On this day, 17 May 1949, brick factory worker and former Resistance member Maria Margotti was killed by Carabinieri – Italian paramilitary police. The previous day she stood on a picket line of agricultural workers, along with other women, attempting to stop scabs replacing the strikers. Police attacked them particularly violently.
So on 17 May a demonstration was organised protesting against the police violence. The Carabinieri opened fire on the crowd with machine guns and killed Maria Margotti. She was 34 years old.
Her death caused mass outrage and spurred an escalation in opposition and resistance to the post-war state and its anti-working class policies. https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1427969450721534/?type=3