February 5, 2026

The Italian union Unione Sindacale di Base (USB) issued the statement below on Jan. 27. 2026.

Union Sindacale di Base (USB) stands with U.S. workers against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) repression and executions. On Feb. 5 and 6 there will be events in Rome and Milan with Chris Smalls, Amazon Labour Union trade unionist and ICE OUT activist.

USB condemns the escalation of repression, killings and violence carried out by federal repressive mechanisms through ICE criminals against workers, immigrants and their families in Minnesota and all other U.S. states.

We are appalled by the gruesome images of children being arrested, arbitrary detentions without any legal authority and the executions of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, shot dead by the police in the middle of the street. All this is part of a strategy by the U.S. government to terrorize entire neighbourhoods, schools and workplaces.

We salute the mass strike actions and militant mobilizations on Friday, Jan. 23, and the following days, organized by the Minnesota trade unions, with the participation of tens of thousands of workers demanding the restoration of the law, the immediate expulsion of ICE and an end to raids in schools and workplaces and the persecution of migrant workers and their families.

These images reveal the true face of a system that is legitimizing violence and oppression in the service of power and profit, as has been happening for years in Palestine and with the attacks on Venezuela and threats of war around the world.

The escalation of imperialist aggression by states, starting with the U.S., interventions, wars and the war economy inevitably lead to an escalation at home as well: intensified repression, restrictions on rights and freedoms, persecution of migrants and refugees and attacks on the lives of the working class. When the people pay for the war economy with rising prices and poverty and when they organize and fight back, the state mobilizes its mechanisms to intimidate and subdue them.

This should give pause for thought in Italy, where we witnessed the repressive crackdown on the protests in September and October [2025] and the terrifying new security decrees being presented by the Meloni government, so fraternally friendly to President Donald Trump. Just as in the European Union, the rearmament plan and the militarization of ports and strategic infrastructure will inevitably lead to lower wages, the destruction of essential services and the restriction of freedoms and labor rights.

ICE out of Italy!

The fact that the fascist ICE militia will come to Italy to “guarantee” the safety of U.S. athletes must be seen as an insult to our entire country. The spearhead of the well-known “Milan Model,” the Milan-Cortina Olympics, are accelerating the processes of speculation, tertiarization [moving the economy away from industry and agriculture toward the service (tertiary) sector] and job insecurity that are affecting both Milan and the entire country.  For citizens the result is price increases, reduced services and the progressive militarization of urban space. Milan is preparing to be locked down and made inaccessible to those who live and work there every day.

The symbolic moment of this process is the opening event on Feb 6: a ceremony designed as an international showcase, with luxury shows, unaffordable tickets and a city paralysed by closures, restricted areas and mobility restrictions. [This is] a sacrifice imposed on the population to ensure institutional catwalks.

Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, already architects — together with Donald Trump — of imperialist, genocidal and neo-colonial policies, from support for the occupation and massacre of the Palestinian people to the aggression against Venezuela, have been announced as guests at the [Olympics] inauguration. Delegations will be accompanied by 11 aircraft carrying ICE units, the U.S. anti-immigration police responsible for violence, deportations and murders in the United States.

The presence of ICE in Milan sends a very serious political message: the normalization of a repressive apparatus that targets migrants, workers and social movements, while the Olympics become a space for legitimizing war, repression and exploitation.

International dockworkers strike on Feb. 6

The initiative in Rome and the protest in Milan are consciously part of the international dockworkers’ strike on Feb. 6, which will witness port workers, starting in Genoa, downing tools in protest against war and rearmament. While the Olympics celebrate governments and interests responsible for conflict and devastation, dockworkers strongly affirm that strategic infrastructure must not be at the service of the war machine.

Refusing the transport of weapons and military materials means striking a concrete blow against the policies of war that are currently devastating Palestine and fuelling aggression and interference throughout the world, from the Middle East to Latin America. At the end of the rally in Milan, we will travel in a convoy to Genoa to support the international dockworkers’ strike against war.

On Feb. 5, there will be a meeting with Amazon trade unionist Chris Small at 5 p.m. in the Venturi lecture hall of the Faculty of Arts at Sapienza University in Rome.

On Feb. 6, [there will be an action] in Milan at 2.30 p.m. in Piazza Gaza (formerly Scala) with the slogan “ICE OUT!” after which the initiative will move to Genoa in a convoy for the international port strike.

Let us strengthen the struggle for work and life with rights, for the protection of migrants and their families, to end state terror and to overturn anti-popular policies.

Solidarity with trade unions and workers in the United States!

Stop state repression!