TODAY IMMIGRANTS ON STRIKE IN ITALY, FRANCE AND SPAIN

ANSAmed) - ROME - Beginning this morning, Italy is seeing its first ''national strike'' of foreigners, called to bring ''visibility'' to the immigrants living and working in Italy and in order to fight against racism. The predominant colour is yellow, chosen by the organisers of the protest which began in France and is set to spread to other countries in addition to Italy.

The initiative is part of today's strike in France, the ''Journee Sans Immigres, 24h Sans Nous''. Also in other countries, such as Greece and Spain, there is mobilisation underway to bring together under the same yellow banner foreigners, European Union citizens, second generation immigrants and ''anyone rejecting racism and any form of discrimination''. The initiative was inspired by the 2006 protest movement of Latin Americans in the United States against immigration policies. Sixty squares across Italy will host demonstrations today marked by the colour yellow, ''to support the importance of immigration for the socio-economic good of the country'', as announced the March 1st 2010-Day Without Us Committee (Primo Marzo 2010 - Una giornata senza di Noi). A number of initiatives have been planned in the various cities involved: among them is an ''ethnic lunch'' will be offered to penitentiary police officers in Varese, the painting over or cleaning off of racist slogans on walls in Trieste, a photo exhibition in Bologna with the faces of the ''new Italians'', and open-air foreign languages lessons offered in Milan. In Rome there will be ''lessons in illegal immigration'' held by L'Onda (the 'Wave') students in front of Parliament. At 6.30 Pm, yellow balloons will then be released in all the squares to reiterate the colour serving as a symbol for the demonstrations. Having sprung up spontaneously on the web (in part thanks to a Facebook group) the March 1st protest has received the backing of a number of groups, including organisations such as Emergency, Amnesty International, Pime missionaries and Legambiente, political parties (PD, the Greens, SEL and Rifondazione Comunista) as well as the trade unions CGIL, CISL, UIL and COBAS, which despite having expressed their support have not called a nation-wide general strike. Those not showing up for work due to the strike will therefore be seen in limited numbers, and union coverage will be guaranteed mainly by grassroots unions such as SDL (the Workers Union). As part of the strike, Coldiretti has requested the ''timely publication of the 2010 immigration quotas law in the official gazette, since a delay may damage important sectors for the Italian agro-food sector''. This is widespread concern in small agricultural enterprises over the delay in giving the go-ahead for the entrance to the country of the 80,000 foreign, seasonal workers on which 10% of Italian crops are dependent.(ANSAmed).