Italy: Students, Teachers Strike Against RW Reforms, Militarisation

Students and teachers in over 60 localities across Italy striked on May 7 to protest education reforms presented by the Meloni government that seek to subordinate the education sector to industry interests and militarization. The measures include aligning technical and professional courses with employer needs and removing critical content from curricula, while keeping thousands of education workers in precarious positions.

The day of mobilization was preceded by an additional sectoral strike day on May 6, and coincided with a new wave of dockworkers’ protests for better working conditions and against arms transfers.

Collective actions were launched by student groups and trade unions, including Cambiare Rotta, OSA, and the education branch of grassroots union Unione Sindacale di Base (USB). “We’re striking against the militarization of schools and society, against compulsory military service, against the reform of technical and vocational schools that hands over the education of the working class directly to corporations, against the new guidelines for high schools, and against a contract renewal that offers shameful wages while inflation rises, driven by the costs of wars we did not and do not want,” USB wrote ahead of the mobilization.

Planned changes to education programs reduce general education for students in technical and vocational schools, who are predominantly working-class. Instead, the reform focuses their education on employer priorities. Meanwhile, the government also intends to adapt programs in high schools (licei) by, among other things, minimizing content critical of European colonialism, imperialism, and other concepts that encourage critical thinking.

“High schools attended largely by the upper and middle class are instead geared toward fostering a sense of identity that is explicitly Eurocentric and nationalist,” USB added. “This is a school system that segregates, creates hierarchies, and trains the children of working-class families for precarious work while preparing the children of the elite for a ‘civilizing mission’ that serves the rhetoric of war.”

Source: Unione Sindacale di Base

Teachers’ rights are also under threat, as the sector already relies on precarious workers after decades of underinvestment and cuts, with no stabilization in sight. Trade unions and student groups insist these setbacks are interconnected and prioritize the interests of the wealthy over popular demands, making it crucial for different groups in the sector to stand together.

“USB Scuola and OSA assert that their alliance is a strategic choice, not just a symbolic gesture,” wrote USB and OSA branches in Potenza. “The unity between school workers and students is the strength of our project, because the school system is rife with the same contradictions that plague society as a whole: exploitation, precariousness, militarization, and subordination to capital.”

As part of the international student campaign against conscription “We do not enlist,” the strike has also emphasized the importance of resisting the reintroduction of mandatory military service in the region – with actions in other countries, notably Germany, to follow on Friday, May 8. “The entire public school system is being geared toward the logic of war that pervades the world: students are expected to acquire the skills and strategies needed to become an army for a labor market that’s increasingly primed for war ,” USB added on May 7.

“We must also strike against conscription: students are not cannon fodder, they are not a disposable workforce, and they are not merely resources to be exploited for the war economy.”

Finally, students and teachers emphasized the internationalist character of their struggle, linking wars fueled by the US globally with increased pressures on European students and workers. Cambiare Rotta and OSA highlighted the presence of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Italy as evidence of ongoing collaboration of European governments in illegal aggressions and war crimes.

“Marco Rubio’s visit to Italy has sparked outrage among students, who are calling for his expulsion,” the groups said. “This international criminal, an accomplice to the genocide in Gaza and responsible for the war in the Middle East, is also a key figure in the campaign against Cuba, which is at risk of being attacked by the US. Hundreds of Cuban flags are waving in the squares, in support of and in defense of the Revolution, sovereignty, and peace in Cuba, the most solidary island in the world – and a cry of protest rises against Rubio.”

Courtesy: Peoples Dispatch