Reportage
Stop Rearm Europe: ‘We have to stand together to stop war’
They describe themselves as a plurality of actors united by one goal: to stop the warmongering policies of Italy and other EU governments by building a bottom-up avenue of participation inside and outside institutions at every level.
Where have all the pacifists gone? They have not vanished at all. They have been mobilizing for some time, while constantly being erased by the media and politicians who are allergic to public spaces that cannot be classified under the obligatory standard categories. Now they are trying to join forces against Ursula von der Leyen’s European rearmament plan.
On Saturday morning, they gathered in Piazza della Rotonda in front of the Pantheon, in the heart of Rome. It was the first Italian event of the Europe-wide campaign Stop Rearm Europe, which is fighting against the €800 billion rearmament project. The appeal has gathered more than 900 organizations from 18 EU countries, because no country alone can halt the process. Over 250 of them are from Italy: associations, social organizations, citizens’ committees, political parties, trade unions, movements and other civil-society groups. They describe themselves as a plurality of actors united by one goal: to stop the warmongering policies of Italy and other EU governments by building a bottom-up avenue of participation inside and outside institutions at every level.
“We must unite beyond our differences. What we share is more important. They are preparing a future of war: planning military drills in schools, talking about Israel’s right to defend itself, denying any possibility that there can be a diplomatic solution for Ukraine. We have to stand together to stop war, because arms contaminate the whole of society, fuelling nationalism, racism and violence,” explains Raffaella Bolini, head of international relations at ARCI.
The signatories include anti-war-industry committees from the Valle del Sacco in Frosinone province, fighting a concrete example of military transition and war reconversion. KNDS, a French-German multinational, has bought the former Winchester plant in the Anagni area and plans to build eleven new production halls to make about 40 tons of explosive material a month. The explosives would go to the Colleferro factory, whose main product has been, and still is, weapons and ammunition for the Italian armed forces and other countries.
Activists are sounding the alarm about the danger to the environment, since the production halls would be built in a protected area listed as a national-interest site. The plant, they say, would endanger citizens’ health and further damage a territory which has already suffered greatly as a result of earlier industrialisation: the Valle del Sacco is the most polluted area in Lazio, partly due to the uncontrolled production once backed by the Cassa del Mezzogiorno – a state agency whose activities began right here, in Giulio Andreotti’s historic constituency.
The first coordinated mobilization is set for the week of June 21, during the NATO summit at The Hague: demonstrations and protest actions are being prepared in several countries, and the long-awaited national march in Italy could be held on that occasion. Of course, the organisers explicitly invoke the signals in favor of peace sent on Thursday by the new pontiff from the other side of the Tiber: “We welcome Pope Leo XIV’s message with hope. We wish him well in the difficult tasks ahead, for a ‘disarmed and disarming peace,’ and we appeal to him – and to all political and civil-society forces, to the world of science, the media, culture and the arts, and to anyone who simply wants to ‘remain human’ – to take a stand against rearmament, war, genocide, repression and authoritarianism, and to join us in the streets for peace, today in Rome and at the upcoming protests.”
The organizers are betting on the convergence approach, based on the premise that each party to the coalition must recognize that it is not self-sufficient. From the standpoint of mobilizations, this mechanism was proven to work in the fight against the Security Decree, and now it must carry the battle against the pro-war regime, avoiding the risk of getting bogged down in geopolitical traps and bouts of identitarianism. The aim is to bring the “people of the rainbow” back to where they have always been: in the streets and away from the fray of warring troops.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/stop-rearm-europe-a-roma-in-vista-del-21-giugno-europeo on 2025-05-11