Tens of thousands of people joined marches across Italy on Friday, 30 October 2026, as base unions and student groups held a general strike against the rising cost of living, military spending and what organizers describe as repressive policies. According to RaiNews, crowds filled squares in roughly 70 cities, with tensions reported near the Colosseum in Rome and in Turin, while demonstrators occupied railway tracks in Perugia and blocked ring roads in Milan and Bologna.
The action was called by a large share of Italy's rank-and-file unions, including COBAS, USB, ADL, Clap, Sial and CUB, and was taken up by many student organizations already in occupation or mobilization, RaiNews reports.
Why it matters
The strike tests whether Italy's base unions and student networks can sustain a joint campaign beyond a single day. Piero Bernocchi, spokesperson for the Cobas confederation, told RaiNews that the alliance of base unions, students and social centers had appeared before, in last autumn's mobilization over Palestine, but that this time the driving force was domestic: the cost of living, energy prices, demands for higher pay and less military spending, and investment in schools, health care and public services.
Bernocchi said the turnout confirmed his organization's long-held view that when base unions act together on the same date, even with different platforms, their mobilizing capacity now exceeds that of the large confederations — naming the CGIL in particular, which he said has lost its alliance with CISL and UIL and can no longer build broad social and political coalitions. Those characterizations are his assessment, as reported by RaiNews.
Marches, blockades and police response
In Rome, a section of the procession set off from Piramide and arrived at the education ministry on viale Trastevere, chanting slogans opposing war, according to RaiNews. The ministry entrance was guarded by police. Two Democratic Party lawmakers, Arturo Scotto and Matteo Orfini, speaking from the Rome march, said a new generation was claiming the right to study, to decent work and to an end to armed conflict, and argued that those demands should be heard.
In Milan, MilanoToday reported about 30,000 people in the demonstration, and the procession left the ring road after roughly two and a half hours. RaiNews reports that the demonstration in the Milan metropolitan area has ended and traffic is back to normal: in agreement with police, earlier restrictions were lifted and the Melegnano station on the A1 reopened, along with the junctions of the eastern and northern ring roads and the Agrate station on the A4.
In Bologna, a USB-led section that left the ring road reached piazza Lucio Dalla gradually and without incident, RaiNews reports, after the march passed along via della Beverara, Gagarin and Gobetti. Earlier, demonstrators had blocked the ring road and the motorway for three hours; the last participants, several hundred and mostly young people, began leaving at exit 5 toward Lame. RaiNews reports that some of them climbed onto the structure holding a message panel during the procession.
In Perugia, police are identifying participants who occupied the tracks at the railway station during the "Blocchiamo tutto" demonstration called by the USB coordination. The Questura said the protest was peaceful and ended quickly, but a group remained on the tracks, requiring further police intervention. According to a police statement cited by RaiNews, dialogue and mediation by officers on the scene secured the definitive clearing of the tracks around 1 p.m., allowing rail traffic to resume with what the statement described as limited disruption. The Digos, with support from forensic police, is working to identify those involved and to assess possible criminal and administrative responsibility. The march, which started from piazza Partigiani and drew about 700 people, passed through viale Indipendenza, piazza Italia, via Baglioni and piazza IV Novembre before continuing along piazza Fortebraccio and via Capitini to the Fontivegge station, and was monitored throughout by Questura personnel with support from other forces.
RaiNews also reported tensions in Turin and at the Colosseum in Rome, and Il Sole 24 ORE framed the day as protests against the rising cost of living with alerts for the marches and moments of tension in both cities.
The unions' platform
Bernocchi told RaiNews that COBAS, together with ADL, Clap and Sial, proclaimed the strike around a set of demands: countering price increases that make essential goods unaffordable; restoring automatic mechanisms tying wages and pensions to actual inflation, in what he described as an update of the historic sliding-scale system; opposing a war economy and the shift of resources from social spending to armaments; major investment in public schools and universities, health care, transport and assistance services, alongside a sharp cut in military spending; a better school system structurally and didactically, for everyone; opposing contracting policies and the imposed abuse of part-time work; and a general reduction in working hours with a legal minimum wage.
He described the day as a major success and said the confederation's structures would soon discuss and decide on continuing the national mobilization, including the possibility of another general strike at short notice, with information to follow.
What to watch: whether the base unions announce a follow-up general strike, and how the Perugia identification proceedings develop.
