A-Infos (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #13-26 - HUB: Territories in Conflict. An Investigative Bulletin on War Logistics (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Faced with rising inequality and social discontent, political and 
economic powers are responding with force, through increased military 
spending and a strengthening of war logistics. The Italian government is 
no exception, with its 43 military missions abroad, its continually 
increasing arms spending, a multi-billion dollar defense industry such 
as Leonardo and military bases scattered across the country. Industry, 
logistics, missions, and military bases are involved in various war 
situations around the world, from Ukraine to Gaza, from Lebanon to Iran, 
and even military missions and aid to some Gulf countries.

Antimilitarist movements oppose all this, along with all those social 
and trade union forces that are organizing in various places and cities 
to counter this militaristic advance with which governments seek to 
crush and enslave territories and people.

In Tuscany and Liguria, the movements and organizations engaged in this 
struggle have created "HUB," a non-periodic digital and paper newsletter 
offering analysis and insights into the functioning of the 
military-industrial complex we are immersed in. The aim is to build the 
operational and organizational capacity to block and dismantle it. The 
idea was born from the No Base camp assembly on September 5-7, 2025, 
thanks to the collaboration of workers, movements, and residents of 
Livorno, Pisa, Carrara, La Spezia, and Florence. Contributors to the 
first issue included the No Base Movement, the Livorno Antimilitarist 
Coordination, Riconvertiamo Seafuture of La Spezia, the Carrara 
Antimilitarist Coordination, the Ferrovier* Against the War collective, 
the Railway Workers Struggling with the USB union, the GAP (Autonomous 
Port Workers Group) of Livorno, and the Livorno Self-Managed Information 
Desk.

Camp Darby, Cisam and new base

The first in-depth analysis focuses on the Pisa-Livorno military hub and 
opens with Camp Darby, the largest US military depot outside the United 
States. This is where war material is stored and distributed throughout 
Europe, supplying US air and ground forces in Africa, the Middle East, 
and the Mediterranean. This enormous depot also represents a strategic 
target in the event of war and a source of grave and constant danger for 
the population living in the area.

Camp Darby's proximity to the highway, railway, and the Navicelli Canal 
allows it to connect to the port of Livorno and Pisa military airport. 
The latter is home to the Italian Air Force's 46th Air Brigade and is 
responsible for tactical transport, materials, and equipment. It has 
also received approximately €43 million from the Ministry of Defense for 
the construction of a hangar for the maintenance of strategic aircraft.

Near Camp Darby, within the CISAM (Joint Center for Military 
Applications Studies), a Navy research center, a €520 million budget is 
planned for the construction of a military base that would house the 
Tuscania paratrooper units and the Special Intervention Group (GIS), a 
Carabinieri special forces unit. Part of this funding is also earmarked 
for the construction of a racetrack and a shooting range in the 
Pontedera area. Beyond the issue of militarization of a territory and 
the countering of warmongering policies, the fight against the base in 
this context also takes on an environmental dimension, given that the 
base would be built in the San Piero a Grado area, within the San 
Rossore natural park. Furthermore, within the CISAM area is a nuclear 
reactor whose reactivation has been proposed. To combat this, the No 
Base Movement was formed in 2022 in Coltano (where the base was 
initially planned).

La Spezia

As for the military hub of La Spezia, the militarization of the 
territory dates back almost two centuries, with the construction of the 
Navy Arsenal in 1869, on an area spanning 900,000 m2 , 1,400,000 m2 of 
inland waterways, 12 km of inner-city roads, and 6.5 km of docks. Not 
even the pretext of employment worked, given the decline over time from 
12,000 workers to fewer than 300 today.

This has been accompanied by environmental devastation. The Arsenal, in 
addition to the loss and destruction of important historical and 
archaeological artifacts, has contributed to the creation of a wall 
between the city and the sea, making it impossible for the population to 
access, as also denounced by the Murati Vivi committee of Marola. Then 
there is the issue of the "Campo di Ferro" landfill, containing toxic 
waste, with the persistent risk of seepage into the ground, despite some 
of the waste having been removed to date, and the constant transit of 
radioactive cargo and NATO nuclear-powered vessels.

Added to all this are further military initiatives, such as the Blue 
Bases project to adapt military port facilities to NATO standards (over 
350 million euros), or the expansion of the NATO POL Sea Terminal, the 
pipeline that, entering the North Italian Pipeline System, supplies the 
flight departments of the Armed Forces, the State Armed Corps, the US 
Armed Forces as well as NATO units (see specific article by the Carrara 
Antimilitarist Coordination in UN no. 4/2026).

The “HUB” bulletin also lists other military facilities present in the 
La Spezia area: the Castellana Fort, the Air Force Air Support Logistics 
Center, the Balipedio Cottrau experimental shooting range, the “Teseo 
Tesei” Underwater and Raider Group Command (CONSUBIN), the National 
Underwater Center, the Northern Navy Command area, and finally two 
powder magazines used by MDBA as a support structure for the storage and 
production of missiles.

Precisely to counteract all this, two major demonstrations were held in 
La Spezia between May and September 2025, the last of which was 
explicitly directed against Seafuture, the maritime sector's war fair, 
which the UN has covered extensively.

Of course, the significant arms trafficking through the port of La 
Spezia is also noteworthy. Since 2019, efforts have been made to track 
this traffic by replacing the statistical code "arms and ammunition" 
with the generic term "other metal products."

Port of Livorno

The issue of ports has become very important thanks to the struggles, 
strikes and blockades that have taken place to stop arms trafficking and 
against the warmongering policies of governments – especially in the 
autumn of 2025 – and brings us back to the part of the booklet that 
deals with military infrastructure, therefore ports, heliports and railways.

The port of Livorno is among the top five in Italy, both in terms of 
cargo traffic and TEUs and passengers, and is a multipurpose port. 
Marter Neri, Lorenzini, TDT (Terminal Darsena Toscana), SDT (Sintermar 
Darsena Toscana), Moby, and LTM are the main terminal operators within 
the port, also involved in the handling of military cargo and trade with 
Israel. This involvement was the spark that ignited the various 
struggles and blockades, carried out by port workers organized in the 
GAP (Gruppo Autonomi Portuali): a significant mobilization that the 
"HUB" bulletin does not fail to mention. The high point occurred during 
the strikes between September and October 2025, with the formation of a 
permanent protest that began on the day of the strike, September 22nd, 
and aimed at blocking the US cargo ship SLNC Severn, which was carrying 
military cargo, primarily to US bases, and which had transported 
Caterpillars used against the Palestinian population to Israel. 
Dockworkers and solidarity workers managed to prevent the ship from 
docking, and in the following days, the protest, moving to the Zara 
crossing, also blocked the docking of the Zim Virginia, creating 
concrete opportunities for solidarity and support for the Global Sumud 
Flotilla, which was experiencing a dramatic phase at that time. Through 
the highly attended daily assemblies, the protest provided an important 
opportunity for discussion and grassroots participation, enabling the 
impressive turnout at the October 3rd strike demonstration. This 
experience undoubtedly left its mark on the local area (and beyond).

Sarzana

The "HUB" bulletin also addresses the militarization of the Sarzana 
area. Here, we find the Maristaeli heliport in Luni, built in September 
1967. Operational since 1969 with the establishment of the Fifth 
Helicopter Group, joined in 1971 by the First Helicopter Group 
transferred from Catania. The base is equipped with a 1,000-meter runway 
and a helipad and is divided into two areas: an operational area and a 
logistics support area. It is also home to the ditching training center, 
the air-sea experimental center, and the helicopter mission simulation 
center. Among the military operations of the units hosted at the 
military station are those in the Persian Gulf, Somalia, the former 
Yugoslavia, Albania, Lebanon, and Afghanistan. The planned expansion of 
a new training center for war helicopter pilots will be carried out by 
the Israeli company Elbit Systems, leader of the Israeli 
military-industrial complex, joined by Leonardo and an Elbit Systems 
subsidiary headquartered in Italy.

Militarized railways

The "HUB" bulletin also focuses on military rail mobility, including the 
European plan for military mobility and the dual civil-military 
development of infrastructure normally used for civilian transport. This 
is an issue that Umanità Nova has addressed extensively recently, 
coinciding with the week-long campaign against military rail logistics 
launched by the Antimilitarist Assembly. This campaign combines 
antimilitarist concerns with security, since, as has often been pointed 
out, militarizing the rail network poses significant risks to travelers 
and the population living near railway areas.

The bulletin clearly illustrates the Italian routes of the TEN-T 
(Trans-European Networks Transport) network, originally designed for 
civilian transport but now adapted for military use, further 
strengthened by the agreement between Leonardo and RFI (Italian Railway 
Network). This process of reconverting rail transport for military 
purposes led to the formation of the Ferrovier* Contro la Guerra 
collective. In the area between Pisa and Livorno, the collective, active 
nationwide, has joined forces with the Livorno Antimilitarist 
Coordination, launching significant initiatives. These initiatives 
denounce the actual purpose of the work on the Pisa-Livorno stretch, 
which was aimed at increasing the transport of weapons, explosives, and 
munitions between the Tombolo station, the Navicelli Canal, and Camp 
Darby, as well as the expansion of platform 4 of the Pontedera station, 
20 km from Pisa, for military purposes. Initiatives were also taken 
against the military railway works at the La Spezia Marittima freight 
yard (costing €9,274,599), as well as the military interventions at the 
Genoa Sampierdarena – Parco Fuori Muro yard (€28,774,201.50).

Counter-information and coordination of antimilitarist struggles

"HUB" is therefore a detailed treatment of the militarization of a 
significant portion of Tuscany and Liguria. The aim is to create 
awareness, insights, and synergies between the various regions and 
organizations fighting against war and its mechanisms; to bring together 
the diverse experiences of movements, unions, and political and social 
groups fighting against the bases, the production of death, and the 
logistics of war, in order to better coordinate the struggles on a 
broader and more comprehensive level.

To stop governments and their wars, only direct action can be effective, 
and to conduct it effectively, we need grassroots organization, starting 
from the places where we live, where we work, where we study, and where 
productions of death, military bases, and militaristic propaganda are 
located.

Let us coordinate our struggles and build together a world without 
armies and without borders.

Marco Bianchi

https://umanitanova.org/hub-territori-in-lotta-bollettino-di-inchiesta-sulla-logistica-di-guerra
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