#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #ITALY #ANARCHISM #News #Journal #Update - (en) Italy, Livorno: Anarchist piece at the national demonstration on 2 June at 2.30 pm in Coltano (Pisa) against the bases and the war (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Against war and whoever arms it! ---- We stop the new base in Coltano (Pisa) we

dismantle the existing ones ---- "No base for no war" ---- The government wants
to build a new military base near Pisa, yet another militarization piece of the
territory, which will host the "excellences" of the carabinieri: the 1st regiment
of the carabinieri paratroopers "Tuscania", the Special Intervention Group, the
dog center. Whether it is carried out in Coltano or elsewhere, this project goes
in the direction of making the neo-colonial military projection of the Italian
state more efficient. In fact, continuing a long-term plan, the government is
building a real war pole, and that of the new base is added to the expansion of
the military airport of Pisa, the expansion of the US base at Camp Darby and the
construction of the Command of the Army Special Forces.

Opposing war means acting where war begins, often right behind our house. The
"Tuscania" paratroopers will depart from this new base for military missions in
Mali, Libya, Romania or Lithuania, fueling the spiral of war in Eastern Europe.
Opposing militarism means opposing the massive war propaganda that accompanies
the presence of military installations on the territory, but also opposing the
patriarchal rule on which militarism itself hinges. It means opposing the
discipline and social control, the violence of a hierarchical society modeled on
the army. Opposing militarization also means opposing the ecological and social
devastation of the territories, because "strategic" activities and projects,
especially if military ones, follow rapid and exceptional procedures in which
corporate and military top management are always protected to guarantee profits
and privileges on the skin of the populations. Opposing militarism means
proposing a liberated society, it means not only rejecting the decisions imposed
by those who govern, but also building self-management from below.

If we want to stop the base, we can only rely on self-organization, direct
action, the creation of a large movement of struggle.

Anarchist Club of Vicolo del Tidi - Pisa
------------------------------------------------
No basis for any war. Against the new Coltano military base

With a DPCM, on January 14th, the government decided to finance the construction
of a new large military base in Coltano, a town in the reclaimed countryside
between Pisa and Livorno, inside the San Rossore Park, near Pisa airport. and at
the US military base at Camp Darby. A widespread and varied opposition is
mounting against the project. Those who live and work in the area have organized
themselves in the Standing Committee for the Defense of Coltano, while the No
Base Movement, which between Pisa and Livorno brings together collectives,
associations, political and trade union realities, as well as many individuals,
is trying to build a wider movement against the base.

The reasons for the opposition are simple, clear and determined: no to a new war
base in Coltano or elsewhere, no ecological destruction, no military spending.
The press says that the authorities have already rethought it, that the base will
certainly no longer be built in Coltano but in the meantime the DPCM is always
there, the government wants to go its own way, above the will of the population.

This is yet another war structure in an already extremely militarized area. Some
of the "excellences" of the Carabinieri should be located in this new base: the
Dog Center, which is currently based in Florence, the Carabinieri GIS Special
Intervention Group, now in Livorno at the "Amico" barracks, the 1st Carabinieri
regiment "Tuscania" paratroopers which is also currently based in Livorno at the
"Vannucci" barracks. The "Tuscania" paratroopers are among the most used units in
missions abroad, such as in Kosovo, Iraq and Libya, and the GIS units were also
sent, alongside other special forces, to Mali for the operation. Takuba.

The base is expected to occupy an area of 73 hectares, equivalent to 140 football
fields. 440 thousand cubic meters of concrete will be thrown in an agricultural
area with a fragile ecological balance, which would be definitively compromised
with the construction of helicopter tracks, shooting ranges, circuits for driving
exercises, training areas, warehouses, accommodation, swimming pools, cottages
for officers. Not to mention all the roads, parking lots, fences and internal
infrastructures necessary for the functioning of the new mega barracks.

The estimated cost is 190 million euros, which the government has decided to find
through the PNRR, in case it is not clear who will continue to earn thanks to the
rain of money much touted by the government as a panacea for the "economic
recovery" after the pandemic. . This is only the initial expense for the
construction of the complex, there will also be expenses for the adaptation of
the connections to the national road network, but then the real money will be
needed to make the base work.

After the first protest initiatives that brought to light the project, of which
not even the local press had given news, politicians and administrators hastened
to declare themselves against, united in the chorus: we knew nothing! However,
they could not be unaware of it: official documents had already been circulating
between the Municipality, Province and Region for at least a year, such as the
one sent at the beginning of April 2021 which reports a detailed feasibility
study of the base project, the first version of which would be dated 12 July. 2019.

After all, the location in which to build the base has been decided for a long
time. Already on 23 December 2019 a clear agenda was approved in the Chamber
presented by the deputy M5S Rizzo, president of the IV Defense Commission, which
committed the Government to assess the allocation of the funds necessary to
finance the construction of a new base. The text of the approved document, which
in those days was also beaten by the press agencies, speaks clearly: "An area
adjacent to the perimeter of the US base of 'Camp Darby' has been identified
which, due to its geographical location (proximity to Pisa airport and the CISAM
training areas) and due to its extension, it appears suitable for hosting the two
departments ". So when the governing parties and their local and national
exponents, whether they are from Lega, PD, M5S or LEU declare themselves against
the project, they are lying. Among other things, the project will benefit from
simplified procedures also thanks to the decree law 31 May n. 77 of 2021 on the
governance of the PNRR which allows the acceleration and streamlining of procedures.

They tried to push this project through with silence and with imposition,
preventing the creation of a debate, that anyone could raise objections. The same
leaders of the San Rossore Park, who also declared the opposite opinion, did not
make the matter public when they were questioned in April 2021. However, there
are those who want to have a say and it is clear that only popular opposition,
organized from below, it can manage to get in the way and stop this project.

To do this, we still need to work a lot on the territory, in the neighboring
cities, in the neighborhoods, in the villages and build, beyond the party
acronyms, permanent assemblies from below, which organize popular opposition to
the military base, to militarization. and to the war that is already present and
rooted in society.

It will not be easy to prevent the construction of this base, because it is part
of a long-term process of reorganization of the armed forces and in particular of
the special forces and rapid intervention. However, we can do it because in such
a militarized area those who govern perhaps did not expect an opposition that
would go beyond the usual militant circuits, because the opposition in recent
years to equally devastating projects has been weak: the expansion of the
military airport. , the decommissioning of the CISAM experimental nuclear reactor
with the spill of radioactive waters in the Navicelli Canal, the expansion of the
US base at Camp Darby, the construction of the new base of the Army Special
Forces Command.

This time, however, it does not seem that it will go that way. The climate of
opposition to the war that is mounting in the light of the international context,
the most rooted and renewed ecological sensitivity, the desire to react to the
impositions of power, while in recent years we have seen an increase in military
spending in the face of the collapse of living conditions and of work, access to
services and care, together with the push given by the slow resumption of
movements has given strength to a new opposition. An opposition that clearly
takes sides against the project but also against the system of war, devastation,
exploitation and oppression that moves these choices of government.

It must be clear that what they are completing between Pisa and Livorno with the
project for the new Coltano base is a great logistic pole of the war. The Pisa
airport, controlled by the Italian Air Force where the 46th air brigade with the
C-130 cargo is located, is the Main Operating Base for sending troops and war
materials abroad and has been expanded in recent years to become a national hub .
The Folgore Paratroopers Brigade is already present near the airport but the
special troops of the 9th Regiment are also present at the COMFOSE. "Col Moschin"
paratroopers assault, the 185th Reg. RAO paratroopers, the 4th Reg. Alpine
paratroopers. To these would be added with the new base the "Tuscania" and the
GIS, as special forces of the Carabinieri.

For decades, the territory between Pisa and Livorno has played a central role in
Italy's military projection policies abroad. These projects will only develop and
make this device more efficient, thus opening the way to an ever greater
interventionism by Italy outside the national borders. It will also favor the
completion of the project of building separate special forces, specialists in war
and death in the service of the government, to protect the interests and
privileges of the powerful in expeditions both abroad and within the borders of
the country if necessary, as in Val of Susa.

A first national event will be held on Thursday 2 June in Coltano, meeting at
2.30 pm at the Villa Medicea in the center of the town. June 2 is a significant
day for the anti-militarist movements that for years have contested what has now
become the second party of the armed forces. On that day there will be many other
events and initiatives around Italy and perhaps participation will not be as
large as one would like. However, this is a first step to launch the construction
of an opposition movement and it will be important to link the demonstration on 2
June concretely and in solidarity with the many initiatives to be held in other
territories.

In a month, great steps were taken, a unitary organism was built, a widespread
counter-information campaign began, moments of struggle and discussion in the
assembly were built. It was possible to unite the opposition at the base under
the slogan "neither here nor elsewhere", rejecting the attempts of the
politicians and handlers on duty who tried to talk about compensation and
redevelopments to break the movement. A clear political objective was identified
in the short term, the withdrawal of the DPCM, to unmask the empty announcements
of the official press that on behalf of the parties and institutions tries to
convey the message that "the base will no longer be built in Coltano" to try to
defuse the movement. They have not succeeded, at least for now,

The XXXI FAI Congress in Empoli will also open on 2 June and many companions will
be involved in starting the works. However, many * anarchists * will also be in
the streets in Coltano, active in the many realities participating in the
movement, with their own content, giving a specific anti-militarist contribution
to the day. Aware that the real challenge now lies in the daily commitment to
prevent the construction of the base, in the formation of local committees,
assemblies, in the ability to build forms of self-management in the spaces of
ungovernability that the movement will be able to open up, in the possibility of
relaunching, after the important general strike of May 20, the anti-militarist
struggle in ever wider sections of society.

Dario Antonelli

  https://collettivoanarchico.noblogs.org/
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