A-Infos (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #36-25 - The City of Aerospace Doesn't Take Off. Turin, December 2: Boycott at the Oval (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

At the tenth edition of the Aerospace and Defense Meetings, the recently 
concluded trade show for the aerospace war industry in Turin, there were 
those inside and those outside. ---- Inside were manufacturers, vendors, 
and political sponsors; outside were the antimilitarists. ---- Outside 
the Oval, Out of the Crowd ---- After the large march that had passed 
through the city center the previous Saturday, the antimilitarists were 
determined to stand against war and those who arm it.
On December 2, the meeting was in front of the entrance to the Oval, 
where, protected by a large police presence, the participants of the 
convention, the flagship of the subalpine arms lobby, were to enter.
Protesters armed with signs and banners occupied the street; the police 
attempted unsuccessfully to stop them. After a few minutes, the cars 
heading to the Oval reversed. Participants were forced to enter the Oval 
on foot, one by one, through an internal passageway in the Lingotto.
For the second time in 20 years, antimilitarists blocked the entry of 
arms dealers.
A large handful of sand was thrown into the cogs of a deadly machine. 
Efforts will need to be redoubled to stop the machine forever.

The institutional and media narrative of the Aerospace and Defense 
Meetings and the City of Aerospace continues to hide, behind the 
rhetoric of space travel, spacecraft, and explorers of Mars and the 
Moon, the reality of a market and a manufacturing sector whose core is 
weapons: fighter-bombers, combat helicopters, drones, and targeting systems.
The smokescreen concealing the decision to transform Turin into the arms 
capital has been partially dispelled, with the protests involving 
students, environmentalists, education workers, as well as groups that 
have been fighting against the arms industry for years.

Inside the Oval, a Chorus with a Few Dissonances
Leonardo's largest aerospace project in Piedmont had been showing signs 
of crumbling for some time. The Aerospace and Defense Meetings provided 
the backdrop for the launch of the Aerospace City in 2021, when 
Leonardo, with unanimous institutional support, announced that 
construction of one of the largest research and innovation centers in 
the aerospace weapons sector would begin in the following months.
In 2023, at the ninth arms fair, they announced the laying of the 
foundation stone, but for another two years, weeds continued to grow 
between the walls of abandoned buildings. The first signs of a 
(re)opening of the game came in December 2024, when EUR17 million 
emerged from the PNRR's budget earmarked for the Polytechnic's research 
center. Demolition work on Building 37 of the former Alenia Aermacchi, a 
building belonging to the Polytechnic, which began in February, has been 
stalled for months. In return, the entire Corso Marche complex has been 
enclosed by new fences and mesh fences topped with barbed wire to thwart 
numerous anti-militarist incursions. The latest occurred on November 
4th, with the blockade of Thales Alenia Space.
Cingolani's ambiguous statements had long suggested that something was 
changing, that Leonardo was unwilling to commit its own resources to the 
project.
Research is expensive: even manufacturers in the world's fastest-growing 
sector prefer to seek public funding for their very private businesses. 
Fiat and its subsequent corporate incarnations have done so for a 
century; today it's the defense sector's turn.
A few days ago, an update of the project supported by Leonardo, the 
Polytechnic University, the Piedmont Region, the City of Turin, the 
Industrialists' Union, and the Chamber of Commerce was presented at the 
Oval.
The key word is "update," demonstrating that Leonardo's prominence lies 
more in words than in deeds.
After five years, the triumphant announcement of the opening of four new 
laboratories with 30 employees in the old building on Corso Francia is 
an unmistakable sign that the cracks in the Citadel of Arms are now 
clearly visible.
The statements released demonstrate this.
Building 27 will be modernized: therefore, the beautiful project that 
has been on the table for years at the City Hall will be scaled down 
but, above all, will change direction, transforming it into a "House of 
SMEs," a condominium for small and large businesses, all yet to be shipped.
The Piedmont Region, for its part, is releasing EUR14 million to push 
forward the creation of the Citadel of Arms.
A good reason to make the anti-militarist struggles increasingly effective.

m.m.

https://umanitanova.org/la-citta-dellaerospazio-non-decolla-torino-2-dicembre-boicottaggio-alloval/
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