Strikes, Riots In Italy Continue

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29250, 7 July 1960, Page 13

Strikes, Riots In Italy Continue

(Rec. 10.15 p.m.) ROME, July 6. More strikes and demonstrations face Italy today as the current wave of labour disputes and Fascist-Communist friction continues.

Last night a man was killed by a stray bullet as police opened fire on demonstrating unemployed at Licata, in Sicily, and scores of others were injured in police baton charges and tear gas attacks.

The riots lasted nearly all day, with the unemployed setting up barricades to stop road traffic and stopping' trains leaving the town. In Rome early today, bombs were thrown at part of the Russian Embassy and the offices of the Italian Communist Party. A "Molotov cocktail” type of bomb was thrown into the gardens of the commercial section of the embassy from a speeding car. It burnt, but did not explode and no damage was caused. The same car was apparently used in the attack on the party offices, where a wooden box filled with gunpowder was thrown, but did not explode.

To-morrow, Rome tram crews will strike to press their wage claim. Gas employees, civil servants and farm workers are among the others who are threatening strike action in support of wage claims. At Reggio Emilie, in southern Italy, today, seven policemen were injured and 18 persons arrested in a fight after an antiFascist incident. Police charged with utility vehicles and tear gas when stone - throwing demonstrators tried to invade the local headquarters of the neo-Fascist M.S.I. In y Ravenna, Northern Italy, police said the home of a Com-, munist member of Parliament, Mr Arrigo Boldrini was set on fire. A placard was found reading: “Death to Boldrini. Long live Fascism." Mr Boldrini was a speaker at a recent anti-Fascist meeting.

Clash In Senate Shouting Communist senators last night forced a brief suspension of the Italian Senate after the Interior Minister, Mr Giuseppe Spataro, had criticised Left-wing demonstrations against a neo-Fas-cist movement. The angry scenes in the Senate

came after reports from northern and southern Italy of violence and arson as tension mounted between neo-Fascists and the Left. The Minister referred to Incidents in Genoa last Thursday when Left-wing supporters demonstrating against a planned conference of the neo-Fascist Social Movement clashed with police. The conference, scheduled for last week-end was later called off Mr Spataro said Italy’s "glorious partisans” would hardly have identified themselves with the rioters who had attacked the police in Genoa. Several Communist senators, including the veteran Senator Umberto Terracini, jumped to their feet shouting. An exchange of insults followed between Communist and Socialist and Christian Democrat senators. ' Stewards threw a cordon across the Chamber to prevent a clash. The Senate President, Senator Cesare Merzagora. after trying to establish order, suspended the sitting for 20 minutes while tempers cooled.