On October 24th, we will walk from Gravina to Altamura. A peace march born in the heart of the Murgia region, it seeks to unite issues that are too often addressed separately: war and rearmament, the militarization of territories, environmental devastation, work, migration, borders, colonialism, and community self-determination. The title chosen by the organizing committee is clear: "Peace First." But precisely because the word "peace" has become both necessary and overused, perhaps it's worth adding a question: what peace? The question isn't meant to divide a march before it even begins. On the contrary. Its strength also lies in the plurality of cultures that have chosen to support it. As of August 10th, the membership represents a broad archipelago comprising pacifist and nonviolent associations, trade unions, Catholic and evangelical groups, environmentalists, associations committed to solidarity with the Palestinian people, civil society groups, municipal administrations, and political forces. Members include, among others, ANPI, ARCI, Emergency, Libera, Donne in Nero, Pax Christi, the Nonviolent Movement, the Italian Peace and Disarmament Network, PeaceLink, CGIL, and COBAS. Libertarian groups are also represented, including Venerdì Libertario and the "Torre di Nebbia" Study Center, as well as movement groups such as the Casa del Popolo of Bari and the MO AVAST! workers' collective.
Not everyone who will walk from Gravina to Altamura on October 24th necessarily understands peace in the same way. And perhaps this is one of the reasons why that path is worth traveling.
The war also passes through Puglia
The march's appeal has an important merit: it doesn't simply place the war far from us. The starting point is the South, and specifically, that vast area between Puglia and Basilicata, where the military presence is far from marginal. There are the military airports of Amendola, Gioia del Colle, Galatina, and Brindisi, the military port of Taranto, the military easements scattered across the territory, and the shooting ranges in the Alta Murgia National Park.
Before war can be fought, it must be prepared. It requires bases, airports, ports, firing ranges, industries, and infrastructure; it requires public funding and research, men and women to enlist, and also a society in which all this is gradually considered normal.
It is on this last aspect that the dossier prepared for the march offers particularly interesting elements. Michele Lucivero, of the Observatory against the Militarization of Schools and Universities, reconstructs numerous episodes that occurred in Puglia: soldiers called to
schools, training and orientation courses in the ca-
seminars, presentations of military careers to students, visits to Armed Forces facilities, and relationships between the university world and the military-industrial apparatus.
In Altamura, in January 2026, the "Tommaso Fiore" middle school hosted the Italian Navy for an orientation session, significantly titled "The Future Is Here," aimed at thirteen-year-olds. In Terlizzi, a military career orientation program was organized for high school students; in Torre Veneri, approximately five hundred students from various schools in Salento were taken to the military base. At the Fiera del Levante in Bari, the Observatory notes, the presence of the Army and activities aimed at children and young people contribute to familiarizing them with the military world.
These are different episodes, and each deserves to be discussed in its own context. Taken together, however, they raise a question: when does military presence become part of the daily routine of training, where does information end and the normalization of military culture begin? It's a question a peace march cannot avoid.
Putting back together what power divides
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the Gravina-Altamura appeal is that peace is not separated from other social issues. The manifesto addresses global capitalism and environmental destruction, colonialism and resource appropriation, labor, nuclear power, and territorial defense. It speaks of the people forced to abandon their homelands to escape war and hunger, and explicitly addresses those fighting "against barbed wire on borders."
Peace is thus linked to freedom of movement, the environment, work, and territorial self-determination. The appeal's formula is particularly fitting: participating in the march means "reuniting what power divides."
Here the march inevitably also encounters a libertarian sensibility, because one of the contributions that anarchists and libertarians can bring to this pluralistic movement consists precisely in the refusal to consider war as a phenomenon separate from the economic, political, and social relationships that produce it.
Is being against war enough?
The discussion begins on this point.
Peace can be achieved through very different paths: through Article 11 of the Constitution, explicitly invoked in the manifesto; through nonviolence; or through a religious conception of brotherhood; through international law; through solidarity with peoples victimized by war; through the need for disarmament; through environmental protection; or through internationalism.
The anarchist tradition brings with it a more radical question, which it offers to the march as a contribution rather than a verdict: can we eliminate war without questioning the structures that continually make it possible?
It's not just a matter of asking which government is right and which is wrong, which army was the first to cross a border, or which military alliance best guarantees our security. For those who come from this tradition, the question broadens to include the very existence of armies and weapons production, nationalisms and borders, competition between states for territory, markets, and resources, colonial relations old and new, and an economic system in which even the preparation and conduct of war become production, orders, profits, and accumulation.
For this tradition, antimilitarism and pacifism are not necessarily synonymous. Antimilitarism doesn't begin the day a war breaks out, nor does it end when a ceasefire is signed. It begins much earlier, when a society decides how many billions to allocate to weapons rather than other needs, builds new military infrastructure, considers opposing armies and blocs inevitable, transforms conscription into a normal employment opportunity, accustoms children and young people to the presence of weapons, and constructs the enemy that, sooner or later, it may be necessary to fight.
If we only become pacifists when the bombs fall, we are too late.
One march, many roads
All this doesn't mean to attribute to the Gravina-Altamura march an anarchist identity it neither possesses nor claims. Quite the opposite: its most interesting characteristic is that it is a pluralistic march. Its membership includes Pax Christi and Venerdì Libertario, the Nonviolent Movement, trade unions, church associations, left-wing groups, environmentalists, and municipal administrations.
We can walk together without having the same ideas about the state, religion, violence, property, or revolution. The interesting question is understanding what we can do together without renouncing our differences.
Some indications are already coming from the local community. The dossier recalls what happened in Gioia del Colle, where the protests against the "Run with Joy" footrace within the 36th Wing's base contributed to the initiative being moved outside the military facility. For Lucivero, this is an example of how civil society action can concretely counter the normalization of military culture.
It's a small matter, of course, but it points to a method: organize, discuss, and act from the bottom up. And it's significant that the Gravina-Altamura appeal also emphasizes this very point, addressing those practicing grassroots politics and encouraging them to develop concrete projects in their communities. Institutions are called upon to join, and some have already done so, but the movement leading to the march stems from citizens, associations, committees, and social groups. This isn't a minor detail.
On October 24th, and before
The Gravina-Altamura march also fits into a history of mobilizations that the manifesto itself calls for: from the previous Gravina-Altamura marches to the Scanzano Ionico mobilization, from the battles for the Alta Murgia Park to the defense of the coasts, olive trees, and landscape, up to the struggles against military bases, pollution, and environmental devastation.
October 24th can therefore be more than just a day. It can become an opportunity to reconnect experiences that have fought different battles over the years and to ask whether there isn't something common behind those battles. A military base, a firing range, a border, environmental devastation, labor exploitation, and a war are not the same thing: it would be simplistic to argue this. But it would be equally simplistic to fail to see the connections that can unite them.
Anarchists and libertarians will participate in this discussion with their own histories and ideas, not to impart antimilitarism lessons to others, but also not to hide their differences behind a generic call for peace. Because even among those who reject war, enormous questions remain: are there just wars? Can disarmament be entrusted to states that are rearming? Is it possible to abolish war while maintaining armies? What is the relationship between capitalism and war? Do borders protect us from wars or help build the world that makes them possible? And can there be authentic peace where domination, exploitation, and oppression continue to exist?
You don't need a common answer to get started. Perhaps a march serves this purpose too.
On October 24, 2026, from Gravina to Altamura, people from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and sensibilities will travel the same path together. Even before that day, we can begin to discuss.
First of all, peace. Agreed. But what kind of peace, built by whom and founded on what relationships between human beings?
Sources:
"Peace First" appeal for the Gravina-Altamura March on October 24, 2026; list of signatures, as of August 10, 2026, the date to which this article refers; Michele Lucivero, "The Militarization of Schools, Universities, and Civil Society in Puglia," March dossier, still being updated at the time of writing: https://agorasofia.com/2026/08/06/pace-marcia-gravina-altamura-24-ottobre-2026-dossier-adesione/
https://alternativalibertaria.org/
_________________________________________
Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten