Faced with rising inequality and social discontent, political and economic powers are responding with force, through increased military spending and a strengthening of war logistics. The Italian government is no exception, with its 43 military missions abroad, its continually increasing arms spending, a multi-billion dollar defense industry such as Leonardo and military bases scattered across the country. Industry, logistics, missions, and military bases are involved in various war situations around the world, from Ukraine to Gaza, from Lebanon to Iran, and even military missions and aid to some Gulf countries.
Antimilitarist movements oppose all this, along with all those social and trade union forces that are organizing in various places and cities to counter this militaristic advance with which governments seek to crush and enslave territories and people.
In Tuscany and Liguria, the movements and organizations engaged in this struggle have created "HUB," a non-periodic digital and paper newsletter offering analysis and insights into the functioning of the military-industrial complex we are immersed in. The aim is to build the operational and organizational capacity to block and dismantle it. The idea was born from the No Base camp assembly on September 5-7, 2025, thanks to the collaboration of workers, movements, and residents of Livorno, Pisa, Carrara, La Spezia, and Florence. Contributors to the first issue included the No Base Movement, the Livorno Antimilitarist Coordination, Riconvertiamo Seafuture of La Spezia, the Carrara Antimilitarist Coordination, the Ferrovier* Against the War collective, the Railway Workers Struggling with the USB union, the GAP (Autonomous Port Workers Group) of Livorno, and the Livorno Self-Managed Information Desk.
Camp Darby, Cisam and new base
The first in-depth analysis focuses on the Pisa-Livorno military hub and opens with Camp Darby, the largest US military depot outside the United States. This is where war material is stored and distributed throughout Europe, supplying US air and ground forces in Africa, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean. This enormous depot also represents a strategic target in the event of war and a source of grave and constant danger for the population living in the area.
Camp Darby's proximity to the highway, railway, and the Navicelli Canal allows it to connect to the port of Livorno and Pisa military airport. The latter is home to the Italian Air Force's 46th Air Brigade and is responsible for tactical transport, materials, and equipment. It has also received approximately €43 million from the Ministry of Defense for the construction of a hangar for the maintenance of strategic aircraft.
Near Camp Darby, within the CISAM (Joint Center for Military Applications Studies), a Navy research center, a €520 million budget is planned for the construction of a military base that would house the Tuscania paratrooper units and the Special Intervention Group (GIS), a Carabinieri special forces unit. Part of this funding is also earmarked for the construction of a racetrack and a shooting range in the Pontedera area. Beyond the issue of militarization of a territory and the countering of warmongering policies, the fight against the base in this context also takes on an environmental dimension, given that the base would be built in the San Piero a Grado area, within the San Rossore natural park. Furthermore, within the CISAM area is a nuclear reactor whose reactivation has been proposed. To combat this, the No Base Movement was formed in 2022 in Coltano (where the base was initially planned).
La Spezia
As for the military hub of La Spezia, the militarization of the territory dates back almost two centuries, with the construction of the Navy Arsenal in 1869, on an area spanning 900,000 m2 , 1,400,000 m2 of inland waterways, 12 km of inner-city roads, and 6.5 km of docks. Not even the pretext of employment worked, given the decline over time from 12,000 workers to fewer than 300 today.
This has been accompanied by environmental devastation. The Arsenal, in addition to the loss and destruction of important historical and archaeological artifacts, has contributed to the creation of a wall between the city and the sea, making it impossible for the population to access, as also denounced by the Murati Vivi committee of Marola. Then there is the issue of the "Campo di Ferro" landfill, containing toxic waste, with the persistent risk of seepage into the ground, despite some of the waste having been removed to date, and the constant transit of radioactive cargo and NATO nuclear-powered vessels.
Added to all this are further military initiatives, such as the Blue Bases project to adapt military port facilities to NATO standards (over 350 million euros), or the expansion of the NATO POL Sea Terminal, the pipeline that, entering the North Italian Pipeline System, supplies the flight departments of the Armed Forces, the State Armed Corps, the US Armed Forces as well as NATO units (see specific article by the Carrara Antimilitarist Coordination in UN no. 4/2026).
The “HUB” bulletin also lists other military facilities present in the La Spezia area: the Castellana Fort, the Air Force Air Support Logistics Center, the Balipedio Cottrau experimental shooting range, the “Teseo Tesei” Underwater and Raider Group Command (CONSUBIN), the National Underwater Center, the Northern Navy Command area, and finally two powder magazines used by MDBA as a support structure for the storage and production of missiles.
Precisely to counteract all this, two major demonstrations were held in La Spezia between May and September 2025, the last of which was explicitly directed against Seafuture, the maritime sector's war fair, which the UN has covered extensively.
Of course, the significant arms trafficking through the port of La Spezia is also noteworthy. Since 2019, efforts have been made to track this traffic by replacing the statistical code "arms and ammunition" with the generic term "other metal products."
Port of Livorno
The issue of ports has become very important thanks to the struggles, strikes and blockades that have taken place to stop arms trafficking and against the warmongering policies of governments – especially in the autumn of 2025 – and brings us back to the part of the booklet that deals with military infrastructure, therefore ports, heliports and railways.
The port of Livorno is among the top five in Italy, both in terms of cargo traffic and TEUs and passengers, and is a multipurpose port. Marter Neri, Lorenzini, TDT (Terminal Darsena Toscana), SDT (Sintermar Darsena Toscana), Moby, and LTM are the main terminal operators within the port, also involved in the handling of military cargo and trade with Israel. This involvement was the spark that ignited the various struggles and blockades, carried out by port workers organized in the GAP (Gruppo Autonomi Portuali): a significant mobilization that the "HUB" bulletin does not fail to mention. The high point occurred during the strikes between September and October 2025, with the formation of a permanent protest that began on the day of the strike, September 22nd, and aimed at blocking the US cargo ship SLNC Severn, which was carrying military cargo, primarily to US bases, and which had transported Caterpillars used against the Palestinian population to Israel. Dockworkers and solidarity workers managed to prevent the ship from docking, and in the following days, the protest, moving to the Zara crossing, also blocked the docking of the Zim Virginia, creating concrete opportunities for solidarity and support for the Global Sumud Flotilla, which was experiencing a dramatic phase at that time. Through the highly attended daily assemblies, the protest provided an important opportunity for discussion and grassroots participation, enabling the impressive turnout at the October 3rd strike demonstration. This experience undoubtedly left its mark on the local area (and beyond).
Sarzana
The "HUB" bulletin also addresses the militarization of the Sarzana area. Here, we find the Maristaeli heliport in Luni, built in September 1967. Operational since 1969 with the establishment of the Fifth Helicopter Group, joined in 1971 by the First Helicopter Group transferred from Catania. The base is equipped with a 1,000-meter runway and a helipad and is divided into two areas: an operational area and a logistics support area. It is also home to the ditching training center, the air-sea experimental center, and the helicopter mission simulation center. Among the military operations of the units hosted at the military station are those in the Persian Gulf, Somalia, the former Yugoslavia, Albania, Lebanon, and Afghanistan. The planned expansion of a new training center for war helicopter pilots will be carried out by the Israeli company Elbit Systems, leader of the Israeli military-industrial complex, joined by Leonardo and an Elbit Systems subsidiary headquartered in Italy.
Militarized railways
The "HUB" bulletin also focuses on military rail mobility, including the European plan for military mobility and the dual civil-military development of infrastructure normally used for civilian transport. This is an issue that Umanità Nova has addressed extensively recently, coinciding with the week-long campaign against military rail logistics launched by the Antimilitarist Assembly. This campaign combines antimilitarist concerns with security, since, as has often been pointed out, militarizing the rail network poses significant risks to travelers and the population living near railway areas.
The bulletin clearly illustrates the Italian routes of the TEN-T (Trans-European Networks Transport) network, originally designed for civilian transport but now adapted for military use, further strengthened by the agreement between Leonardo and RFI (Italian Railway Network). This process of reconverting rail transport for military purposes led to the formation of the Ferrovier* Contro la Guerra collective. In the area between Pisa and Livorno, the collective, active nationwide, has joined forces with the Livorno Antimilitarist Coordination, launching significant initiatives. These initiatives denounce the actual purpose of the work on the Pisa-Livorno stretch, which was aimed at increasing the transport of weapons, explosives, and munitions between the Tombolo station, the Navicelli Canal, and Camp Darby, as well as the expansion of platform 4 of the Pontedera station, 20 km from Pisa, for military purposes. Initiatives were also taken against the military railway works at the La Spezia Marittima freight yard (costing €9,274,599), as well as the military interventions at the Genoa Sampierdarena – Parco Fuori Muro yard (€28,774,201.50).
Counter-information and coordination of antimilitarist struggles
"HUB" is therefore a detailed treatment of the militarization of a significant portion of Tuscany and Liguria. The aim is to create awareness, insights, and synergies between the various regions and organizations fighting against war and its mechanisms; to bring together the diverse experiences of movements, unions, and political and social groups fighting against the bases, the production of death, and the logistics of war, in order to better coordinate the struggles on a broader and more comprehensive level.
To stop governments and their wars, only direct action can be effective, and to conduct it effectively, we need grassroots organization, starting from the places where we live, where we work, where we study, and where productions of death, military bases, and militaristic propaganda are located.
Let us coordinate our struggles and build together a world without armies and without borders.
Marco Bianchi
https://umanitanova.org/hub-territori-in-lotta-bollettino-di-inchiesta-sulla-logistica-di-guerra
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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