WAR’S AFTERMATH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26043, 5 January 1946, Page 5

WAR’S AFTERMATH

ITALIAN UNEMPLOYED MASS DEMONSTRATIONS (Rec. 10.45 p.m.) ROME, Jan. 3. Shouting “ Give us bread and work,'’ thousands of unemployed marched through the streets of Florence, forced their way into restaurants, and took free meals. They looted shops and lifted trams from the rails, dislocating the city’s transport. Several thousand demonstrators converged on the centre of the city yesterday afternoon demanding the closing of kinemas and forcing shops selling luxuries to pull down their shutters. The demonstrators attacked the prefecture building, which was protected by the police, and then the office of the Committee of Liberation. Both attacks were repelled. The local office of the Confederation of Labour received several delegations from the unemployed. The demonstrations continued to-day, and though they are now subsiding, fresh outbreaks are considered possible. Demonstrations also occurred in Milan in a protest againgt the “ indifference of the authorities towards the plight of unemployed ex-servicemen.” Political circles fear that such outbreaks may spread to all industrial towns in Northern Italy. Florence alone is estimated to have at least 16,000 workless without any means of livelihood.