I had intended for some time to review Antonio Mazzeo's book "The school
goes to war - Investigation into the militarization of education in
Italy", published by manifestolibri. The topic represents one of the
fundamental points of the anti-militarist commitment of recent years,
and the NO MUOS Movement has already dedicated a dossier to it three
years ago (with a fundamental contribution from Mazzeo himself),
entitled "University and war".
The interference, the mixing, the conditioning of the military and
military-industrial apparatus in education and research are in fact a
fundamental element of the militarization of society and war policies,
while the brazen propaganda exercised through forcing and combinations
starting from primary schools is the clear sign of a regimentation of
the very young, of children themselves, into militaristic cultures and
practices.
Mazzeo's investigation is therefore very timely, and it does so in a
period in which the massacre in Gaza by the State of Israel is causing
very large protests in universities with, among other things, the aim of
suspending any agreement with Israel, both military and civilian
(dual-use municipality), also extended to the rejection of those
projects financed by the military-industrial apparatus.
So I armed myself with a red pencil, promising myself to mark those
points that I would then return to in the review. Except that I
immediately realized how impossible this undertaking was. Each page of
the 172 of the book is a mine of information, the entire book is an
encyclopedia of the militarization of education, hundreds of episodes
are cited, hundreds of locations, in which the militaristic octopus
sneaks into the school desks , in university classrooms, in civic
education programs, and shamelessly in school-work alternation, and not
for a few years, but for over a decade, and with growing shamelessness,
thanks to protocols signed at various levels, from the ministry to the
offices regional schools, to company-schools with their principals who
have become managers. A process that went on in the almost silence of
those who in those classes, classrooms, schools, institutes should have
reported, protested, and did not do so, or did so in a whisper, whether
they were teachers, professors, managers, ATA staff, parents, or also a
student.
Governments of various colors have favored all this to happen,
governments whose defense, security or foreign policies have followed
identical lines, consistent in Atlantic obedience and in the
construction of an increasingly armed country.
Leaving the reader, therefore, the pleasure of diving into this
"anti-militarist treccani" and perhaps discovering places, schools,
faculties known to him, whose warmongering zeal he was unaware of, I
must limit myself to following the author's working scheme.
It is a journey that is part of the commemorations of the centenary of
the First World War, transformed into a praise of war, militaristic
rhetoric and the concealment of the massacres and those responsible. The
centenary of the air force, for example, is a real celebration of
infamity: the destruction of lives and places caused by the criminal use
of aerial bombings disappears, which Italy itself first theorized with
General Dohuet, and then inaugurated with criminal efficiency in Africa
and Spain, imitated by all the aeronautical schools in the world, even
to this day. Antonio Mazzeo accompanies us through all the initiatives
set up from one part of Italy to the other to educate young people in
the worst bellicose patriotism.
Then we enter the enchanted world of school-work alternation, the PCTO,
and of the countless cases of students transported inside barracks and
military bases, or to work as waiters and cooks, or to study armaments
to understand how to kill the "enemy". Maybe doing military gymnastics,
extreme resistance courses, sports tournaments, or even taking music,
English language, cooking lessons (even the Mediterranean diet, from
McDonald's exporters!). The elite Italian or NATO forces, especially
American ones, are happy to show kids how the homeland is defended, how
war is necessary to maintain peace, how the world is made up of good bad
guys and the good guys are always us . The soldiers are good at
transmitting their heroic experiences, their courage as hard and true
men, their strong sense of homeland, inseparable from that of God and
family, a trinity for which young people must be trained to fight, even
if they are innocent elementary school children sent to wave flags or
sing militaristic songs in which the enemy is slaughtered in the name of
the tricolor or the stars and stripes flag.
And in all of this a servile or cowardly teaching class (or both)
becomes an accomplice, betrays its own mission of educating for peace,
understanding of problems, critical reflection, coexistence between
peoples, and becomes a cog in the toxic machine militarist.
A disconcerting narrative, that of Mazzeo, unfortunately not alleviated
by the cases of protests and opposition recounted in the finale, which
in any case show us that there is no lack of arguments to hinder this
drift, which is now leading us to arm students to make them practice the
"sport " of shooting, or to the short-term military service which
however offers many career opportunities, or to enlistment in the
various branches of the armed forces, as an employment opportunity for
millions of young people who are denied a future of honest work. And of
course we cannot miss the "scientific" fervor that transforms many
universities into sites of technological experimentation in the field of
cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and dual use projects which are
greedy for the death industries of half the world, warrior states such
as Israel, Turkey, the United States.
A fundamental resistance manual, a map of atrocities which, however, if
well studied, allow us to know well the opponent's moves, the places of
the many misdeeds, which can and must become grounds for revolt, as is
already partly happening, from United States to Italy to Sicily, to
begin to strengthen the NO to militarism in the name of freedom of
teaching, of a secular education free from any harmful conditioning, a
bulwark not only of peace, but of the rejection of war.
PG
https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
goes to war - Investigation into the militarization of education in
Italy", published by manifestolibri. The topic represents one of the
fundamental points of the anti-militarist commitment of recent years,
and the NO MUOS Movement has already dedicated a dossier to it three
years ago (with a fundamental contribution from Mazzeo himself),
entitled "University and war".
The interference, the mixing, the conditioning of the military and
military-industrial apparatus in education and research are in fact a
fundamental element of the militarization of society and war policies,
while the brazen propaganda exercised through forcing and combinations
starting from primary schools is the clear sign of a regimentation of
the very young, of children themselves, into militaristic cultures and
practices.
Mazzeo's investigation is therefore very timely, and it does so in a
period in which the massacre in Gaza by the State of Israel is causing
very large protests in universities with, among other things, the aim of
suspending any agreement with Israel, both military and civilian
(dual-use municipality), also extended to the rejection of those
projects financed by the military-industrial apparatus.
So I armed myself with a red pencil, promising myself to mark those
points that I would then return to in the review. Except that I
immediately realized how impossible this undertaking was. Each page of
the 172 of the book is a mine of information, the entire book is an
encyclopedia of the militarization of education, hundreds of episodes
are cited, hundreds of locations, in which the militaristic octopus
sneaks into the school desks , in university classrooms, in civic
education programs, and shamelessly in school-work alternation, and not
for a few years, but for over a decade, and with growing shamelessness,
thanks to protocols signed at various levels, from the ministry to the
offices regional schools, to company-schools with their principals who
have become managers. A process that went on in the almost silence of
those who in those classes, classrooms, schools, institutes should have
reported, protested, and did not do so, or did so in a whisper, whether
they were teachers, professors, managers, ATA staff, parents, or also a
student.
Governments of various colors have favored all this to happen,
governments whose defense, security or foreign policies have followed
identical lines, consistent in Atlantic obedience and in the
construction of an increasingly armed country.
Leaving the reader, therefore, the pleasure of diving into this
"anti-militarist treccani" and perhaps discovering places, schools,
faculties known to him, whose warmongering zeal he was unaware of, I
must limit myself to following the author's working scheme.
It is a journey that is part of the commemorations of the centenary of
the First World War, transformed into a praise of war, militaristic
rhetoric and the concealment of the massacres and those responsible. The
centenary of the air force, for example, is a real celebration of
infamity: the destruction of lives and places caused by the criminal use
of aerial bombings disappears, which Italy itself first theorized with
General Dohuet, and then inaugurated with criminal efficiency in Africa
and Spain, imitated by all the aeronautical schools in the world, even
to this day. Antonio Mazzeo accompanies us through all the initiatives
set up from one part of Italy to the other to educate young people in
the worst bellicose patriotism.
Then we enter the enchanted world of school-work alternation, the PCTO,
and of the countless cases of students transported inside barracks and
military bases, or to work as waiters and cooks, or to study armaments
to understand how to kill the "enemy". Maybe doing military gymnastics,
extreme resistance courses, sports tournaments, or even taking music,
English language, cooking lessons (even the Mediterranean diet, from
McDonald's exporters!). The elite Italian or NATO forces, especially
American ones, are happy to show kids how the homeland is defended, how
war is necessary to maintain peace, how the world is made up of good bad
guys and the good guys are always us . The soldiers are good at
transmitting their heroic experiences, their courage as hard and true
men, their strong sense of homeland, inseparable from that of God and
family, a trinity for which young people must be trained to fight, even
if they are innocent elementary school children sent to wave flags or
sing militaristic songs in which the enemy is slaughtered in the name of
the tricolor or the stars and stripes flag.
And in all of this a servile or cowardly teaching class (or both)
becomes an accomplice, betrays its own mission of educating for peace,
understanding of problems, critical reflection, coexistence between
peoples, and becomes a cog in the toxic machine militarist.
A disconcerting narrative, that of Mazzeo, unfortunately not alleviated
by the cases of protests and opposition recounted in the finale, which
in any case show us that there is no lack of arguments to hinder this
drift, which is now leading us to arm students to make them practice the
"sport " of shooting, or to the short-term military service which
however offers many career opportunities, or to enlistment in the
various branches of the armed forces, as an employment opportunity for
millions of young people who are denied a future of honest work. And of
course we cannot miss the "scientific" fervor that transforms many
universities into sites of technological experimentation in the field of
cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and dual use projects which are
greedy for the death industries of half the world, warrior states such
as Israel, Turkey, the United States.
A fundamental resistance manual, a map of atrocities which, however, if
well studied, allow us to know well the opponent's moves, the places of
the many misdeeds, which can and must become grounds for revolt, as is
already partly happening, from United States to Italy to Sicily, to
begin to strengthen the NO to militarism in the name of freedom of
teaching, of a secular education free from any harmful conditioning, a
bulwark not only of peace, but of the rejection of war.
PG
https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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