The world of pacifism is on the move. Acronyms and associations join forces to prepare a major national demonstration to stop the war. It starts with the widespread mobilization of 21 and 23 October, organized by the Europe for peace coalition, a network of hundreds of organizations that in those days will be in the squares and streets of the whole country with their request: “Stop the war: negotiation immediately. The UN convenes an international peace conference ”. In Rome, the Acli hope, the event could take place in St. Peter’s Square, on the occasion of the Pope’s Angelus. Giuseppe Conte can smile, the first to invoke a pacifist square “without party flags”. In the meantime, however, the Cinquestelle stand out from the European Parliament and abstain on a resolution calling for an increase in the shipment of arms to Ukraine: “In the text, the words ‘negotiation’ and ‘diplomacy’ are absent, they explain, while sharing “The firm support of the EU” for the country invaded by the Russian army. “They throw away their masks to the test of facts, thus finding themselves alongside the most extremist, pro-Putin and anti-European parties,” accuses the MEP of Italia Viva Nicola Danti.
Pulling the chariot of mobilization is the Italian Peace and Disarmament Network, to which many realities belong: Acli, Arci, Agesci, Legambiente, Libera, Rete dellawareness, Movimento Nonviolento. The three days of pacifism at the end of October will be the starter for the national appointment, almost certainly in early November, most likely in Rome. Yesterday the president of the Nonviolent Movement Massimo Valpiana proposed a symbolic date to take to the streets: November 4th. It is not an ordinary day: he would mean marching for peace on the day of the armed forces. «For us that is a symbolic date because it is the feast of the armed forces. Not a party, but a day of mourning ». Acli did not like the idea: “There is a request from the company to hold a larger demonstration for peace, I don’t think on November 4th, but certainly in November”. Because, explains President Emiliano Manfredonia, “by then we will have a political government that must know that there is a square that asks for peace and that Italy promotes an international peace conference in Europe”. The Italian Peace and Disarmament Network specifies that “no decision has yet been made” on the date and makes an appointment “at the weekend between 21 and 23 October, with mobilizations spread throughout the national territory”, remaining “obviously ready to collectively convene a great national demonstration ». Almost certainly that day in the square there will also be the Anpi and Sant’Egidio.
Eight months after the start of the conflict, the pacifist thrust multiplies the demonstrations. This afternoon in Rome, in front of the Russian embassy in Via Gaeta, a sit-in to ask for “an immediate ceasefire by the Russian aggressors, contextual to the opening of negotiations”. The Italian Radicals will be in Milan, at the Anna Politkovskaja garden in Corso Como, to remember the journalist murdered in 2006 on Vladimir Putin’s birthday, who turns 70 today. Then tomorrow in Turin, in Piazza Castello with the Ukrainian community. The international peace meeting of the Community of Sant’Egidio will take place from 23 to 25 in Rome. The highlight will be the prayer at the Colosseum on Tuesday. “A great demonstration for peace” on 29 October in Naples was also launched yesterday by Vincenzo De Luca, the president of Campania. “To awaken consciences and introduce the word ‘peace’ into the language of politics, which now seems to have been erased”.