On the occasion of the international day of action against war and
occupation on September 30, 2006, some 10.000 took to the streets in
the Italian capital. For several reasons the demonstration marks a
significant turn of the anti-war movement:
It is the first time that the common platform of a national demonstration in continuity of the anti-war movement in Italy is clearly anti-imperialist. It not only gives open support to the popular resistance movements in Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq without distancing themselves from the Islamic currents. But with the demand to withdraw the troops from Lebanon it also frontally attacks the new Italian left liberal government which together with France tries to play the role of the lead nation.
On the other hand it was obvious that only the radical antagonist left mobilised. All the different shades of pro-governmental forces around and within Rifondazione Comunista, including its internal oppositions, boycotted.
But it is not only a question of the leaderships’ co-option into the government. The millions who took to the streets three years ago are not obeying Prodi (new prime minister) let alone Bertinotti (leader of Rifondazione Comunista). They essentially had been mobilised on pacifist grounds on the formula “neither war nor terror” which we refused from the very beginning as it equates the imperialist aggression with the resistance. Here we are at the core of the question. The big majority does not want to support the resistance even more as it is predominantly Islamic. We should not underestimate the strength of Islamophobia also on a popular level.
So we are faced with a contradictory situation that on one hand the masses fall into apathy accepting any imperialist move by the government as long as it is painted in democratic and multilateral colours. On the other hand within the remaining pockets of the radical left the support to the resistance today has become common sense.
This at the same time means that the Anti-imperialist Camp has been fully rehabilitated within the antagonist left. Especially after the beginning of the Iraqi resistance the Anti-imperialist Camp was the champion of open support to the resistance without excluding the Islamic forces. Not only were its leaders arrested and put before court for supporting terrorism but also whole segments of those who claim to be anti-imperialist attacked us. This battle now seems to have been won at least among the anti-imperialist forces. On a mass lever, however, there is still a long way to go.
Anti-imperialist Camp
