On the 1st of septmber in 1920, the first of many worker occupations and seizures of factories in Italy began, a movement that more than half a million workers participated in.
During the month of September 1920, a widespread occupation of Italian factories by their workers took place. Although originating in the auto factories, steel mills, and machine tool plants of the metal sector, the occupation/revolt spread to cotton mills and hosiery firms, lignite mines, tire factories, breweries and distilleries, and steamships and warehouses in port towns. At its height, more than 600,000 workers were involved.
The worker rebellion was the culmination of years of labor strife - weeks before the occupations, the Italian Federation of Metallurgical Workers (FIOM), the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), and the General Confederation of Labor (CGL) called for "obstructionism" (essentially, a work slowdown) to be applied in all the engineering factories and shipyards starting on August 21st.
By the 24th, production at the Romeo factory in Milan had come to a complete standstill. A week later, production at the FIAT-Centro plant was reduced by 60%. On the morning of the 30th, the 2000 workers of the Romeo plant found the gates locked and the factory surrounded by troops. The FIOM responded by calling on its members to occupy the 300 engineering factories in Milan. Historian Lynn Williams describes what happened next:
"Between the 1st and 4th of September metal workers occupied factories throughout the Italian peninsula...the occupations rolled forward not only in the industrial heartland around Milan, Turin and Genoa but in Rome, Florence, Naples and Palermo, in a forest of red and black flags and a fanfare of workers bands...Within three days 400,000 workers were in occupation. As the movement spread to other sectors, the total rose to over half a million."
Although some radical elements within the workers' movement (Antonio Gramsci, the Italian Syndicalist Union) called for revolution, referring to the occupations as "an expropriating general strike" and demanding total socialization of the economy, more moderate forces (the CGL) prevailed, using the pressure of the rebellion to cut a deal with employers, granting better conditions to the workers on the condition of returning to work.
The Italian Factory Occupations of 1920
Italy September 1920: The Occupation of the Factories: The Lost Revolution
Megathreads and spaces to hang out:
- ❤️ Come listen to music and Watch movies with your fellow Hexbears nerd, in Cy.tube
- 💖 Come talk in the New Weekly Queer thread
- 💛 Read and talk about a current topics in the News Megathread
- ⭐️ August Movie Nominations ⭐️
reminders:
- 💚 You nerds can join specific comms to see posts about all sorts of topics
- 💙 Hexbear’s algorithm prioritizes comments over upbears
- 💜 Sorting by new you nerd
- 🌈 If you ever want to make your own megathread, you can reserve a spot here nerd
- 🐶 Join the unofficial Hexbear-adjacent Mastodon instance toots.matapacos.dog
Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):
Aid:
Theory:
I missed this why are they such losers
yeah you're gonna need to beat them at more than board games
Don't lie or hide it, let them know if it upsets you, and that letting them know it upsets you upsets you too.
It shouldn't be on you to pull their heads in for them, but you can at least lead the horse to water. The rest is up to them, which depends on whether they're capable of being decent human beings (or copping a couple punches), but hey, here's hoping?
Start small, just practice making a sour face when they say dumb shit. As you get comfortable reacting, work up to more explicit criticism. This will also help ease them into it since they’re used to not being challenged by you.
In my experience, being able to say who it hurts and how is better than just saying something is offensive.
Feeling bad after telling them off is a sixth type of liberalism
Your brothers are dorks and you should bully them into playing something other than monopoly at least twice
You see a chump, I see a person with opportunity in front of them to make new friends