NAZI TANKS FIGHT ITALIAN STRIKERS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 58, 9 March 1944, Page 5

NAZI TANKS FIGHT ITALIAN STRIKERS

BATTLE /IV MILAN

Labour Leaders Urge People To Take Up Arms

N.Z. Press Association—Copyright Rec. 1 p.m. LONDON, Mar. 8. German tanks went into action to-day against the strikers in Milan and other centres in northern. Italy whale there is no prospect of the great strike ending, said Bari radio.

The Fascist Ministry of Home Affairs announced that' the strikers totalled 205.000, but the figure is four times that. Thousands of shopkeepers have closed their doors. The strike leaders have urged all Italians to participate and take up arms, if necessary, because this would be decisively important in the coming fateful days.

The Associated Press correspondent, in a dispatch from the Italian frontier, reports that the Fascist Labour Commissariat has threatened strikers with trial before special tribunals, and employers have been forbidden to deal with workers. Partisans Aid Strikers Fierce fighting between Italian strikers, aided by partisans, and Fascist militia has raged in Milan in the past 24 hours, says a correspondent of the Daily Express on the Italian frontier. The battle began in a working-class district when Fascists tried to arrest strikers. Manjr were killed on both sides.

The authorities tried to get the trams running through the paralysed city, but strikers overturned the trams. The German commander in northern Italy has arrived in Milan to attempt to restore order, and. proclaimed a state of siege.

Workers in the Breda and Pirelli plants barricaded themselves in the factories. Saboteurs are being paraded through the streets before being shot without trial.

The situation in Turin is reported to be nearly as bad. The strike is spreading to many other towns. Rome radio to-night announced drastic measures against Italian strikers. In future, striking workers will be regarded as being dismissed and will be liable to arrest. They will also forfeit any payment normally owing under their notice. Employers are not entitled to receive deputations from workers but must close their premises and hand over to the local provincial governor any money owing to the dismissed strikers.