Italy: The Long Journey Toward People's Nonviolent Defense CBD Ed. Note: This article was adapted for publication in Civilian-Based Defense News & Opinion from information sent by Antonino Drago, who is associated with the Segreteria Scientifica of the Progetto Nazionale di Ricerca sulla Difesa Popolare Nonviolenta (National Project for Research into People's Nonviolent Defense), Piazza Salvo d'Acquisto, 13 - 80134 Naples, Italy. Telephone: 081/5521728. Adaptation by Mel Beckman. See also "The Debate on Civilian Defence in Italy," by P. Farinella and M.C. Spreafico in Civilian-Based Defense News & Opinion, May, 1988. To clarify the relationship between certain groups: The National Project for Research into People's Nonviolent Defense is an initiative of the Italian Peace Research Institute (IPRI, via Assietta, 131a - Torino, Italy) and is financed by the Campaign for Conscientious Objection to Military Expenditures (via Milano, 60 - Brescia, Italy). This campaign is sometimes called "Campaign for Fiscal Objection." On November 2, 1989, the Italian President sent a telegram of support to organisers of a conference on nonviolent defense. The text was as follows: "On the occasion of the conference 'A Nonviolent Defence in Italy Today' I would like to convey to the Progetto Nazionale di Ricerca sulla Difesa Popolare Nonviolenta my sincere feelings of appreciation for the commitment to deepening its themes, contexts and research, all of which are highly important and of current interest. To all participants in this work I would like to express my best wishes." Francesco Cossiga Quirinale, Roma, 21/11/89. This telegram was taken as a first positive signal from the President of the Republic, in favour of DPN, Difesa Popolare Nonviolenta (People's Nonviolent Defense), an alternative radically different from a defense based on human destructiveness which is typical of Italian and NATO defense. Indirectly, it was also a positive signal towards the Campagna Nazionale di Obiezione alle Spese Militari (National Campaign for Conscientious Objection to Military Expenditures) which finances DPN research. In October of 1988, the President accepted from the campaign the money withheld by the conscientious objectors, and offered to him for peace initiatives. This had not been the case previously. It is not known what happened in the next three months because in February the money was refused by the Ministry of Finance. The President had sent it there to determine a positive use for it. In October 1989 the Italian President again accepted the pool of money offered to him by the objectors. The telegram is a sign of sympathy, encouragement, and the possibility of a dialogue. DPN: Evolution of the Idea In 1979, Italian pacifists organised the first convention on the theme of DPN, at Padova. Henceforth, this type of defense was seen as credible. The proceedings of that convention were noted both in Italy (Testimonianze 1980) and abroad (Gandhi Marg, 4,N.47 198). Since 1982 the National Campaign for Fiscal Conscientious Objection has sustained the proposals for DPN. Four hundred were supportive the first year, today 4,000 (without counting the implicit support of 6,000 conscientious objectors to military service). This had become a thorn-in-the-flesh of the current defense system. In 1986, Spandolini, the Minister of Defense, raged against Catholics for not respecting the state, avoiding however the theme of a new, alternative defense. Moreover, he decided to put pressure on conscientious objectors to take up military service. But this action was counter-productive. Indeed, now everybody knows that in Italy, out of 400,000 youth eligible for military service hardly more than 200,000 carry out the service. Exemption is very easy. Only the poorest or the most honest enter the service. Therefore, how could one accept Spandolini's contention that conscientious objectors were privileged people? During these years the Italian leftists (Proletarian Democracy Party, Communist Youth) became more favourable toward conscientious objection and a new defense, including a nonviolent one. Above all, the Catholics have taken a decisive position. Cardinal Poletti, without much success, tried to prevent Azione Cattolica (Catholic Action Movement) from adhering to conscientious objection, which has an ever-increasing support and commitment from Catholic youth. One of the "grave sins" of Father Zanotelli (today he is in Africa) was that of having supported fiscal objection. For three years Pax Christi has not only participated in but also promoted the Campaign for Fiscal Objection. In 1987 the Zancan Foundation organised a conference on DPN in Italy with proceedings published by an important editor, Cedam of Padova. Finally, in December of that year the Italian bishops were ordered to refrain from talking about fiscal objection until Cardinal Ratzinger could publish an official document on the subject. This must have proved to be difficult for him since the document is still forthcoming and instead almost 100 theologians and priests have signed a counter-document which lists all the theological and moral reasons to support fiscal objection and DPN. Since this matter is so critical in church-state relations, the grassroots Church can have a most decisive influence. Indeed, it has been searching for a way to accelerate reform of the law regarding conscientious objection to military service. The new law should be approved in the next months and foresees the creation of a State organisation "which is to study and try out a non-armed defense" and organise training courses for conscientious objectors. This is not exactly what the Campaign for Fiscal Objection is asking for but it is very near to it. In July the Corte Constituzionale (Constitutional Court) approved a definition of the equality of military and civil service. Immediately the conscientious objectors in service were dismissed if they had completed more than twelve months (as opposed to the twenty months previously). The extreme resistance of the Ministry of Defense to the expansion of conscientious objection has been overcome. The Head of State took heed and called on interested government ministers to study together "a new defense for Italy." (see "Republica", August 2nd) The unarmed component of defense should soon be a public right. The telegram of November 2, 1989 is a more clear indication of this. The First Research Conference on DPN Since January of 1989 the Campaign for Fiscal Objection has financed a national project for research into popular nonviolent defense. The Italian Peace Research Institute has become responsible for it. All spontaneous initiatives which have sprung up recently (EIRENE centre of Bergamo, MIR of Padova, Centre of Civil Defense Studies in Rome, etc.) have been coordinated. The scientific office has its base in Naples, in a significant place--piazza Salvo D'Acquisto 13 (D'Acquisto was the policeman who offered his life to save innocent people due to be executed by the Nazis). The office has, importantly, brought together people who study DPN. These have proved to be numerous - about 100 university and non-university people. Four meetings have been held. The first research conference on DPN was held November 4-5 at Boves, near Cuneo (significant for its having been twice destroyed by the Nazis because from its population came the first resistance and resisters). November 4th being National Defense Day it seemed right to propose a nonviolent defense. There were four invited speakers. Father Ernesto Balducci introduced the participants to the worldwide cultural transformation which is necessary at this historical moment and confirmed nonviolence as the inevitable choice for simply living together on either a planetary or local scale. Professor Papisca of Padova examined international relations, in which a new democracy is becoming stronger -- not that of the nations as in the U.N. but in regard to human rights and governments being obligated to uphold them. In the afternoon, Jean-Marie Muller from France examined the European scene. In that context a nonviolent defense has become a historical necessity to replace the old defense delegated to computers which launch nuclear missiles. Finally, Piet Dykstra from Holland, illustrated the almost ten-year experience of the International Peace Brigades -- an experience of volunteers from all over the world who put themselves forward to defend territories and civil rights where the people live under terror. After this some thirty researchers presented their ideas about popular nonviolent defense in relation to the present national defense and the political situation. On the evening of November 4th a round table linked resistance and DPN. It is not well known that DPN was a reality, actuated without much fuss, during the Italian Resistance. Above all, this was true of the heroic "no" by the internees of the Nazi prison camps to the proposal to return to Italy as collaborators. Of 28,000 officials, approximately 20,000 refused, even though they could only expect to die of hunger or exhaustion as a result. This refusal was decisive for the destiny of the Republic of Salo', which remained without public support; therefore, decisive for the destiny of Italy too. In the fight against the Nazis there were many instances of DPN, as research carried out at Bergamo, Modena, Rome, and Naples has indicated. Much remains to be done to establish the real nature of the Italian Resistance. This was a people's struggle. An Italian Way Toward Nonviolent Popular Defense? In other European countries nonviolent people have urged like-minded or governmental bodies to discuss the possibility of getting the State to institute a non-armed or a complementary defense. Important documents on that theme have been produced in Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark and France. In Italy, however, the Campaign for Conscientious Objection to Military Expenditures has not searched for an intermediary but has forcefully proposed the matter by the civil disobedience of the conscientious objectors. The Italians (already famous tax evaders!) have participated in great numbers, submitting themselves to the confiscation of valuable goods and to fines as much as three times the value of the sums evaded. Incredibly, Italy has the highest percentage of fiscal conscientious objectors in the world (apart from the USA, which has a long history of a different type of fiscal objection and which does not use the refused tax money to form a pool for peace projects). Perhaps this is the force behind the project in Italy, which is opening up doors which in other countries are still barred. Antonino Drago from Civilian-Based Defense: News and Opinion, vol 6 no 4, Jan/Mar1990