It’s called the Movimento dei Forconi, or the Pitchfork Movement. It started as an uprising by the farmers because the cost of transporting food in and out of Sicily surpassed the actual price of the food. In complete disgust and a general consensus of being fed up with the multiple tax increases and lack of pay, people took to the roads and freeways to block any further transport. It was then fully supported by truck drivers. It started as a protest, turned into a demonstration and quickly spread across the island into a full revolt. Now, more than two weeks into the complete blockage of transport, most grocery stores, from the neighborhood market to the huge supermarket have baren shelves and all the gas stations on the entire island are dried up.
The beginnings of this “revolution” was kept rather hush hush. The national news refused to cover the story, either because they didn’t think it was serious, or more likely, they didn’t want the idea to spread. But thanks to the internet and again, Facebook, pictures, reports and videos spread like wildfire and most of the country knew about the revolt before the news said one word about it. Now of course, they keep constant updates on the ‘situation’ in Sicily, but what they feared the most was inevitable--the idea caught on. Now, truck drivers are parking their rigs from Trentino to Ventimiglia, blocking the borders and preventing transport. Here in my city, there are already lines at the gas stations and there have been warnings to fill up our cars in case we don’t have gas for a while.
