A double standard dominates the political organization of democratic
societies. In countries with authoritarian regimes, the legalizedviolence of the state unfolds with less hypocrisy. In Italy, anyone who
kills is considered a criminal and prosecuted by law, but when the
murder is committed by soldiers serving the state, their actions become
honorable, just, because they are done in the name of the homeland, the
nation, security, wealth, and border security.
Parade uniforms, medals, and banners transform the profession of arms
into heroism; massacres become victories. These masks cover the many
horrors for which the Italian government and armed forces are directly
responsible. Patriotism, the triad of "God, Country, Family," so dear to
the Meloni government, are not merely the legacy of a more rhetorical
and grandiloquent past than our present, but the ever-present
representation of the Italian state's imperialist and neocolonial attitude.
Over the past ten years, nationalist propaganda and the increasingly
aggressive infiltration of the military into schools have become normal,
as has the alternation of school-barracks training. In schools, girls,
boys, and girls are subjected to a relentless recruitment campaign and
increasingly marked nationalist propaganda.
In our country, although less strong than in the past, there is a strong
pacifist spirit, a broad rejection of war as a means of conflict
resolution, and a clear rejection of the horrors that mark every war,
where civilians pay the highest price. Yet direct opposition to
militarism is still the legacy of minorities.
The last three years have been marked by wars of unprecedented ferocity,
from Sudan to Ukraine, from Gaza to Mali, from Myanmar to Congo, from
Syria to Niger, without the development of a radical antimilitarist
opposition. The powerful wave of indignation over the genocide in Gaza,
which filled the streets and sparked strong strikes and direct action,
has so far been unable to transcend that single conflict and set in
motion the dynamics necessary to disrupt the machinery that makes
possible the many wars that bloodied the planet, especially where our
country bears direct and significant responsibility. Unfortunately, the
legacy of a certain left, which in the final decades of the last century
called support for one of the imperialist fronts competing for the
planet pacifism, is hard to die and, albeit in different forms,
continues to resurface, leveraging a distorted conception of decolonial
processes.
The hard times we are forced to live through, however, are an incentive
to intensify the fight against militarism.
Italy is at war. For many years. As Europe-and the world-engages in a
precipitous arms race, it is increasingly necessary to intervene, jam
the wheels, and fight against the war industry and militarism. European
countries, weakened by three years of war in Ukraine and the resulting
increase in energy costs, have responded to the shift in US foreign
policy with a process of rearmament, which could pave the way for new,
dangerous escalations of war.
The war scenario in Ukraine is becoming increasingly complex, with
constant accelerations and sudden changes of direction. The metaphor is
no coincidence, because it is precisely in the skies over Russia and
Ukraine that a very particular game is being played. Trump, politically
close to Putin but, above all, eager to weaken the ties between Moscow
and Beijing, is trying to play the card of the great "peacemaker." The
Franco-British axis has given clear signs of disapproval of Trump's
moves and is focusing on continuing the war. According to military
analysts at "Analisi Difesa," a publication not likely to be suspected
of pacifist leanings, the Ukrainian attacks in late October may have
been carried out directly by French Mirage missiles. This is a strong
signal of the Anglo-French determination to prosecute the war.
The Italian government, which has been dragging its feet on sending
troops, has taken sides in the war in Ukraine, sending weapons and
deploying 3,500 troops to NATO missions in Eastern Europe and the Black
Sea. Italy is engaged in 39 military missions abroad, mostly in Africa,
where Italian troops wage war on migrants and defend the interests of
giants like ENI.
Italy is directly responsible for the genocide in Sudan. In 2023, it
supplied weapons and trained RSF troops in Latina under the command of
Mohamed Dagalo, one of the two generals who started the war for control
of the country. These days, after the conquest of Al Fasher, the last
major city in Darfur, the latest massacre is underway, the only one that
has come under the media spotlight. The genocidal war in Sudan has been
going on for three years, with hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions
starving, and 12.5 million refugees. The UN, another organization not
suspected of antimilitarist tendencies, declared in early 2025 that
Sudan is experiencing the most serious humanitarian crisis on the planet.
Italy bears direct responsibility for the migrant genocide. The war on
migrants, the war on the poor waged by the governments of Fortress
Europe with the well-paid complicity of Libyan butchers, has seen
Italian governments on the front lines for many years. Italy has trained
the Libyan coast guard and provides the patrol boats that fire on boats
traveling to Europe. The Middle Sea has become a vast shroud that has
swallowed up countless lives of countless people.
The powerful, competing for resources and power, are indifferent to the
destruction of cities, the contamination of the environment, and the
denied future of so many of the planet's inhabitants.
The rubble is nothing but good business for a voracious and destructive
capitalism that has only one logic: profit at any cost. Men, women,
girls, and boys are expendable pawns in a terrible game, whose only
limit is that imposed by the power of the oppressed and exploited, who
rebel against an intolerable world order. The price of war is paid by
the massacred and starving people in every corner of the planet. We all
pay it, caught in the spiral of inflation, between starvation wages and
pensions and ever-increasing rents and bills.
The war is also internal. The special laws approved in June inflict
increasingly severe blows on those fighting in CPRs and prisons, on
those who fight against evictions, on those who squat, on those who
graffiti, on those who block roads or railways, on those who support and
spread subversive ideas.
The government responds to poverty by addressing social issues in terms
of public order: you'll find the soldiers of the "Safe Streets"
operation in poor suburbs, in CPRs, in train stations, on the borders.
They want us to believe we can't do anything to fight wars. Those who
promote, support, and fuel wars would like us to be powerless, passive,
and defenseless. We are not. Every time a soldier enters a school, we
can interfere; when they're about to open a weapons factory, we can
interfere; when they decide to conduct exercises near our homes, we can
interfere. Wars start here.
We need to have a clear vision. It's not enough to cancel a contract,
stop a piece of logistics, or slow down a transport. The war industry is
one of the drivers of all wars. Italy sells weapons to all the countries
at war, directly contributing to wars everywhere. These weapons are
produced just a stone's throw from our homes. All weapons factories must
be closed and converted. Their trade must be prevented.
Excellent reasons to participate in the initiatives against the arms
market, the aerospace and defense meetings, and the arms market taking
place in Turin in early December.
Away with the arms dealers!
Saturday, November 29th, anti-militarist march at 2:30 pm, Corso Giulio
Cesare, corner of Via Andreis
Tuesday, December 2nd, we'll block the arms dealers at the Oval Lingotto
at Via Matté Trucco 70
m.m.
https://umanitanova.org/sabbia-nel-motore-della-guerra-corteo-antimilitarista-a-torino-il-29-novembre/
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