No Tanks: Trainstopping in Europe
A week after millions took to the streets, transports of material and
soldiers from US military bases in Europe to the Gulf region continue, as
do actions against them. In Italy, Defence Minister Martino guaranteed the
use of public infrastructures for US transport without the necessary
approval of the parliament. The antiwar movement has responded with
"trainstopping". Since 21 February (it), hundreds of protestors in daily
actions have tried to block 26 convoys on their way to the Camp Darby
military base near Pisa. Activists from all over Italy are now heading to
Pisa, while police try to keep control of the train stations [ 22 February
| 23 February (it) ].
Since 23 February, the train personnel has been defined as "military
personnel." While the train workers do not get much support from their
labour union, the dock workers' union (de) has announced that they will not
load military equipment on the ships. The British consulate was occupied
in Torino, and other actions are expected also in Ferrara, where police
attacked a crowd of 1,000 people, as well as in Udine. At Magdalena Isle
near Sardinia, another 1,000 activists were roughly cleared out by police.
[ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 ]
After Austria refused to allow US military transports to cross its soil on
the way from Germany to Italy, the US is now transporting equipment through
the Netherlands. On 25 February, the anniversary of the first strike (nl)
in the Netherlands against the deportation of Jews in 1941, some 20 actions
were held across the Netherlands (nl), including a blockade of the office
of the US Military Traffic Management Command. On 20 February, Greenpeace
had blocked the first ship to leave the harbour of Rotterdam. Actions are
also taking place at Schiphol airport in preparation for a day of action on
15 March.
Actions against the use (nl) of the Belgium harbour of Antwerpen by the US
military have been going on for weeks, and will continue on 1 and 2 March
with more trainstopping actions.
[ Italy IMC | StopUSA | Wereldcrisis ]
http://www.indymedia.org/
