People dancing, displaying signs, some stating: «F**k war, strike now, we’re not paying the war!», «The time is now», «If we burn, you burn with us», showing their anger towards rearmament and, young adults performing under the blue sky. According to the organizers of the protest, the USB trade union, a hundred thousand people walked through streets of Rome on the 30th of October.
From Termini Station to the Colosseum, what was a peaceful protest turned into disruption. Outside the delineated perimeter, protesters covered themselves in black and started to set garbage bins on fire. Officers responded by throwing small charges of tear gas to disperse the crowd. Even though the situation was reassessed, new episodes of tension sparked once again in the early evening. The police reaction got even more intense. Next to the Sublicio Bridge, water cannons were activated and charges began on the crowd.
According to the Police Headquarters, 369 people were stopped and identified, while 7 have been charged and criminal complaints have been filed. For those who are not resident in the Italian capital, the Anticrime Division is considering the application of mandatory expulsion, bunning them from entering the city for periods that still need to be determined.
30th of October, Via Claudia after bins caught fire
An unaffordable future
«You deny us the present, but we are the future,» read the placard carried by teenagers present at the sit-in. With them also teachers from the Roman high school Giulio Cesare joined to speak up for their concerns regarding the future of the students they teach and their own precarity. «Our salaries are drastically lower than the current costs of living,» said an educator present in the protest. The march gathered workers, students, farmers and teachers striking against the rising costs of living, housing crisis and rearmament.
Read more about it: https://zetaluiss.it/2026/11/02/contro-guerra-e-carovita-roma-scende-in-piazza-dal-corteo-pacifico-agli-scontri/
The meet-up was at 10:30 a.m. in Piazza dei Cinquecento and then proceeded towards the Colosseum along Via Cavour and Fori Imperiali where some set up tents, to stay for two nights.
Pierpaolo Leonardi, exponent of the USB, stressed: «There is a big need to take the general frustration that is accumulating in our society to the streets, a society where there is no way out» and that «there is no future, there is no job and salary security, or even the possibility to think about making a family or buy a house.» People say they feel abandoned by the state and accuse the government of failing to provide the stability young people need to envision a future in Italy.
Protesters wanted the march to be more than a one-day event, and to obtain real changes that could improve the quality of living of the Italian people. The participation and the resonance of this protest was enormous as similar protests took place also in Bologna, Milan and Turin and other cities across the peninsula. Protesters claim they will not stop until they reach their goals.
