A general strike called by Italy's USB (Unione Sindacale di Base) and several smaller independent unions brought disruption to public and private sectors across the country on Friday, 30 October 2026, according to Sky TG24. The action targets the rising cost of living, falling purchasing power and what organisers describe as an economy built on war and rearmament. Schools, healthcare and public administration were among the services affected, and authorities were on alert for the marches taking place in cities nationwide.
Why it matters
The strike tests how far Italy's smaller, autonomous unions can mobilise beyond their traditional base. The demands — wage increases to protect purchasing power, opposition to military spending — have drawn students, teachers and port workers into the same streets, suggesting the cost-of-living argument is finding a wider audience than the union's own membership. The Interior Ministry's decision to deploy security measures also signals official concern about disorder, following damage in Milan and Rome in previous weeks.
Security tightened in Rome and Milan
The Viminale said it had put measures in place to "isolate the violent" and to prevent the kind of devastation seen in Milan and Rome in recent weeks, Sky TG24 reports. The centre of the Lombard capital and the area around the Colosseum in Rome were placed under reinforced security.
Transport was a particular flashpoint. According to RomaToday, tram, metro and bus services in the capital were at risk of a 24-hour stoppage despite a precettazione order — a government instruction requiring minimum service levels. League leader Matteo Salvini announced the precettazione of bus drivers, Sky TG24 reported.
Ports, schools and city squares
The mobilisation began early in Genoa, where the Collettivo autonomo lavoratori portuali (Calp), together with the USB Mare e Porti union, blocked the Albertazzi port gate using large tyres and smoke bombs. The groups issued a call "to all of Italy", stating that port workers do not want to work for war. Students were due to gather at 10:00 outside Genova Principe station, with a march scheduled for 15:00.
In Trieste, ANSA reported around 500 people assembled at Varco 4 of the port by late morning, ahead of a march due to set off about an hour later and head into the city centre. Students made up a large share of the crowd, carrying banners, and USB flags were out in numbers, helped by the day's bora wind. More people were still arriving as the rally formed.
Turin saw more than a thousand high school and university students, joined by teachers and Ata staff, set off from Palazzo Nuovo, the humanities faculty building, at around 9:20. They headed for piazza Palazzo di Città to link up with workers. At the front of the procession was a banner reading "Da Nord a Sud: studenti e lavoratori uniti. La guerra non la paghiamo" — from north to south, students and workers united, we will not pay for the war. A second march was preparing to leave the Einaudi university campus, occupied since Monday. Banners and flags from Cambiare Rotta, Osa, Usb and Cub were visible, and a sign reading "Università contro la guerra" hung at the entrance to Palazzo Nuovo.
A spokesperson for the Osa collective told the crowd that the day was historic because for years students, teachers and Ata staff had been kept apart, and that money should go to schools rather than war. Speaking through a megaphone, demonstrators said they were reclaiming their future from managers who, in their words, would have them go to war.
In Bologna, students blocked the entrances of several secondary schools, including the Copernico, Minghetti, Fermi, Arcangeli, Laura Bassi and Righi high schools and the Serpieri agricultural institute, according to the reporting. At the Galvani school on via Castiglione, bins were placed in front of the doors. Marches left some schools to join a 9:30 demonstration from Piazza Maggiore called by the base unions. In the city centre, several shopkeepers put up panels to protect their windows, including in Galleria Cavour.
Trento and Bolzano also had student demonstrations against the cost of living. Marches were announced for the morning in both cities, while an unauthorised protest was advertised on social media for the afternoon in Bolzano. Police had identified four young people the previous day, only one of them an adult, who were urging shop looting online, and officers were monitoring the historic centre closely. In Trento, a sit-in began at 9:30 outside the government commissioner's office, and a march had already set off from the Da Vinci high school. The Bolzano student movement Stc Bolzano publicly distanced itself from the unauthorised march circulating online.
In Livorno, USB pickets were in place from around 6:00 at Ponte Genova in the port area, with the union saying a large crowd had already gathered at that hour. A protest was also planned in the city alongside the port gate pickets.
In Mestre and Venice, a twin demonstration against the high cost of living was scheduled, according to VeneziaToday.
What to watch
With marches running through the afternoon and an unauthorised gathering advertised in Bolzano, the focus now turns to whether the day stays peaceful and whether the government's precettazione orders hold transport disruption to the minimum service levels it has set.
