[We held a massive pacifist rally for a diplomatic solution in
Europe, where warmongering rages among the ruling classes. With
radical rightists in government and a dismal centre-left, it is a
movement to prevent catastrophe and give us back dignity.]
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PEACE IN ROME  
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Roberto Morea , Roberto Musacchio
November 18, 2022
Transform! Europe
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_ We held a massive pacifist rally for a diplomatic solution in
Europe, where warmongering rages among the ruling classes. With
radical rightists in government and a dismal centre-left, it is a
movement to prevent catastrophe and give us back dignity. _

, Source: transform! Italia

 

ON 5 NOVEMBER, A PROTEST MARCH ORGANISED BY TRADE UNIONS, LEFT
MOVEMENTS, CATHOLIC GROUPS, AND OTHER CIVIL SOCIETY ACTORS TOOK PLACE
IN ROME. THE GIANT DEMONSTRATION FOR PEACE WITH MORE THAN A HUNDRED
THOUSAND PEOPLE IS AN EVENT OF ENORMOUS IMPORTANCE.

This act of protest is significant not only for Italy, where an
enormous popular reaction is emerging in the face of a far-right
government and a defeated, divided, and discredited centre-left
government, but also for Europe, where the European Commission and
governments have failed in their role as mediators in the
Russia-Ukraine war and have submitted to NATO, with the ambition to
assume a military leadership role alongside the USA.

The social composition of the rally

The demonstration in Rome had a diverse social composition around the
idea that the key point is to insist on what the powerful, Putin and
NATO in the first place, do not want, that is, a ceasefire and
negotiations.

Negotiations that, as a document signed by many prestigious former
diplomats, would start from a negotiating table and lead to a
ceasefire, that provides for troop withdrawal, and an end to
sanctions, a peace and security conference for the area, letting the
populations of the Donbass decide on their own future. All this under
the supervision of the UN.

The platform for the demonstration was broad but resolute on the issue
of peace, ceasefire, and dialogue.

Parliamentary positions on the war

For those used to the classic parliamentary bipolarity of
government/opposition it is not easy to understand how the how the
parliamentary groups are articulating their positions.

If we look at the measures adopted up to now in parliament, all
parties, excluding the parliamentarians of the left (Manifesta and
Sinistra Italiana) have voted to send weapons and support the war in
Ukraine. Even the 5-Star Movement, which also took part in the
demonstration, has done so repeatedly, not to mention the PD
(Democratic Party) which has set itself up as the standard-bearer of
European warfare and today is trying to compromise between war and
peace.

In the opposition camp, the most determined support for the war comes
from the new centrist liveralist group, Azione, formed by the former
secretary of the PD and now leader of Italia Viva, Matteo Renzi, and
Carlo Calenda.

The idea of a counter-demonstration in Milan for victory in Ukraine
came from Renzi and Calenda – which turned out to be a fiasco with a
few hundred people. The PD’s postion was embarrassing and lacked any
credibility, as it was present in both demonstrations.

The right-wing representatives stayed home. But behind their
ultra-Atlanticism that defends North American power, their ongoing
contradictions continue, occasionally coming to the surface due to the
‘friendly’ relations that both Berlusconi (Forza Italia) and
Salvini (Lega Nord) have, in the past, maintained with Putin.

Voices from the streets

The political narrative of the mass media on the day of 5 November is
more absurd and annoying than anything else. Attempts are made to
attribute the mobilisation to this or that political figure.

The big demo in Rome was not the property of M5S leader and former
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who at least had the merit of
immediately announcing his participation. Much less was it the demo of
Enrico Letta, PD secretary and former Prime Minister, who, contested
as he tried to participate, appeared pathetic. Nor even can the demo
be credited to those who, like Unione Popolare, have always been
against the war and arms shipments from the beginning. Nor can it be
claimed by those who, in a joint list with the Greens who at the
European level are among the biggest supporters of the war in Ukraine
are trying to maintain Sinistra Italiana’s and Italian Greens’
pacifist position. If anything, Pope Francis can rightly claim some
credit – there were many associations of the Catholic world present
in the streets.

But "the street" belonged mainly to the movements that sought and
built the demo, drawing on a precious heritage that comes from afar
and can still save us, tapping into a popular sentiment that still
today, despite a relentless propaganda campaign, sees over 60% of
Italian citizens opposed to sending weapons and increasing military
spending.

It was a manifestation that demanded an end to war through
negotiations, a protest against those who still rely on arms and armed
confrontation as a solution to international conflicts, a
demonstration by those who demand that ‘war be banished from
history’ in a Europe that stretches from the Atlantic to the Urals.
They demanded social justice and opposed the misappropriation of
economic resources for military spending, with the sloagan ‘weapons
down, wages up’, chanted by ordinary people who have always known
that in war there are those who die (the poor) and those who make
money (the arms dealers). The demonstrators were equally against
Putin, NATO, and all those who dominate by military means – and for
all those who suffer from war and injustice - Ukrainians, Russians,
Palestinians, Kurds, and Cubans.

On 5 November, we took back the political space in Italy that for
decades had served the Italian cause for decades. We held the largest
pacifist rally for a diplomatic solution in all of Europe, where the
most inane warmongering rages among the self-proclaimed ruling
classes. In a country with radical rightists in government and a
dismal centre-left, it is the re-emergence of that movement which from
Comiso to Genoa, from Yugoslavia to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Ukraine,
has tried and is still trying to prevent a catastrophe and to give us
back our dignity.

_Roberto Morea is member of transform!italia
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Managing Board. He is a long-time Italian activist in the world of
the Commons
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to 2008 he worked as a Councillor for Social Services in the first
municipality of Rome. In 2014, he was among the promoters of the
European list L‘Altra Europa con Tsipras._

_Roberto Musacchio is an Italian politician and former Member of
the European Parliament (Partito della Rifondazione Comunista, PRC)
and of its Committee on Employment and Social Affairs and Committee on
the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, and Vice-Chair of the
Temporary Committee on Climate Change._

_transform! europe is a network of 39 European organisations from 23
countries, active in the field of political education and critical
scientific analysis, and is the recognised political foundation
corresponding to the Party of the European Left (EL)._

_This cooperative project of independent non-profit organisations,
institutes, foundations, and individuals intends to use its work in
contributing to peaceful relations among peoples and a transformation
of the present world._

* peace movement
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* Anti-War organizing (12893
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* Italy
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* Russia-Ukraine war
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* NATO
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