Italy: civil society campaign to reduce military expenditure

The Italian network for disarmament and Sbilanciamoci!, with the support of the Peace Roundtable, Grillo News and Unimondo, have renewed their commitment to disarmament, launching the campaign Let's clip the arms' wings. The appeal calls upon the Italian government to give up buying 131 F-35 fighter bombers Joint Strike Fighter. The Parliament gave its favourable opinion on this purchase, for a total expenditure of about 13 billion Euros, engaging Italy until 2026.

However, the government has not yet signed the purchase agreement. At the moment, about 800 billion Euros have been allocated for building the plant where the fighter bombers should be assembled. An agreement on the first lot has been already signed for 185 million. The 2010 stability law includes 471 million to start buying the military aircrafts.

The appeal demands the Italian government to stop the implementation of the plan and proposes an alternative use of the resources: the conversion of armament industry to a civil use and the financing of development cooperation initiatives.

Beyond the on-line supports, the campaign has already collected 16,000 supporting signatures on paper.

"The government, supporting in this by the Parliament, should take quickly a decision oriented to peacemaking and solidarity. It should stop the plan and allocate the released resources for the society, the environment, the employment and the international solidarity".