Activities of the Peace and Disarmament Working TableDuring the European Humanist Forum Milan, October 17th, 18th and 19th 2008 Awaiting to upload in the Peace and Disarmament section of the Forum’s webpage the speeches and videos of the panels, here is a synthesis of the activities realized during the forum as Peace and Disarmament Working Table.Friday October 17th at Palalido
Panel: “To stop nuclear war: the role of Europe”
- Giorgio Schultze, Spokesperson for New Humanism in Europe
- Angelo Baracca, Professor of Physics at Florence University
- Giulietto Chiesa, Member of the European Parliament
- Pol D'Huyvetter, International Office, Mayors for Peace 2020 Vision Campaign
The panel was open by a video message from Noam Chomsky, who underlined the possibility for Europe to choose between following the U.S. policy or renouncing war. The panel showed the serious nuclear threat and the urgency of a nonviolent fight for nuclear disarmament, with possible openings with Russia (Giulietto Chiesa’s speech). Saturday October 18th at Bicocca University h. 11am - Meeting of the working table among activists and representatives of different associations. The meeting aimed to expose concrete actions that various associations are planning, to find forms of mutual support and to define great common actions at international level. Interventions by: Jan Tamas, movement against the bases in Czech Republic (www.nonviolence.cz) On November 10th there will be in Prague a meeting with activists and mayors against the radar base and a conference at the Czech Parliament with the MEP Giulietto Chiesa.Alessandro Capuzzo, Civil peace Interventions – proposal of a common action about Afghanistan.Martina Pignatti, A Bridge for, ICP- formation project to awaken to nonviolence in the schools of 8 Italian regions and advanced courses for volunteers in conflict zones (www.interventicivilidipace.org e www.unponteper.it )
Lindis Percy, Coordinator Campaign for the accountability of American bases - Examples of civil disobedience and denounce activities. (www.caab.org.uk )
Pol D’Huyvetter, Mayors for Peace (www.2020visioncampaign.org). Involvement of a growing number of mayors and elected representatives in the network of Mayors for peace. Piercarlo Racca, Nonviolent Movement – presentation of the magazine “Nonviolent Action”, diffusion of Aldo Capitini as the Italian reference for nonviolence www.nonviolenti.org.
Roberto La Monica, Photographic exibition "USA e getta": the island of La Maddalena is abandoned by the U.S. Armed Forces, that leave behind indelible signs of contamination. www.usaegettaprogetto.com
Paola Manduca, New Weapons – November 26th, demonstration for Palestine- Organization of events at European level at the beginning of February to prepare actions in occasion of the 60th anniversary of Nato. Research activities with a group of scientists about weapons ant their consequences on civil population. http://www.newweapons.org
Rafael de la Rubia, World without Wars– presentation of the World March for Peace and Nonviolence, between October 2nd 2009 and January 2nd 2010. www.marchamundial.org.
Rosaria Onida, Bergamo Peace Table - On December 10th, 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, event in a theatre with readings connected with the different articles, projection of images and music. UN of peoples, organized every two years in Perugia, before the march Perugia-Assisi. h. 3pm - Working Table about “Armed Banks” The participants were more or less 20. - Introduction by the national coordinator of the Armed Banks campaign, Giorgio Beretta.- Projection of the documentary “Armed Banks, a horror in the silence”.
http://www.banchearmate.it/home.htm
- Intervention by Giorgio Beretta about the course of arms trade and the exportation of Italian weapons abroad with the government authorization, finishing with the role of banks. Questions made by the participants and new adhesions (Campobasso and Bresso).
Ivan Marchetti
3401738032
umanistisettimo@yahoo.it
h. 3pm – Panel: “Anti-missile shield and militarization of Europe” · Jan Tamas, spokesperson of No to the bases movement in Czech Republic · Angelica Romano, Peace, Disarmament and Demilitarization Committee, Naples · Massimo Zucchetti, Professor of Nuclear Installation at Turin University· Lindis Percy, Coordinator Campaign for the accountability of American bases - CAAB· Vittorio Agnoletto, member of the European Parliament· Silvano Caveggion, Lilliput Network, Vicenza· Marco Sodi, Ipri-Network of Civilian Peace CorpsThe panel has given space to the representatives of groups active in Vicenza, Naples, Prague and England for a Europe free from shields and military bases, but also to the point of view of experts and of a member of the European Parliament, who spoke about what Europe could and should do to realize a different, peaceful policy. Finally a concrete proposal against militarization – the Civilian Peace Corps – was exposed. The panel contributed to have a more precise picture of the actions carried on in Europe and helped to understand how to continue with the nonviolent fights for peace and disarmament. h. 5pm – Panel: “A nonviolent solution for the conflict between Israel and Palestine” Khader Tamimi, Palestinian doctor and president of the Palestinian Community in Lombardy, has spoken about the need to find a nonviolent solution that allows the people expelled in 1948 from their land to return, has reminded that the shoah was caused by Europeans and not by Palestinians and that Europe has a role to play. Giorgio Forti, member of the Netowork of Jews Against Occupation, has described with passion the position of the Jews who oppose Israeli permanence in the occupied territories and expressed the need of a change of mentality, showing as an example the picture of Israeli children admiring guns in a weapons fair.Luisa Morgantini, vice-president of the European Parliament, very involved with the civil society in Israel and Palestine, has underlined the importance of the positive, nonviolent actions carried on by Palestinian and Israeli activists, together with people of different countries. Noam Livne, Israeli refusnik (conscientious objector) ha given a moving testimony about his evolution from the conditioning of the official propaganda to the choice to go to prison in order not to serve in the occupied territories, has explained how every side cannot understand the trauma suffered by the other and has underlined the importance to start to see the human in both peoples. Also Monica Czysa, fo the Center of Cultures of Spain, has described her personal path, from the belief that all the Jews had to go to Israel to defend it and avoid another holocaust, to the awareness that a country security cannot leaves behind a trail of corpses. She has proposed to give back the occupied territories, the destruction of the wall, the nuclear disarmament and the creation of two states, with Israel returning to its previous borders and Jerusalem as patrimony of mankind, administred by its inhabitants. She has underlined the role of Europe, with the proposal to change the Palestinian ecosysthem from desert to oasis with economic help and the sending of European volunteers and has proposed to form a Truth and Reconciliation Commission as the one created in South Africa.At the end of the panel all the people interested in the World March for Peace and Nonviolence have been invited to participate in the organization of initiatives in Israel and Palestine.h. 5pm - ore 17, "Let’s support LaOnf, the nonviolent Iraqui movement!”Martina Pignatti of a Bridge for has spoken of this network of self-organized, nonviolent Iraqui associations that started from the World Social Forum and organizes at the social base actions of nonviolent denounce and fight, mainly through civil disobedience and creativity. Today the network has elected councils in 18 Iraqui provinces and 30% of them are formed by women.In 2006 the first Week of Nonviolence, promoted and organized mainly by a youth movement, has taken place in three provinces; in 2007 the provinces had become seven, with 47 organizations and the participations of 7.200 people. The main objective is the prevention of electoral violence. Thanks to the Catalan association Nova, A Bridge for and Women in Black, this year the International campaign of solidarity with LaOnf was born. The appeal can be downloaded at the website www.unponteper.it. Recently also the U.S. association September 11 families for peace and tomorrow has joined the campaign, saying No to war in our dead’s name and no to revenge. Besides the campaign against the electoral violence, there is also a campaign against the war profits
“Civilians, the targets of wars and occupations: the victims, the armies, the legacy of the damage and the contexts of the resistance in Gaza, in Iraq and the Lebanon".
Giuditta Brattini, association la Gazzella and Paola Manduca, New Weapons, showed us the responsibilities of the wars in Lebanon, Iraq and Gaza. Paola’s laboratory, together with an English one, answered the appeal launched by some doctors in Lebanon, that said. “Help us to understand how they are killing us. Help us to treat the wounded and to use the correct precautions with the helpers.” The data collected in a hospital in Lebanon, as well as the ones in Gaza and Iraq, shows without any doubt the use of non-conventional, illegal weapons. Their real composition and use is never revealed, on the contrary it is promptly hidden. Lethal weapons used against civilians, mainly children.The presentation ended with the request to circulate these data, that will be given to the U.N. Human Rights Commission in the name of the International Court of the Citizens for Lebanon.
