Historic strike hits Venice Biennale

This month in labour history

5-05-1898 A general strike against excessively high food prices begins. [more]

6-05-1898 In the morning, workers at the Pirelli factories in Milan are on strike distributing leaflets denouncing the events of the previous day. 2 workers are killed by the police. [more]

6-05-1898 A state of siege is declared in Lombardy. General Fiorenzo Bava-Beccaris and his 45,000 infantry, cavalry, artillery and specialized troops are deployed in Milan. [more]

7-05-1898 60,000 workers go on strike progressing from lower-income neighborhoods to central Milan. Bava-Beccaris intends to regain control of the city but the strikers are armed, barricades erected, projectiles are thrown from the roofs onto the troops. [more]

9-05-1898 Bava-Beccaris orders troops and artillery to fire on protesters in Milan, including a monastery in Porta Monforte used as a homeless shelter. 400 dead and 2,000 injured. [more]

12-05-1933 Anti-fascist poet Virgilia d'Andrea, who had been involved in the mass factory occupations in 1920, died in New York. [more]

17-05-1949 Brick factory worker and former Resistance member, Maria Margotti, was killed by police. She was protesting against police violence against women on a picket line the previous day when she was machine-gunned. [more]

27-05-1879 Co-founder of the radical USI union, and anti-fascist militant Alberto Meschi was born. [more]