Lo Sciopero di Benzina

Two nights ago Luciana and I were talking over dinner, she mentioned to me that she needed to get gas the next day.

The next day at dinner the news was on as usual, and Luciana tells me, “I tried to get gas today but I couldn’t, I got there and there wasn’t any.” I thought this was strange and asked why, “Communisti!” she replied and then pointed at the television where the news story was playing about there being no gas available in all of Italy due to a strike.

Strikes are something I’ve already gotten used to in Italy, they happen all the time, though it is mostly the buses or other modes of transportation. When something is happening politically that people disagree with, they strike. The transportation workers most directly serve the public so they are the first ones to go. This shows the government immediately where they would be without the people and it usually only happens for a half day or so and then ends, I never really hear if they are successful, or what the strike is really for, but we are usually told a week or so before, “just so you know, no trains Friday from noon to midnight.” Or something like this.

When we first got here the high school students were striking because they felt they were being treated unfairly by being forced to take certain exams or something. They organized a protest and actually did something about the causes that they disagreed with in their own lives.

This passion and involvement in political goingson astounds me. It is something I find refreshing; can you imagine American high school students taking anything into their own hands? While it is incredibly inconvenient a lot of times I think it is important to remind everyone that the things you depend on daily depend on someone else doing their job. The lack of gas yesterday was because the group of truck drivers who usually deliver the gas all over the country were striking. I asked Luciana why again and she responded “Because they’re communists,” as if that explained it, and then she added, “but they’re right.” They were working without contracts for meager wages and they realized how unfair this was—the country literally depends on them—and they showed the country just how much simply by making them go without for a day.

People couldn’t drive, taxi companies were driving until their cars were on empty, the fresh fruit and vegetables weren’t delivered to the grocery stores this morning because there were no trucks to deliver them, the gas stations saved what gas they had left for ambulances and emergency vehicles, and yet Italian life went on. And those commie drivers got the attention from the government that they wanted.