On Friday 30 October tens of thousands of people marched through Bologna on the day of a 24-hour general strike called by the Unione Sindacale di Base (USB) against the rising cost of living, military spending and the Meloni government. Organisers put the turnout at between 30,000 and 50,000. The demonstration gathered in Piazza Maggiore at 9.30am, after students had blocked the entrances of several high schools that morning. Around midday the march got past a police cordon in Via Stalingrado, beneath Porta Europa, and took a slip road onto the ring road, which it occupied for about three hours. By late afternoon only a few hundred remained; the last demonstrators left at exit 5. Similar marches took place in more than fifty Italian cities.
