WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE ITALY - news journal UPDATE - (en) Italy, Anarres Info: Turin. Deserters from all wars! (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

A large anti-militarist march has passed through the streets of Turin,
breaking the smokescreen surrounding the war industry and the aerospace
weapons market in our city. ---- From December 2nd to 4th, the tenth
edition of the Aerospace and Defense Meetings will be held, where the
world's major players will sign trade agreements for the weapons that
destroy entire cities, massacre civilians, and poison lands and rivers.
Manufacturers, governments and international organizations, members of
the armed forces, and contractors will meet and do business at the Oval.
The aerospace industry produces fighter-bombers, ballistic missiles,
satellite control systems, combat helicopters, and armed drones for
remote-control operations.
At the Aerospace and Defense Meetings, deadly games are played for
millions of people everywhere: Italian weapons, led by the state-owned
giant Leonardo, are present in every theater of war.
Turin is vying to become one of the main centers of our country's war
industry.

There are those who say no, and those who get in the way.
Saturday, November 29th, was an important day of struggle against
militarism and war.
The demonstration, called by the Antimilitarist Assembly, was attended
by the "Turin Coordination Against War and Those Who Arm It" and
delegations from the many struggles against military bases, shooting
ranges, barracks, and death factories. There were territorial
coordination groups and assemblies from Asti, Novara, Livorno, Carrara,
Reggio Emilia, Palermo, Trieste, Milan, Rome, and Ragusa.

The procession started from Porta Palazzo, the heart of the city,
preceded by Murga and the Clown Army with performances that captured the
attention of the many people who pass through Porta Palazzo on Saturday
afternoon.
The demonstration then headed to the City Hall, where it remained for a
long time. The city's "pacifist" administration is among the political
sponsors of the arms industry and the aerospace and defense meetings.
The Clown Army lined up at the entrance and launched an antimilitarist
action.
Along the entire route, speeches were given by the antimilitarist groups
participating in the march.
A wide range of topics were addressed. At Porta Palazzo, the war economy
that affects our country's poor was discussed: cuts to healthcare kill
those who cannot afford prevention and treatment. A focus was given to
the migrant genocide in the brutal war in the Mediterranean and on the
Alpine passes, dismantling all nationalist rhetoric in a context of
solidarity among the oppressed and exploited everywhere.
Speeches then followed on recruitment campaigns and patriotic propaganda
in schools, military spending, opposition to war missions abroad, and
the militarization of our cities. Ample space was dedicated to the
collaboration between the Polytechnic University of Turin and Leonardo,
in the Aerospace City project, a new warfare research center in the
center of Turin.

Antimilitarist Turin has sent a strong and clear signal: opposing a
future for the city tied to warfare research, production, and trade is a
concrete way to oppose war and those who a(r)e it.
Throwing sand into the wheels of militarism is possible. It depends on
each of us.
Antimilitarist struggles are slowing the spread of the war machine,
jamming its joints in our territories.

But that's not enough.
Dozens of wars are bloodying the planet: most are being fought in
silence and amidst the indifference of most. From Ukraine to the Middle
East, extremely violent conflicts are raging, which could explode far
beyond the affected regions.
Everywhere, girls and boys, women and men are being massacred by weapons
produced just a stone's throw from our homes.
Wars have concrete foundations and interests in our territories, where
we can act directly to throw sand into the wheels of militarism.
Wars today, as in the past, are fought in the name of a nation, a
people, a god.
Antimilitarists and stateless, we know that there are no just or holy wars.
Only an international humanity can lay the foundations for that world of
free and equal people that can put an end to wars, breaking their roots,
which feed on the poisonous source of nationalism, exclusionary
identities, and the denial of any dynamic of coexistence that stems from
the protagonism of those who fight against borders, states, religions,
and exploitation.
The march was strong throughout, with slogans, speeches, and tactical
frivolity combining communication, mockery of militarism, and a strong
commitment to struggle and desertion.
The march concluded in Piazza Vittorio with a captivating performance by
Murga.

We do not enlist on the side of this or that state. We reject patriotic
rhetoric as a means of legitimizing states and their expansionist claims.
There is no good nationalism.
We stand with those who, in every corner of the earth, desert war.

UPDATE

Arms dealers blocked at the Oval!
On Tuesday, December 2nd, at the inauguration of the arms market,
antimilitarists were also present, determined to oppose war and those
who arm it.

The meeting was in front of the entrance to the Oval, where, protected
by a large police force, the participants of this convention, the
flagship of the Subalpine arms lobby, were supposed to enter.
The antimilitarists, armed with banners and signs, occupied the street
in front of the gate of the convention center from 11:30 a.m. The police
unsuccessfully attempted to clear away the protesters, who got in the
way, disrupting the inauguration of the Aerospace and Defense Meetings.
After a few minutes, the cars heading to the Oval reversed. Participants
were forced to enter the Oval on foot, one by one, through an internal
passageway in the Lingotto.
For the second time in 20 years, antimilitarists blocked the entrance to
the arms dealers.

One thing is certain.
The institutional and media narrative of the Aerospace and Defense
Meetings and the Aerospace City continues to hide, behind the rhetoric
of space travel, spacecraft, and explorers of Mars and the Moon, the
reality of a market and a manufacturing sector whose core is weapons:
fighter-bombers, combat helicopters, drones, and targeting systems.
These weapons are used in wars everywhere, but are produced just a
stone's throw from our homes.
The smokescreen concealing the decision to transform Turin into a
weapons capital has been partially dispelled, involving students,
environmentalists, education workers, and groups that have been fighting
against the arms industry for years.

The campaign launched by the Antimilitarist Assembly successfully built
a significant communication march on November 29th and culminated with
the blockade of the entrance to the weapons exhibition.
A large handful of sand has been thrown into the cogs of a deadly
machine. We must redouble our efforts to stop the machine forever.
This long autumn of struggle ends with the awareness that the merchants
of death, the armies, and the arms manufacturers will increasingly find
people willing to intervene.

Stopping the war and those who start it is possible. It depends on each
of us.

Antimilitarist Assembly
antimilitarista.to@gmailcom

https://www.anarresinfo.org/torino-disertori-di-tutte-le-guerre/
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