Antimilitarist demonstrations and initiatives were held in several cities around February 24th. On this symbolic date, four years after the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, street demonstrations were held against all forms of imperialism, against militarism, in solidarity with deserters on all fronts. Responding to the call of the Antimilitarist Assembly, in Trieste, Livorno, Turin, Reggio Emilia, and Palermo, there were demonstrations in the squares and symbolic actions in some of the places that most represent the arms race and war, such as weapons factories and war-mongering monuments.
On this "anniversary," the Italian government has revived war propaganda to justify the arms race, approving a new decree for the sale of weapons to Ukraine, the thirteenth since 2022. Among the themes that have peppered the warmongering rhetoric of recent weeks, we've heard more talk of a new advance by the Ukrainian army. They continue to portray the war in heroic terms, while Ukraine and Russia have become a vast slaughterhouse for the proletariat, with hundreds of deaths a day on a front as long as the entire Italian peninsula. This is the future they envision for the young generations they would like to enlist in the armed forces, for the working class they want impoverished, submissive and disciplined, reduced to fighting for their masters or producing and transporting weapons that will kill other proletarians. Faced with this scenario, the only option for salvation is desertion. But what exactly does this mean? A concrete image comes to us from the war in Eastern Europe.
Data emerging between 2024 and 2025 shed light on the situation. In Ukraine, approximately 1.5 million people have become unavailable to local recruitment centers. They have not communicated their new residence to the administration and therefore cannot be formally reached for conscription. These people, if still in the country, risk being recognized, held on the streets, and forcibly recruited. In city neighborhoods, solidarity groups are keeping recruiting teams away to prevent them from abducting local residents for recruitment. There are also nearly 290,000 open criminal cases against soldiers who have unjustifiably abandoned their units. Of these, the majority, approximately 235,000, have not returned after leave or vacation, while 54,000 are legally considered "deserters," having left their units without justification. The situation in Russia appears to be similar; Although there are no comparable data, we know that between 2022 and 2025, approximately 800,000 Russians left their country. Regardless of other causes of emigration, some of which were strongly influenced by the war the country has been plunged into, many are seeking to escape military mobilization.
We took to the streets immediately, not to support a government, not to choose an imperialist side, not to support a nationalism, but against all armies and all wars.
State neutrality or bourgeois equidistance are not our concern; we are against all governments, all states, and all imperialisms. We choose a side, the side of the oppressed and exploited classes, thrown into the meat grinder of war wherever it is being fought, cast into poverty and crushed by repression everywhere in the world. This is why we stand in solidarity with the deserters, with those who demonstrate how one can escape the massacre, the military machine. But that is not enough. As the Kharkiv Assembly group has highlighted in several articles, the mass of draft dodgers and deserters in Ukraine must move beyond hiding and overthrow their government. The same should happen in Russia, where the repressive grip would require a strong mass movement to undermine the police state and stop the war. This reflection serves to remind us that desertion must be the first step and transform into revolution. The individual ethical choice to avoid the massacre, which must be supported, is not enough; the choice must become collective, to build a mass movement capable of stopping a war and overthrowing a government.
But in the midst of a war, under bombs, in fear and suffering, in flight, under martial law, setting these processes in motion is extremely difficult. We must act sooner. This is why we must be clear about what we can do now, and expand the meaning of desertion. In the workplace, in production and logistics, as in schools and universities, deserting the war means halting weapons production, blocking military transport, rejecting the reintroduction of military service in any form, rejecting war propaganda, and working to build a mass antimilitarist movement that can challenge war policies.
Dario Antonelli
https://umanitanova.org/sempre-a-fianco-di-chi-diserta-a-quattro-anni-dalla-guerra-in-ucraina-le-manifestazioni/
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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