On the 1st of septmber in 1920, the first of many worker occupations and seizures of factories in Italy began, a movement that more than half a million workers participated in.
During the month of September 1920, a widespread occupation of Italian factories by their workers took place. Although originating in the auto factories, steel mills, and machine tool plants of the metal sector, the occupation/revolt spread to cotton mills and hosiery firms, lignite mines, tire factories, breweries and distilleries, and steamships and warehouses in port towns. At its height, more than 600,000 workers were involved.
The worker rebellion was the culmination of years of labor strife - weeks before the occupations, the Italian Federation of Metallurgical Workers (FIOM), the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), and the General Confederation of Labor (CGL) called for "obstructionism" (essentially, a work slowdown) to be applied in all the engineering factories and shipyards starting on August 21st.
By the 24th, production at the Romeo factory in Milan had come to a complete standstill. A week later, production at the FIAT-Centro plant was reduced by 60%. On the morning of the 30th, the 2000 workers of the Romeo plant found the gates locked and the factory surrounded by troops. The FIOM responded by calling on its members to occupy the 300 engineering factories in Milan. Historian Lynn Williams describes what happened next:
"Between the 1st and 4th of September metal workers occupied factories throughout the Italian peninsula...the occupations rolled forward not only in the industrial heartland around Milan, Turin and Genoa but in Rome, Florence, Naples and Palermo, in a forest of red and black flags and a fanfare of workers bands...Within three days 400,000 workers were in occupation. As the movement spread to other sectors, the total rose to over half a million."
Although some radical elements within the workers' movement (Antonio Gramsci, the Italian Syndicalist Union) called for revolution, referring to the occupations as "an expropriating general strike" and demanding total socialization of the economy, more moderate forces (the CGL) prevailed, using the pressure of the rebellion to cut a deal with employers, granting better conditions to the workers on the condition of returning to work.
The Italian Factory Occupations of 1920
Italy September 1920: The Occupation of the Factories: The Lost Revolution 
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Hey so did you ever meet my friend Roderick? Maybe at that picnic? Rod, shorter guy, big glasses? Oh nah, that's all good. Yeah anyway, Rod is my mate way back from uni days, he was studying creative writing. He always had aspirations to write and direct his own work, but he's only been able to find minor credits on some made-for-dvd movies and shlocky series. Just paying the bills. Back at uni, he really modelled his own writing style on Tarantino and that guy who directed Baby Driver and... Hot Fuzz? Eric something? Yeah that guy. Great writer. Really good pacing, high tempo stuff. Got this kind of musicality to it? Anyway Rod took inspiration from those and developed his own style.
So Rod has drafted a script for his own short film that he wants to release on YouTube. He's worried though that from working on other people's stuff for so long that he's lost his mojo. His early drafts alternated between sluggish and skittish. All over the shop, not Rod at all. But he thinks he's nailed it with his most recent iteration.
Anyway, he invited me and a few other mates from back in the uni days - us who knows his old writing style - to come and critique his current script. I think he's also looking for a bit of reassurance and encouragement that he hasn't lost his touch. You know, recognisably Rod. Wait, are you sure you haven't met him? He was at Lin's 30th? Sure? Ah okay.
Where was I. Oh, yeah. So we're at his place and we crack open a few drinks and he hands out the draft script. The synopsis is pretty standard. It's a story about some kid who lives in a country town and he's into racing, so he wants to get out and see the world. Bildungsroman stuff he called it. Apparently German for 'coming of age'. Some other stuff you'd expect, he's got this mentor, has a few run ins with the law kind, intimations at romance between the boy and an older girl, the usual.
What he really wants feedback on is the climax scene in the first episode. It's a race showdown in the main town, huge stakes. Really the kind of scene where Rod's writing should shine. He asks us all to read different roles out loud. He wants us to read as naturally as possible, don't break the flow to ask questions, he'd interpose when appropriate.
We start reading and it's rolled gold. The cuts are creative, the characters are lively. It's got this break neck speed and real heart. Like Fury Road meets Stand By Me. Masterful return to form. He clearly must have picked up on it from how we were doing the reading, so during one of the stage directions, detailing how the protagonist overtakes the rival during the town grand prix, he asked us to put down the scripts and answer him honestly, is this a work that is recognisably his, does it bear his directorial and writing hallmarks. I met his eye and said, "Now THIS is Rod pacing."