MASS UNEMPLOYMENT

Grey River Argus, 5 January 1946, Page 5

MASS UNEMPLOYMENT

ITALY’S GRAVE STATE Food Riots in City (Rec. 9.50.) LONDON, January 4. A cable from Rome stated: Thousands of unemployed marched through the streets in Florence on day. They found their way into restaurants, took free meals, looted the shops and lifted trams from the rails, dislocating the city’s transport. Several thousand demonstrators converged on the centre of the city in the afternoon shouting: “Give ux bread and work,” and demanding the closure of cinemas, and forcing shops selling luxuries to pull down their shutters. Demonstrators attacked the Prefecture building, which was protected by the police, and then attacked the office'of the Committee of Liberation. Both of these attacks were repelled. The local office of the Confederation of Labour received several delegations from the unemployed.

Demonstrations continued on Thursday. Though they now are subsiding, fresh outbreaks are considered possible. Demonstrations also occurred in Milan in protest against, the “indifference of the authorities towards the plight of unemployed exservicemen.”

Political circles fear that such outbreaks may spread to all industrial tcwns in northern Italy. Florence alone is estimated to have at leastsixteen thousand workless, without any means of livelihood.