Saturday, December 15th, 2007, was predicted to be the
coldest day Vicenza had seen. It snowed lightly in the morning. And
even without the weather factor, organizers had hopes of only about
20,000 people turning out for a long march through the city and yet
another rally against the construction of a base at a location called
Dal Molin. But as the march proceeded for hours through the streets of
Vicenza, the sun melted the snow, and word came that the back end of
the march had not yet left the starting place, it became clear that,
without any advertising, and with negative or nonexistent media
coverage, over 80,000 people had turned out in this conservative city
with no university and no protest tradition. And there was no
counter-protest whatsoever.
At the end of the march, the crowd poured into a piazza to hear
speeches from playwright Dario Fo, Catholic priest Don Gallo, event
organizer Cinzia Bottene, American Code Pink activist Desiree Fairooz
(famous around the globe for holding blood-colored hands up to
Condoleezza Rice) and others. Desiree was wonderful despite being moved
to tears by the thought of whose fault it was that Italians and others
around the world must hold these protests.
When it was my turn to speak, I described the situation in the United
States, expressed solidarity with the Vicentini, and encouraged the
American soldiers already stationed in and near Vicenza to refuse
illegal orders to go to Iraq. I also noted that some clown named Edward
Luttwak does not speak for the American people, despite appearing as an
American military expert (and cheerleader) in every Italian television
news story about the U.S. military.
Naturally, I also mentioned the movement for impeachment, and it was
nice to hear a crowd of Italians join in with a chant of "Impeach!
Impeach! Impeach!" Someone later told me "You know, there are a lot
more than 80,000 people who want Bush impeached." At a conference the
next day in the "Presidio Permanente" (a major activist camp on
property adjoining the base site) I asked the audience if they knew
that the continuation of funding for the occupation of Iraq and the
failure to begin impeachment were the work of a woman of Italian
descent. Several people shouted "Nancy Pelosi!" I asked everyone to
send her Emails.
Twenty years ago in Vicenza, if you said you were American it was a bit
like saying you were a rock star. Now it's like saying you're Dick
Cheney. "Yankee Go Home" and "Americani A Casa" are popular chants and
graffiti, although usually said only in reference to Americans in the
military. The Vicentini call us their brothers, but don't want us
occupying their city. They sometimes shout "Fratelli Americani... A
Casa." In fact Italian peace activists, just like American peace
activists, are accused of being anti-American, and they reply that they
want to be friends with Americans, but not slaves to Americans.
They have a point. Before anyone in Italy was asked, the U.S. military,
and congressional committee staff, had laid out the plans for a major
new base in the middle of a residential area on the edge of an historic
city full of renaissance architecture. Agreeing to build the new base
in a "palladian style" has appeased no one.
Instead, citizens maintain a 24-7 presence on the edge of the site in
their "permanent" fort, consisting of large white tents and trailers.
The tents have heat, electricity, light, a sound system, a kitchen, and
a store selling every possible article with the anti-base label "No Dal
Molin." A trailer has a radio station. There are not, however, places
for large numbers of activists from out of town to sleep. So, in
addition to hosting guests in homes, the No Dal Molin movement, in
preparation for Saturday's march seized an abandoned Italian military
barracks. Activists then contacted the police offering to pay the
utility bills for three days and give the place a major cleaning. The
police left them alone. Even during the march, the police stayed out of
sight, having apparently decided that a visible police presence boosts
the movement. When European activists - used to the freedoms of speech
and assembly - hear about Americans being arrested for nonviolent civil
disobedience, they sometimes assume we must have committed actual, you
know, crimes.
But there are also civil disobedience actions in Europe that can lead
to arrest. Some of them involve blocking the construction of bases or
rail lines, or blocking the passage along rail lines of trains carrying
military materials.
For three days, including the Saturday of the march, anti-bases
activists from around the continent gathered in Vicenza to share their
experiences and plan future joint efforts. There are anti-bases
gatherings planned for Germany, Belgium, and the United States in the
spring.
The invasion and occupation of Iraq might have been possible without
the U.S. bases that dot the face of Europe, but it would have been and
would continue to be a very different operation, since so many soldiers
are sent to Iraq from these bases and then return to them. These bases
were also used to move prisoners to Guantanamo four years ago. And, as
in 80 percent of the nations on earth, the presence of U.S. military
bases forms a large part of Europeans' perceptions of the United
States. Meanwhile, many citizens of the United States have only the
vaguest notion of the approximately 1,000 bases and 300,000 soldiers
they pay taxes to maintain in other people's countries.
How many Americans have heard this story? Citizens of the Czech
Republic learned that a base was being planned in their area. The
absurd U.S. line is that this base is needed to protect against attacks
from North Korea and Iran. But, in a public vote, 99 percent of
residents of the area opposed the construction of a base. A group of
town mayors in the area formed an alliance to speak out against the
base. It has not been built.
Since the U.S. military is constantly building new bases, when and if
it decides to use a location other than one that is being protested,
that victory may not be immediately apparent, the way it was in
Vieques. And the organizers of the Vicenza protest will not consider
that a complete victory. When I asked Cinzia what she would do if they
chose to build the base in Romania, she replied "We'll go train the
Romanians." But as long as the struggle against the base continues in
Vicenza, victories will continue to pile up in the form of a growing
Italian and European peace movement, and possibly in changes in Italy's
government.
In America we sometimes like to imagine that a third political party
would solve our problems, but Italy has some 15 significant political
parties, and essentially the same problems we do. They're told that if
they don't settle for the current government they'll end up with a
worse one. They're told that if they aren't happy with Prodi they can
have Berlusconi back. They're told that if they can't be happy with a
government that says it is for peace and progress while doing the exact
same things the previous government did, well then they can have the
previous government back again, or something even worse. And so, as
change becomes possible, the activism that could force it is drained
away by partisanship and the sensation of being in power for power's
sake. Italy even has a new party that goes by the name Partito
Democratico.
While our Democratic Party pretends it has to pass a bill in order to
end the funding of an occupation that can be ended by refusing to pass
any bills, Italy's leftists propose a doomed vote for a moratorium on
bases rather than adding the measure to a larger bill and risking the
collapse of the current coalitions. And the media, much of it owned by
Berlusconi or controlled by Prodi's government, and most of the rest
owned by other business interests, is on the side of U.S. empire.
Italy's constitution prevents it from going to war, so the occupation
of Iraq, and that of Afghanistan which Italy still supports, are called
humanitarian missions. The most prominent coverage of Saturday's march
was of graffiti that one or more people had written on a wall near a
new theater, even though No Dal Molin activists had cleaned it off by
the next afternoon.
But the Italian people are not fooled or silenced. They have some
newspapers on their side. They have internet organizing. They have an
active and aggressive labor movement. And their peace movement, unlike
ours, does not directly confront their country's nationalism. In fact,
there are right-wing nationalists who oppose the construction of U.S.
bases. But, above all, there are many who oppose nationalism and
militarism, proudly call themselves leftists, and have dedicated
themselves to doing what is needed to achieve peace in the world.
A lot more information on the anti-base struggle in Vicenza can be found at
http://afterdowningstreet.org/vicenza
A video that Howard Zinn recorded as a message to the people of Vicenza for the events of this past weekend is at
http://492cafe.org/video/zincenza/2007_12_07-Zinn-v01-CD.mov
A video of Cinzia confronting the prime minister of Italy last June is
on the indispensable site of Stephanie Westbrook's group in Rome, US
Citizens for Peace and Justice:
http://www.peaceandjustice.it/vicenza
Websites central to the anti-base movement in Vicenza are:
http://www.altravicenza.it
http://www.nodalmolin.it
Anti-base events are planned for
March 2008 in Belgium:
http://www.bombspotting.be
April 11-13 in Omaha, Nebraska:
http://www.space4peace.org
April and August in Germany:
http://www.gaaa.org
The anti-base movement will also be prominent at the European Social Forum in Sweden in the fall.
ONE THING YOU CAN DO:
One of the biggest local backers and profiteers of the proposed base at
Dal Molin also profits when anyone buys a bottle of wine with the name
Zonin on it. Don't buy any! You can find a list of brands not to buy at
http://www.nodalmolin.it
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