Flags, banners and activists of all ages were present at the sit-in at the NATO base in Solbiate Olona, in the province of Varese, one of the nine NATO rapid deployment commands in Europe, with more than 400 soldiers from around twenty countries, which can even be doubled in case of need.
In an ideal continuity with the Resistance, the Platón organised by the Varese Without Borders Network is held at the monument to the partisan Rodolfo Gallazzi, killed on 25 April 1945, with the participation of numerous associations, grassroots trade unions, students and political forces. The recurring themes in the many speeches are opposition to all wars, the rejection of arms shipments to Ukraine, increased military spending, atomic bombs, rearmament, NATO and the Russian invasion, the denunciation of the shameful distinction between first-class refugees, who should be welcomed and (rightly) granted all rights, and second-class refugees, who should be rejected, and second-class refugees, rejected, abandoned to their fate in the Mediterranean or on the Balkan route, or forced into insecurity and clandestinity, the proximity of Ukrainian and Russian pacifists and the need to reconvert the war industry, with many factories in the province of Varese.
The protest was preceded two days ago by an initiative of grassroots trade unions, to be followed by other events in the coming weeks, with the aim of reviving fraternity and solidarity between peoples and taking the side of the weakest, be they Ukrainian, Russian, European or from any other country.
Photo report by Thomas Schmid
