Stop everything for Gaza: General strike in Italy, an impossibility in Germany?

On Monday, September 22, Italy witnessed a large-scale general strike from north to south. It included the closure of the Genoa, Venice and Levorno ports, workers’ strikes, the closure of the Milan, Naples, Rome train stations and highways in Bologna and Rome, and an attempt to stage a sit-in at a police station in Milan. These actions were combined with mass demonstrations in many cities in the middle of the working day.

The strike which was called on by unions to escalate against the extermination in Gaza and the supply of Italy to weapons to Israel, and to condemn the increase in military spending, war economy and employment exploitation policies. Italy is the third largest weapons exporter to Israel.

Participation in the strike included employees in the transportation sectors, the transport of goods and railways, ports, schools, universities, public sector, firefighting teams, and retail trade. This was accompanied by a popular movement, as more than 100 demonstrations were recorded in various squares of the country, in the middle of the working day, with wide support from the solidarity groups with Palestine.

It is not the first strike and it will not be the last

Several unions called for the strike, including USB (Unione Sindacale di Base), and CUB (Confederazione Unitaria di Base), in cooperation with organizations active in the movement of Palestine. While the Italian General Union (CGIL, Italian Confederation of Labour), one of the three major confederation unions, has avoided the strike on the same day and called for the strike last Friday instead in the last moments, which contributed to the division of the strike. Nevertheless, the participation rate in the Friday strike reached 90% and 100% in some factories.

The dispute between the unions in Italy is due to the 1990s. Confederation unions are larger and older and have more power in negotiations and relations with political parties. While the base unions are marked by their adoption of horizontal and less bureaucratic structures than major unions. The result of this dispute is to repeat the lack of agreement on common days of escalation and strikes, forcing workers to divide. After the base unions announced the general strike of Gaza, the Confederation Syndicate announced its strike on a different day.

Nevertheless, ports workers from both base and federal unions contributed to preventing arms shipments for Israel during the genocide. The escalation continues, through planned strikes until mid-November.

Commentators in social media were quick to comment that while Italy is the third largest weapons exporter to Israel, in Germany, the second largest weapons exporter to Israel, similar strikes are unimaginable.

The German Trade Unions

The leadership of the German Trade Union Confederation (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB) has in fact taken a clear pro-Zionist stance. Just this month, DGB as the umbrella organisation for eight German trade unions, which represents over six million people, celebrated 50 years of partnership with the so-called Israeli Trade Union Federation Histadrut.

On this occasion, the Hans Böckler Foundation (HBS) which is the research and study support organization of the DGB, published a 90-page booklet celebrating the 50 year partnership between DGB and Histadrut. The booklet is filled with Zionist tropes about the founding of the state of Israel, racist depictions of Palestinians and calls for “solidarity with Israel.” The DGB leadership will not call for a general strike for Palestine any day soon.

Yet there are glimpses of hope. On the 27th of September a mass demonstration under the slogan “Together for Gaza” calls for the end to the genocide will take place in Berlin and a weapons embargo against Israel. The reformist Left Party (Die Linke), NGOs, Palestinian community groups, revolutionary organizations and other leftist groups are involved in organizing the demonstration which will most likely be the biggest demonstration for Palestine in the last two years.

The reformist Left Party is for a two-state solution, has condemned the Palestinian resistance and repeatedly voiced solidarity with Israel. Yet they have been forced to now take a stance by the Palestine solidarity movement, which for almost two years, has upheld pressure and perseverance in calling for an end to the genocide and a free Palestine. The base of the Left Party is to a large extent more left, and hence more pro-Palestine than the party leadership.

Sectarianism, Opportunism and a Revolutionary Socialist Stance

The experience of base members of the Left Party, who are also organized in trade unions, pushing their bureaucratic leaders to take a stance, could also lead to similar effects in the trade unions. At the same time, the leadership of the Left Party will not take on a fully pro-Palestine stance any time soon, as it goes against their material interests of wishing to co-manage capitalism in a “peaceful” manner. They will also most likely distance themselves from the Palestinian and revolutionary forces in the demonstration on the 27th as soon as the bourgeois press depicts them as “terrorists.”

Therefore it is so important that revolutionary socialists participate in the demonstration on the 27th of September to show base members of the reformist Left Party the bankruptcy and contradictory nature of the leadership of the party, and thereby win them over for fully pro-Palestine and revolutionary stances. Sectarian forces have argued for boycotting the demonstration on the 27th as not all forces calling for the demonstration are for a free Palestine from the river to the sea or in support of the resistance. Yet wishing to keep one’s hands clean and only demonstrate with those who share the exact same convictions as oneself, is a recipe for complete isolation. Purity politics dissolves itself in its own contradictions.

An opportunist stance would be to merely go to the demonstration on the 27th, dovetail the content of the reformist Left Party and not critique their leadership or positions. Yet a revolutionary socialist stance must be to participate in the 27th demonstration, agitate with one’s own revolutionary propaganda and show the contradictions and hypocrisy of the leadership of reformist forces. This requires a broad united front with reformist forces based on a common denominator, in this case end to the genocide and for a weapons embargo, beyond which revolutionary forces have the ability to agitate for their deeper demands for the liberation of all of Palestine by any means necessary.

A mass of people can only be reached in a broad united front that demands freedom of propaganda and organizational independence. With a mass of working class people who hold the power to bring the war machine to a stand still can we stop the genocide in Palestine and support the Palestinian resistance from abroad.