USB Italy: OVER 60 PEOPLE CHARGED AND FINED FOR SUPPORTING PALESTINE AND PROTESTING THE WAR IN PISA: WE WERE ALL THERE IN THE SQUARE

Pisa, June 4, 2026, 3:11 PM

USB expresses its full solidarity with the dozens of activists, students, and workers who have been charged in connection with the demonstrations that have taken place in Pisa in recent years against the war, rearmament, and in support of the Palestinian people.

The more than 60 charges represent a serious development within a national context marked by a progressive tightening of public order policies and a growing restriction of spaces for democratic action and social conflict. In Pisa, a city that has been at the forefront of major demonstrations against the war and the genocide of the Palestinian people, the repressive crackdown is targeting precisely those who have led those protests-from campus initiatives to city-wide demonstrations, up to the large marches that accompanied the general strikes organized by USB on September 22 and October 3.

It has been an incredible fall, with millions of people taking to the streets across Italy, but it took two years of genocide unfolding before our eyes for this to happen. Around the general strikes called by USB and the militant labor movement, a mass movement has developed that has united workers, students, precarious workers, and social organizations under a clear slogan: "Let's shut everything down." Thousands of people took to the streets to denounce the genocide of the Palestinian people, to oppose war policies, rearmament, and the Italian government's complicity with Israel's military escalation. Those days represented a high point of popular participation and social reconstruction, demonstrating that there is broad opposition in the country to the logic of war and the war economy.

It is precisely that force expressed in the streets that is now the target of an attempt at intimidation. Behind this operation, we see not only the desire to prosecute individual incidents, but a broader scheme aimed at targeting those who organize social conflict, international solidarity, and opposition to government policies. In a phase marked by rising military spending, worsening living and working conditions, and intensifying international conflicts, the institutions' response seems increasingly to be one of repression.

The images of police charges against students who were peacefully demonstrating to demand an end to the massacre of the Palestinian people remain etched in our city's memory. Today, this violence is compounded by a new offensive involving complaints and legal proceedings against those who exercised their right to demonstrate.

USB reaffirms that solidarity with the Palestinian people, the rejection of war and rearmament policies, and the defense of social and democratic rights cannot be criminalized. The mobilizations that have swept through Pisa and the country in recent years have represented a concrete response to the normalization of war and the indifference toward the tragedy experienced by the Palestinian people.

These were well-attended, grassroots, and determined demonstrations that have brought the values of internationalism and solidarity among peoples back to the forefront, and which, after so many years, have seen thousands of workers join a political strike and take to the streets.

For this reason, we believe it is essential to build the broadest possible solidarity with those targeted by the charges, supporting them politically and legally. In the coming weeks, we will organize public forums and support initiatives, involving lawyers, associations, social organizations, and unions, with the aim of countering the wave of repression and defending spaces for democratic participation.

In the face of this attempt at intimidation, the response must be collective. The tens of thousands of people who filled the squares last fall to protest the genocide of the Palestinian people and the war demonstrate that a movement rooted in social justice, peace, and international solidarity cannot be suppressed.

We were all there in those squares. And we will continue to be there.

Unione Sindacale di Base - Pisa Federation