Say no to militarisation and war - 4th July at Vicenza

Opposition to war and militarisation is a founding principle of the Women in Black.

For this reason we respond to the appeal of the women and men of the Permanent Protest No Dal Molin to return to the streets of Vicenza to take part in the construction of "a free territory that does not welcome the military". We know that this is not just an aim of the citizens of Vicenza, but of all those who are following nonviolent ways to exit the culture of arms and war.

THEREFORE WE WILL BE THERE AT THE 4th JULY DEMONSTRATION

Donne in Nero - Italia




4 July: Independence ? It must be won

"a victor is merely a dreamer who never gave up. " Words of Nelson Mandela, Nobel peace laureate, but also for tose who wanted to continue with the politics of Apartheid, words of an extremist who deserved to be imprisoned for his opposition to the state ideology, the imposed racial segregation on South Africa in the 20th century.

Dreamers too are the people of Vicenza who oppose the will of the greatest world power and its vassal in Rome - the Italian government - to obstruct the realisation of a new, devastating military servitude. Because, even when due distinctions are made between a Nobel laureate subjected to a long imprisonment for actions of sabotage, and citizens put on trial for having chained themselves to a government building, they still have something in common, the everyday irrationality that is called dreaming.


Vicenza is a territory that stubbornly refuses to surrender to the cement and steel of the 173th Airborne Brigade that would like to make its nest among the Palladian villas, because surrender would mean accepting the devastation of their territory and of the underlying aquifers. And it would also mean a loss of dignity as citizens.

"Pull up the local dissent by its roots": those are the words of Commissioner Paolo Costa – he who followed the Vicenza problem for the Italian government. These words contain the will to transform citizens into subjects, canceling, at a stroke, every democratic principle to make way for an oppressive "reason of state" that would impose on the community the acceptance of any sacrifices on ethical and moral bases that no one really understands.

Between perseverance and surrender, we choose to continue to dream, because we believe that the route we have have begun in our city leads to a collective dream that speaks of a community that governs itself, based on its own needs, refusing to delegate decisions to someone else, because we do not accept the order to host a base of war that we do not want, because we despise those who for economic or military interests buts at risk our territory and the safety and health of its inhabitants. Because we want to feel free to live our daily life in our own land, free of the presence of thousands of soldiers and their instruments of death and destruction.

On July 4th, we want to construct our independence, not as a formal bureaucratic act, but as a process of participation, action and re-appropriation. Because independence must start with ourselves, with our ever-changing being, and our claim to the land that is ours in that it is where we live.

So, to the words of Nelson Mandela, we can add those of Marcos with which we started our journey more than 2 years ago: because if it's true that "a victor is simply a dreamer who never gave up " and it's also true that "If one dreams alone, it's only a dream, if one dreams together, it's the start of reality". On July 4th, we will continue to dream of independence, of dignity, of participation. The Other Comune wants to construct the other world that is possible.
Thursday 18 June 2009

http://www.nodalmolin.it/spip.php?article284