The recent aggression towards Libya is strongly supported by many States, especially of the European Union, and by Italy too, which has various interests in this region but officially is a state which repudiates war. This is the fifth war in twenty years in which Italy is involved, and the third in ten years: a bellicose decade.
Differently from other occasions, this time only few people seem to be outraged, few people shout that this war is just a copy of the others, and its causes too are the same: gas, oil and the business of the biggest enterprises of the world who control the financial market. These reasons are already provoking hundreds of deaths among Libyans, deaths that will increase as soon as depleted uranium, that has been widely used, will “start to work”. This war could bring, just like in Iraq, Afghanistan and in the Balkans, to the end of the sovereignty of Libya, it could bring to the military occupation of a key region in order to control and squash all the revolts that are shaking North Africa.
As always, this war’s first victim has been truth: to justify the use of the force of arms we heard the best warmongering rhetoric, from the right wing and the left wing of Italian government, who has found a new colonialist spirit (“we must intervene in Libya because it’s our home”) and is using the refrain on the humanitarian war (“we must protect population from the tyrant”) and racist clichés (“we must intervene to bring democracy to underdeveloped people”). The media and the governments are trying to neutralize the emotive impact that wars usually have on civil populations talking about “no-fly zone”, “humanitarian patrols” and “support to the rebellious”.
We should know what hides behind these euphemisms: the profits of the gas and oil multinationals, the desire of the Western Nations to gain precious sources in a period of crisis, the will to control a part of the world that is awakening and is trying to find freedom. These States are intervening in Libya just like they supported till the end Ben Alì’s and Mubarak’s regimes, or like they support the repression of the popular movements in Bahrein and Yemen. Once again “international law” is nothing more than the law of the strongest. Eight years ago, against the same lies, we were in the streets. Today the silence of pacifists and of the movements is loud, while the institutional left wing is hiding behind a UN resolution written to defend US’s, UK’s and France’s interests, and the PD (the largest opposition party in Italy) and President Napolitano push for intervention. The only force in Italy that is “against” the war in Libya is the extreme right wing party Lega Nord, which is only talking about the “invasion of illegal aliens” and which wants to leave them die in Lampedusa. This party strengthens the hate towards the weaker and the “wretched of the earth” to try to gain more votes in election time.
Probably the time has come to redeem this shameful Italy, that from kissing Gheddafi’s hand, “our best ally”, passed to bombs to not lose its business in Libya.
The time has come to say what we think, while they write the history of the Mediterranean through bombs, the violation of the right of immigrants and the militarization of our and their territory.
The time has come to affirm that no “national” interests exist, but only the interests of the exploited and the dominated people in the world against the interests of dominators and regimes of the world.
The time has come to proclaim that populations, and in these days Tunisians and Egyptians showed us, achieve freedom by their selves or they don’t achieve freedom.
We want to say all this loud and clear in Naples, where the decisions of the NATO operations are taken. We call the movements, the associations, the committees, political and union forces, pacifists and all the citizens for a mobilization against this war and to build together a national demonstration in Naples, on Saturday April 16th.