Tens of thousands protest plan to expand US air base in Italy
Pastor Dale Morgan
Saturday February 17, 10:56 PM
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Tens of thousands protest plan to expand US air base in Italy*
Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of Vicenza, Italy,
to protest the planned expansion of a US military base here, a divisive
issue for Italy's center-left government.
Swirling the red flag of the Refoundation Communist party, the rainbow
flag of the pacifist movement, and the environmentalists' green
standard, the marchers set out in mid-afternoon to encircle the small
city of some 100,000 people as police helicopters hovered close overhead
on Saturday.
Organisers estimated the turnout at more than 100,000, while police
quoted by the ANSA news agency said some 40,000 were taking part.
Banners read "America, No Thanks" and "Bases Go Home," while some
sported images of Che Guevara.
An influx that began Friday surged early Saturday as dozens of chartered
trains and buses arrived in Vicenza, known as the home of Palladian
architecture.
Prime Minister Romano Prodi, elected narrowly last April, faces virulent
opposition to the base expansion plan from the communists and Greens
within his wide-ranging coalition.
Last month, after great hesitation, Prodi decided not to renege on a
pledge by his staunchly pro-US conservative predecessor Silvio
Berlusconi to allow the expansion of the base.
The prime minister asked party leaders to stay away from Saturday's
protest, saying "you don't demonstrate against yourself," but added that
if communists and Greens take part it would "not break the solidarity of
the government."
Protester Gino Del Ferraro, 23, said the demonstration would be "the new
government's first big challenge. ... We students, young people don't
feel represented by the Prodi government," he told AFP.
Franco Marchesani, selling T-shirts for the Refoundation Communist party
at the march, told AFP: "If you see a protest of this size in such a
small city, it must be about a big problem."
The US 173rd Airborne Brigade is currently spread across two sites in
Germany and Camp Ederle, on the east side of Vicenza, and Washington
wants to consolidate the Brigade here, adding another 1,800 to a
contingent of some 2,750 US troops.
Authorities warned that Saturday's march may see violence fomented by
"extremists" -- drawing scorn from activists.
"The mass media are calling us extremists," boomed Oscar Mancini at a
pre-march rally late Friday. "They haven't understood anything about
Vicenza."
In December, Mancini recalled, more than 20,000 people held a peaceful
protest here against the base expansion. "Tomorrow it will be the same,"
said Mancini, the Vicenza regional representative for Italy's largest
labor union, the left-wing CGIL.
The air space above the city was closed, and some 1,500 police were on
hand for the march.
Under the base expansion plan, the 173rd Airborne Brigade will
consolidate in Italy by taking in a former military airfield at Dal
Molin, on the opposite side of Vicenza from Camp Ederle, at a cost of
some 500 million dollars.
Local and regional authorities are in favor of the plan, but it is
fiercely opposed by pacifists, environmentalists and residents, despite
the some 1,200 local jobs provided by the base, one of seven US bases in
Italy.
US Ambassador to Rome Ronald Spogli was hounded by protesters during a
visit to Vicenza, which is some 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Venice.
The base issue is one of several that are troubling bilateral relations
since Prodi came to power in May and withdrew Italy's troops from Iraq
in December.
The march was to cover some 6.5 kilometers and last about four hours,
ending with a "happening" in a city park.