The Criminalization of Social Protest in Italy: The Case of Precarious Workers Against “Il padrone di merda” (the “Shitty” Boss)

The chapter explores how the mobilization of precarious workers in Bologna (Italy) was criminalized. The workers operated under the labels “Il padrone di merda” (the “shitty boss”) and “Maschere Bianche” (“White Masks”) between 2019 and 2021. They organized demonstrations, independently from the relevant unions, outside workplaces where employers were accused of exploitation, unfair wage practices, or employee harassment. The chapter is divided into two sections. The first section aims to reconstruct the origin of the methods, claims, and peculiarities of the protest by examining materials disseminated by the group on social media.The second section of the chapter is based on a case study that sheds light o n the “essence” of the criminalization process, scrutinizing the language and the narrative of the legal documents of one of the trials faced by the group.