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 worker

Italy September 1920: The Occupation of the Factories: The Lost Revolution soviet-chad

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  • SunsetFruitbat [she/her]
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    okay, I think it was just a false alarm of that wisdom tooth getting infected again, thankfully. I was getting worried again but maybe it was just from like the food I was eating or something. unless if this is also a false alarm of a false alarm ohnoes

    also something else but I really wish I could get rid of this feeling or part of me that's like? how do I word this. I would like to make new friends, but I can't really do that. not because I don't want to? but because it feels more like. I'm not allowed to? Like it's illegal? like ill make someone really mad by saying hi to them? Like I just can't go up and say hi to someone, instead there has to be a "reason" or justification why. but it also can't be because I just find someone cool and want to be their friend. it has to be more like, happenstance? like it just happens that im talking to someone because an opportunity happen. if there not an opportunity or happenstance, that person will be extremely angry at me. but if there also not an opportunity or happenstance, then I won't ever talk to that person ever.

    I dunno, it's ridiculous and it would be nice to rid that part of myself since like. There nothing wrong with saying hi to someone that you want to be friends with. also rereading that, that also feels a little manipulative? in which it's not intentional? I don't mean to like, do that. it just more so like trying to avoid someone from immediately being angry at me just for like saying hi. and maybe that a part of the problem, assuming someone gonna be immediately mad at me just for saying hi for no reason. I'm not really sure where that stems from? anxiety? doesn't feel like anxiety entirely.

    it sort of also reminds me of like. when I go somewhere where there's people, I feel more comfortable when I am ignored by everyone and not seen like I'm not even there. I don't even want someone to say hi to me, I want people to ignore me. I just want to be invisible. like I remember doing this in college. yet at the same time there a contradiction. like that was really fucking lonely and isolating because I wanted to be seen, I wanted someone to say hi. I wanted someone to talk to me. I didn't want to feel ignored. but if someone did say hi to me, I would kind of just internally panic because someone spotted me and it was kind of a "oh fuck I been seen! what do I do, what do I do!"

    anyways It sort of just feels like it stems from my home environment maybe, where it was pretty cold like that in the past? I remember at times, when I got home from school in the past, my family just ignored me like I wasn't even there. of course I also imagine anxiety playing a role to. So I dunno. I do feel like I am getting a little better about these things but there still room for improvement.

    either way life is fun.

    • Sandinband
      ·
      1 year ago

      Its sounds like you're describing social anxiety, comrade

      I get preferring people ignore you so there's no risk of a negative interaction but it being a double edge sword that also leaves you feeling lonely

      Its like the worst thing ever but the more negative interactions you have the less they effect you. I'm very sensitive to rejection or perceived rejection and while it still hurts now, its nowhere at the same level it hurt a few years ago. I honestly feel like internet forums can be kinda helpful because if you royally fuck up, make a new account shrug-outta-hecks

      • SunsetFruitbat [she/her]
        ·
        1 year ago

        social anxiety sounds right, and yea, just that risk of negative interaction. and I think I see what you mean with more negative interactions having less of an effect? like for example, if someone yelled at me or got mad at me, just for saying hi. I'm slowly coming to terms, that it's really nothing I did, but more so it's that person whose having an issue or something. where said person is just taking it out on me, and it's not my fault or nothing I really did.

        it still hurts but not so much. along with slowly adopting the attitude of like, if someone gonna yell at me or get mad at me for saying hi, I don't want that person in my life? meanwhile there are plenty of other people who aren't gonna do that. and why would I even want to be friends with someone who gonna get mad over something small like that? and yea internet forums can be good for that