A 24-hour general national strike in the public and private sectors has been announced in Italy for today, March 9th.
The action is in support of International Women's Day. It is organized by various grassroots unions and affects public and private sector workers. The stated goal of the strikers is the fight against male violence against women and equal pay between the two sexes.
The Federation of Knowledge Workers (FLC CGIL) also joined this strike, demanding more effective education in schools. The strike will affect kindergartens, schools and universities.
In healthcare and emergency care, the strike includes nurses, social health workers, midwives, rehabilitation staff and other health professionals, as well as medical, health and veterinary management and technical professional and administrative staff.
Essential services will be guaranteed as required by law, but problems may arise with scheduled and non-urgent examinations.
The transport sector will not be affected, and the firefighters' strike is from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Thousands of women took to the streets of several cities in Spain on International Women's Day.
The demonstrations were in defense of equality and against gender-based violence. Marches dedicated to women's rights took place in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Granada, Bilbao, San Sebastian and many other cities.
Protesters called for true equality between men and women, condemned gender-based violence, called on feminism to "stop fascism" and condemned cases of abuse of power against women. Slogans and manifestos also focused on other demands related to immigration policies and regimes that enslave women and girls and suppress their rights.
For the fifth year in a row, protesters in many places in Spain were divided in two: some people demonstrated in defense of transgender rights, while others demanded the legalization or regulation of prostitution. However, many protesters shared common themes - the wars in Iran and Ukraine and the rights of the Palestinian people. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez supported the demonstrations with a message on social media. "We will not allow hatred to replace rights and we will not normalize inequality," the prime minister wrote.