We Don't Need Another Military Base in Vicenza, Italy

By Desiree Fairooz, CODEPINK DC

Vicenza, located just 4 hours north of Rome, between Venice and Milan, is a classically Italian city with two important footnotes. First, Vicenza is a UNESCO world heritage site, home to numerous architectural works by the Venetian architect, Andrea Palladio, widely considered the most influential architect in the history of Western architecture.

Secondly, on the outskirts of town, it is home to the U.S. Army base called Caserma Ederle, headquarters of the Southern European Task Force, as well as of the 173rd Airborne Brigade of the United States Army from where troops take off on missions to Iraq and Afghanistan.

The citizens of Vicenza and its surrounding suburbs live in neighborhoods characterized by manicured lawns and gardens, clay roofs, cream colored stucco, Italian tiled walkways, and immaculate streets and bus stops. A city so classically Italian with its old world museums, coffee bars, pastry and gelato shops, Catholic churches, cobblestone streets, high fashion boutiques, and specialty stores that one finds this placid scene obscenely tainted by the cadence of U.S. Army soldiers stomping through the town plaza disrespectful of the ground they tread.

This is the Vicenza of Cinzia Bottene, a not-so-ordinary mother of a teenaged son who gave birth to the No Dal Molin Movement, took on her nation's government and the U.S. military by saying, "No, not in my town!". On this platform she was recently elected to the city's council.

I first met Cinzia when she arrived to Washington, D.C. in May 2007, staying with us at the CODEPINK house. She and three other Italians came to meet with members of Congress and the Pentagon to voice their opposition to the once secret plans to build yet another U.S. base near their homes. This additional base, named Dal Molin, would facilitate future deployments to the Middle East, North and sub-Saharan Africa, where the US military are pressing for a permanent presence.

I met Cinzia again in December 2007, as an invited member of CODEPINK, to attend in solidarity, one of the numerous No Dal Molin actions that mobilized tens of thousands to Vicenza to protest the new base. Cinzia welcomed me and other CODEPINKERS who visited before me, to her beautiful home and her gourmet cooking all the while planning, writing and practicing her speeches with the help of other members in the movement.

Approximately a year later, Cinzia returned to DC in hopes of pressing the new Obama administration on this important issue. She and three others of the No Dal Molin movement even demonstrated during an House Armed Services Committee hearing, raising their NO DAL MOLIN banner and chanting during the testimony. Returning to DC again a month later Cinzia testified before a Congressional committee imploring members to hold back funds for the construction of the new base.

We applaud our sisters-in-peace, Cinzia, Laura, Thea, Eufrosine and Stephanie for their peaceful efforts and we stand in solidarity with them as they call for the departure of U.S. Military forces from their homeland.

NO A LA BASE SI A LA PACE!!!