Last Thursday, on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, a British-Syrian man carried out a knife attack at a synagogue in Manchester, killing one and injuring two. The attacker, Jihad Al-Shamie, was shot dead by police on the scene.

What happened in Italy on Friday 3 October has very few precedents. Think about it. A politicalstrike. A political generalstrike. A political general strike over internationalist solidarity and against imperialism.

Over the weekend, the streets of Spain were flooded with a tide of people, protesting against the Zionist genocide in Gaza. Along with Israel’s assault on the Flotilla, which was aiming to break the blockade of humanitarian aid to the massacred Palestinian population.

Friday, 3 October 2025, will be remembered as a major turning point in the class struggle in Italy. It is the day Italy saw millions participate in a general strike in support of the Palestinian people. The strike was called jointly by the USB union and the CGIL, the biggest trade union confederation in Italy, with its five million members.

On 26 and 27 September, delegates from important dockworkers’ trade unions in Europe and the Mediterranean convened in Genoa to discuss joint action to stop the genocide in Gaza. The meeting took place at a time when, across Europe, workers and young people are in the mood for open struggle against the barbaric massacre of the Palestinian people, and are blaming their own ruling classes for complicity in the genocide.

The planned day of action on 2 October, called by the inter-union committee of trade union confederation leaders, will probably be massive, as so many days of action have been over the last twenty years. During the mass movement against the raising of the retirement age to 64, from January to June 2023, fourteen days of action were organised, some of which mobilised more than 3 million demonstrators. Macron, however, did not budge an inch: the counter-reform was pushed through.

The general strike against the genocide in Gaza on 22 September represented a huge outburst of mass anger which has profound implications beyond the borders of Italy. The idea that mass direct action is needed to stop Israel’s murderous assault on the Palestinians now dominates. At the same time, the Italian mass protest can also be seen as part of a ‘Red September’ of mass uprisings, revolutions and insurrections across the world.

The demonstrations and strike on 22 September marked a decisive turning point for the Palestine movement in Italy. All the anger and disgust accumulated in the face of the increasingly ferocious actions of the state of Israel, all the indignation at the complicity and revolting hypocrisy of the Italian and western governments, finally poured out in demonstrations that spread throughout the country.

We are living in an era of revolution and counter-revolution; of both reaction and radicalisation. In the famous words of Rosa Luxemburg, the future facing humanity is either socialism or barbarism.

The mobilisation on 18 September was massive. It involved more than a million demonstrators, numerous blockades and many strikes in transport, education and other public sector services. As for the hordes of ‘rioters’ prophesied by Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, they did not show up.

The monster ‘Unite the Kingdom’ demonstration on Saturday 13 September marks a turning point. Some are calling it the biggest far-right demonstration in British history. This event deserves a thorough – but sober – analysis.

Amidst everything on the news last week, from revolutionary events in Indonesia and Nepal, to the shooting of Charlie Kirk, a major political crisis is unravelling in France which has given birth to the Bloquons tout (Block Everything) movement.

Since Sébastien Lecornu's appointment on 9 September, the mainstream media have been singing the same old tune as they did in the early days of Barnier and Bayrou’s premierships: the new Prime Minister is a man of ‘dialogue’ and ‘compromise’, an affable ‘negotiator’ appreciated by the parliamentary opposition – in short, the political equivalent of the ideal son-in-law.

A broad movement against the massacre in Gaza and in defence of the Palestinian people is taking shape in Italy. It is a shake-up of the stagnant Italian political scene that we greet with enthusiasm, and one that the Partito Comunista Rivoluzionario will continue to invest its energies in. This movement will spread because it expresses a deep-seated sentiment in society, a visceral exasperation at the horrors we are witnessing live from Palestine. Up to this point, this sentiment has lacked a channel for expression. Now, it has finally exploded.

Several hundred thousand people took part in the mobilisation on 10 September. From dawn to dusk, the movement unfolded in various forms: blockades, rallies, demonstrations, pickets and general assemblies. The atmosphere was radical and combative. Young people dominated the marches, especially in the big cities.