From dissent to resistance
European workers block bases and 'death trains'
By John Catalinotto
Railroad workers and anti-globalization "disobeddienti" have
joined together in northern Italy to block the moving of U.S.
tanks and trucks to be used against Iraq.
On Feb. 21 thousands of railroad workers who were
demonstrating in Padova against layoffs also raised anti-war
slogans. Word arrived that a train loaded with military
materiel was traveling from nearby Camp Ederle, the site of
weekly protests, to Camp Darby, near Pisa. Rail road workers
had blocked its path near the town of Monselice.
By the time national police removed those blocking the
train, word had also reached the anti-globalization movement.
Further down the line near Padova, other groups blocked the
tracks. They set off flares to stop the train for about two
hours.
Meanwhile, more demonstrators were gathering further south,
threatening to camp out on the railroad tracks to stop the
"death train." Anti-globalization organizers said people were
ready to struggle in Ferrara, Bologna and even in Tuscany
further south.
Confronted by the workers, executives admitted this train
was only the first of at least 26 that would be carrying
"tactical arms" to Turkey. The anti-war movement in Italy says
Premier Silvio Berlusconi's turning over Italy's infrastructure
to the U.S. war machine is a crime and must be stopped.
Union workers and anti-war activists notified the railroad
bosses that their actions were only the first in a series to
"stop the global war." Roberto Martelli, the railway union
secretary general in Tus cany, said: "The traditions of the
railroad workers and their union are based on the principle of
peace. Our members have no intentions to offer their services
to the war."
Dock workers at Livorno are also refusing to unload military
transport ships.
Inspecting Frankfort's airport
On Feb. 22 at the military section of the Rhine-Main airport
in Germany, demonstrators dressed as weapons inspectors and
labeled "Hans Blix" and "Mohamed El Bara dei" led 3,000 others
trying to get through police and guards to look for U.S.
weapons of mass destruction. Militant demonstrators got through
to the tarmac, where they blockaded the base for three
hours.
In Britain on Feb. 20, four anti-war activists used their
bodies to block the runway of the Brize Norton base, from which
British troops are being flown to the Persian Gulf.
On Feb. 23, some 450 people took part in a march on the
Fairford base of Britain's Royal Air Force. A dozen breached
the main gate before they were apprehended and arrested.
Fairford was a point of departure for U.S. B-52 bombers during
the 1991 Gulf war and 1999 assault on Yugoslavia.
Reprinted from the March 6, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe to WW by Email: wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Donate to
support pro-labor, anti-war news.
Email
this article
Printable
page