Trade unions and associations launch the 'La Via Maestra' demonstration in Rome

A major national demonstration titled 'The Main Path' will be held on Saturday, October 17th in Rome, with organized participation from all over Italy. The event was presented today, October 15th, in Milan at the Chamber of Labor by representatives from the city's CGIL, ARCI, and ANPI. The organizers denounced the economic crisis, the unsustainable cost of living, job insecurity, and cuts to healthcare, education, and public services, contrasting these with the massive investments in rearmament.

Luca Stanzione, general secretary of CGIL Milan, linked the Italian industrial crisis to the rising cost of energy and dependence on German supply chains. The representatives emphasized the need to defend democracy, freedom of information, and the right to protest, pointing to the Constitution as the common reference point for an alternative economic and social policy.

The 'La Via Maestra' mobilization stems from the convergence of various trade union and associative organizations in response to a crisis perceived as systemic. Its immediate origin is the worsening of a European economic crisis, centered in Germany, which is severely impacting Italy's industrial sector, particularly metalworking. According to its promoters, the root cause is a policy of cuts to welfare (wages, healthcare, education, pensions) alongside a simultaneous increase in military spending.

The protagonists are CGIL (Italy's largest trade union), ARCI (Associazione Ricreativa Culturale Italiana, a historic social promotion association), and ANPI (Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d'Italia). Their goal is to unite under a single platform issues often addressed separately: labor, peace, environment, welfare, and the defense of constitutional principles. The demonstration represents the culmination of this attempt to create a common front to demand a radical change of course in the country's economic and social policies.