The Italian ‘Hot Winter’ of 2022

This is a callout to our international Fellow Workers to help spread the news on the current situation in Italy, because we believe that the international solidarity of the IWW is a strength we can use to aid the cause of students in Italy.

The first months of 2022 have seen several student organisations take up the ideas of progressive unions and political organisations. Thanks to this background preparation, a successful wave of occupations of high/secondary schools was launched at the end of January, starting in Rome and then spreading to other regions. Students are protesting to highlight the disastrous management of education during the pandemic lockdowns, and are also calling for an end to the exploitation of the unpaid “school/work alternation” intern schemes that students are forced to participate in.

The campaign went viral after yet another young life was lost in a workplace accident. Lorenzo Parelli, 18, was an unpaid intern in a steel mill when a beam fell on him and killed him. Students took to the streets and were met with brutal repression from police batons, but this didn’t stop them from building the campaign into a wave of school occupations.

The occupations were a direct reaction to police violence (in Turin, Milan and Naples), but were magnified across the country by another tragic death of a student working on an internship – this time Giuseppe Lenoci, who was only 16 years old.

A national student demonstration is called for the 18th February, and grassroots unions and political groups are mobilising to stand by their side. Despite being a new group limited in numbers, IWW Italy will also be showing our solidarity and support in deepening the connections between the student and worker movements.

Solidarity is Our Strength, Solidarity Forever!

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