Europacifism
In Rome, the 26th and the 26th of October 1984, the foreign and defence ministers from seven European countries introduced a "New peace movement".
The words "peace" and "disarmament" are often mentioned into the Rome Declaration, the final document by the UEO (Western European Union)'s special session; this is not a sudden conversion of our rulers, but -one again- an ornament of old stuff.
In the armament rush, launched by the two "superpowers", the European countries feel the necessity of building a common military strategy about "industrial cooperation for defence" and think to create a political headquarter to manage possible crises in the "hot zones".
In this attempt for an "European way to re-armament", Italy is very active: in the last October there have been the NATO Nuclear Program Group's reunion and the UEO's session.
During the first reunion, the NATO countries' defence ministers have debated about the euro-missiles installation and how to use the other ones already operative; then they have defined how to put in effect a possible missilistic defence of NATO bases in Europe and have studied the Warsaw Pact's strategy.
The war ministers heavy work continues in Rome: their aim wasn't to get an unified military system nor to make Europe autonomous from NATO's directions; their main goal was to accelerate the integration process of European armies' equipment and strategy, that is to say:
developing of cooperation among European factories to make common military product. There will be a decrease of U.S. military exports, covered by a decrease of U.S. expense for NATO (today 106 billion of dollars against 101 billion from Europe), so we'll have a military expenses increase in Europe, for each country will invest in their own home;
as NATO plays a defensive role in a limited zone, it's necessary to expect and organized interventions in important zones for European economies. This is the case of multinational task-force in Lebanon and Red Sea;
to get the highest assent about military decisions, so it's necessary "to decrease the peace request" as recently General Capuzzo was quoted.
We said Italy has been very active, in fact:
it seemed defence expense was cut down from 750 millions of dollars, but it increased by 184, while the government decides a public-expense top of 8%;
the 30% of defence expense will be spent in the new and sophisticated armaments;
this money will cover expense for task-force actions;
in this direction it's possible to understand the new quick intervention force, that can become operative in the "hot zones" within 24 hours;
a law-designed for a new, professional army that provides special rights for the long-service conscripts.
The 27th of the last October, we had gotten a demonstration of peace/antimilitaristic movement's insufficiency and incapacity against these complex attempts to a more militarised society. After the big 1983 demonstration, this time we were a few thousands. This is the consequence of lack in an autonomous political proposal made by the movement, which is -especially the Peace Committees Coordination- under the parties' influence.
In Rome we've seen a mean rush to conquer the head of the demonstration, the division among the parties and tiny parties, narrowed the range of action for the base-groups.
The Peace Committees deserted the demonstration, because it was influenced by the Communist Party politics which is said to be pacifist in the streets and militarist elsewhere, and which leads the movement to institutional solutions only.
Who is uneasy are the base/self-managed/popular groups that don't succeed in showing their own identity and autonomy: it's in this part of the peace movement we need to be for re-launching the anticapitalist/antimilitarist strategy, developing a self-managed movement, able to act in the local events, to elaborate fight proposals against the military servitudes, against the militarization of the territory and of the society, against repression, the hierarchies and militarism, by fighting in the barracks and by all the forms of objections, by direct action.
Donato Romito
member of ORA/UCAT's International Relations Office(published in the Louisiana, USA, magazine "Bayou La Rose", March 1985)