Reportage
100,000 people marched in Rome against war and rearmament
The news coming in from the outside world – from Palestine and the other fronts of the piecemeal war that is frightening the whole world – has sown terror for far too long.
The longest day of the year was marked by the return of the pacifists. Different cultures, many languages, and varied backgrounds came together, arriving from every corner of Italy with very different life stories. The new, unusual custom of starting marches precisely at the announced hour was on display once more as the crowd under the blazing sun at Porta San Paolo grew too thick to stand still. So, at 2 p.m. sharp, the river of people flowed along the Aventine toward the Colosseum. Already at this point, the organizers knew that there were at least 100,000 people taking part in the march.
The news coming in from the outside world – from Palestine and the other fronts of the piecemeal war that is frightening the whole world – has sown terror for far too long. “Perhaps here dying is the only way to remain human,” a speaker says from a truck, quoting the tragic witness accounts coming out of Gaza. The reaction of the thousands marching, by contrast and thanks to a streak of sheer stubbornness, is joy: the delight of finding one another despite everything and of raising together a unified voice of humanity that is not only about death – one that tries to nurture hope.
Michela Paschetto, an ER nurse just back from Gaza, tells il manifesto about the dire situation there: “We have two clinics handling primary care, pediatrics, maternal health, and stabilization of the most serious patients. Conditions are deteriorating. Malnutrition is rising, especially among children. We’re seeing it now in adults and even pregnant women, because food is truly scarce.”
The unions are also there, pointing out in simple terms the link between a war regime and poor working conditions: “People are dying there, and we are growing poorer here, which is why we must rebel,” says Francesca Re David, confederal secretary of CGIL.
Further along the march we see FIOM leader Michele De Palma, still grappling with the authorities who turned Saturday’s metalworkers’ contract strike into a public-order issue. “We will not be intimidated. From the start we recognized the attack on dissent as part of the authoritarian distortion brought by war,” his supporters say.
COBAS and CLAP banners show up as well, student collectives and peace networks are marching too, while USB with Potere al Popolo is on the move from Piazza Vittorio to the Imperial Forums, buoyed by the grassroots union’s general strike.
Another group working to connect the dots between trade unionism and the anti-war fight, going beyond organizational silos, geopolitical traps and national borders, is the Reset network: volunteers are handing out a four-page flyer advocating for a European social strike against war.
“It is ever more urgent to open up an organizational space linking those who battle racism, sexism, environmental devastation and precariousness,” they say, “a space that can turn the transnational European level into one of struggle and protest – rejecting the Europe of rearmament not through clinging to national borders, but through a plan for the convergence of the struggles of all who resist war at the European and transnational level.”
Gianfranco Pagliarulo offered an initial verdict live from the stage: “This is a beautiful, united crowd,” the ANPI president commented. “Now we must make it even more united. Let no one forget Gaza, swept under the rug by the media, and let us think ahead: a major Middle-East peace conference that would finally mark the beginning of the state of Palestine, ensuring security for Palestinians and Israelis alike.”
Walter Massa, national president of ARCI, backed the mobilization from day one, as well as the idea of marching in step with struggles from across EU countries: “We reject the notion that conflicts must be settled by the force of arms.”
He had some words for the center-left lawmakers who voted in favor of the von der Leyen rearmament plan: “Rearmament, supported even by parts of the opposition, does not represent any form of self-determination,” Massa says. “It’s a trap: they don’t want to build Europe, but to drag us back to the Europe of nations, as it was in history’s darkest moments. Meanwhile, the repression of dissent is growing, and discourse about the priority of maintaining ‘order’ is escalating. To stop all this, we need a broad, combative, convergent front.”
Where did the opposition parties in Parliament stand? As expected, from the PD only individual figures showed up. There were the MEPs elected on PD lists, Cecilia Strada and Marco Tarquinio, and Sandro Ruotolo from the pro-Schlein wing, with deputies Arturo Scotto and Paolo Ciani of Demos. Scotto told us: “We’re here to also engage with those who hold different positions,” which is proof, he said, “of how far Schlein’s PD has come.”
Around 3 p.m., Giuseppe Conte emerged from the Pyramid of Cestius. There was a time when he might have used the march as a brief media window and nothing more, but now the Five-Star leader stayed to the end, walking at the rear with his delegation, flanked by Riccardo Ricciardi and Francesco Silvestri. Behind him, in a first, came a united bloc of youth wings from the parties to the PD’s left: the Five-Star Youth Network, the young Communists of Rifondazione Communista, the youth of the Italian Left and the Greens.
“There is a people – the overwhelming majority – that says this rush to rearmament is madness, that fueling military escalation is madness,” Conte said, steering clear of jabs at the PD. “War brings a war economy,” added Nicola Fratoianni, “and it not only erases the lives lost to the bombs, but it erases any chance to build more social rights, environmental rights and freedoms. That’s why we say no to rearmament and war, and work for the greatest possible convergence and unity.”
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/centomila-contro-il-riarmo on 2025-06-22