#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #ITALY #SICILIA #News #Journal #Update - (en) #Italy, #Sicilia Libertaria: Gela conference: the other reports and the debate (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 The two reports on this page were followed by the others scheduled and the

debate. ---- Pippo Gurrieri, on behalf of the NO MUOS movement, dealt with the
"comparison of disasters" between Gela and Niscemi, focusing on some parallels
between two cities united by the symbol of death: cancers and malformations the
former, cancers and wars the second. Gela, capital of neonatal malformations
(since 2003 over 500: 1 for every 166 inhabitants, while Taranto stands at 1 for
every 331 inhabitants) and pollution, united with Niscemi and Butera by the
acronym SIN: site of national interest for reclamation. Too bad that more than 20
years after its establishment, the reclamations are almost at zero level. Niscemi
is poisoned both by the refinery and by the electromagnetic emissions of the US
military base whose real data has never been leaked. Both places live their
defeats in resignation, suffer the demographic decline due to emigration, and put
up with the uncomfortable monsters located in their suburbs. During the NO MUOS
struggle the Niscemese people put their face on it for a while; Few people came
from nearby Gela, as if the American base were on another continent and not over
their heads. Today the redemption of both passes through a critical review of
this recent history and the setting up of a mobilization path to implement the
first necessary condition so that another future can be planned: the dismantling
of the monsters, the end of the industrializing mortgage of ENI and US militarist.

Erika Garozzo, from the Network of Sicilian Territorial Committees raised the
issue of decision-making and colonialism: the Sicilian people have been deprived
of any decision-making on extractivist policies of which ENI's colonial project
is the leader. Today, governments have coined laws that allow the state to impose
its decisions on recalcitrant municipalities on the subject of major works,
landfills, plants harmful to health, etc. We must revolt against this form of
domination.

Paolo Scicolone, of No incinerator Gela focused on the initiative of the
committee, with the collection of thousands of signatures against a work passed
off as a solution and wanted in Gela to serve western Sicily, when it is known
that the largest producer of waste (undifferentiated) is Palermo. The incinerator
in Gela means transporting waste for hundreds of km on poorly made roads, since
it is unusable by sea from Palermo and Trapani due to the impracticability of the
Gela port. The usual occupational blackmail is underway to transform the city of
toxic waste into a city of rubbish. The judiciary played a nefarious role in
safeguarding the environmental disaster; agriculture is contaminated by mercury,
vanadium, nickel, lead, cadmium, which do not spare human lives. For the
institutions, on the other hand, the pollution is due to air and rail traffic and
to Etna... The goal remains that of a zero waste city.

After the five reports, a lively debate took place, initiated by the online
intervention of Cinzia Di Modica of the Stop Poisons Committee of
Syracuse-Augusta-Melilli; there too they have been a SIN since 1998 but
reclamation has stopped at 12% and there are 16 plants at significant risk on 30
km of coast. The system lowers the decisions on the construction of
regasification terminals and LNG deposits from above. The network of territorial
committees has met the people, is included in the national networks, acts to
unite the struggles, claim the reclamations and bring these requests into the
institutional sphere.

Anita Acuto of Legambiente lamented the lack of a strategic vision on the climate
issue; you focused on Sicily's role as an energy and military hub at the heart of
the climate crisis. Fight for reclamation, while the NIS can be sites for the
installation of new plants for renewables without consuming more land.

Nicolò Distefano of No incinerator drew attention to the need to develop energy
communities.

Senator Lorefice, of the 5 Star Movement (well yes, also a senator!) recalled the
dependence on fossil fuels and the role of ENI which expands in Africa in contact
with unpresentable regimes, while the approach to energy sources should be changed.

Lizzy, from the University of Catania, reported on her recent study on
participation levels in the city of Gela, which are very low, despite sporadic
moments of the opposite trend.

Daniele Ratti, after recalling the issue of water as a central element of the
near future, replied to the senator by recalling how there has always been
unanimity on military issues at a political-institutional level, exposing the
data of exorbitant Italian military expenditure, and what you could do with that
wasted money.

Giusy Nanè of Stop Veleni talked about their initiative against air pollution,
with the creation of an app that identifies smells of industrial origin. She
offered to provide a list of topics for the Senator to address.

Salvatore Giordano of the NO MUOS Movement reiterated the importance of
demilitarization, and how militarism is also polluting. He spoke of the
repression of the movement and those who oppose the war starting from our
territory; all parties advocate resignation to Sicily's role as an aircraft
carrier in the center of the Mediterranean. We must be the ones to overturn this
role, the national policy that increases military spending will not do it.

Salvino recalls how the destruction of health care must also be considered in
this framework; in Gela to be treated you must go to Caltanissetta.

Pippo Gurrieri recalls the little-known matter of the cancellation of VAT from
the export of arms in the EU and soon in NATO; a choice made months ago by the
defense commission, with the "non-obstructive" abstention of the 5 Star Movement.
Discounts are given to the merchants of death and VAT is maintained on basic
necessities and on energy, which swells as bills rise.

Andrea Turco, greeting the participants, invites everyone to continue to develop
proposals and to commit themselves to a permanent observatory between Gela,
Niscemi and Butera.

The debate brought out a wealth of issues that give an idea of the complexity of
the Sicilian situation, but the difference in approach between the various
realities also appeared evident. Without mentioning the senator, who is really
out of place, one cannot fail to notice how shareable analyzes have emerged from
the Network of territorial committees but methodologies focused on collaboration
or institutional entryism, a position that has characterized these realities for
some time. Even the position of Legambiente to use abandoned industrial areas for
new renewable plants is questionable if behind the strategies of the State there
is always a colonialist and extractivist perspective to the detriment of
populations and territories.

The initiative of 10 December, linked to the campaign against the military and
energy role of ENI, can be said to be successful, but it will be even more so if
it has produced continuity of commitment in the area on the basis of clear
proposals that cannot be recovered from the system.

https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
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