. As a result, the strike was postponed for Eav and Trenitalia following the ministry's requisition. In Calabria, the morning timetables at the main railway stations showed no cancelled trains, but some mostly long-distance routes faced delays of between 5 and 20 minutes.