“A Foras, Out”: Youth antimilitarism engagement in Sardinia

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/bethunivj.37.2020.0053
• Published date: 01 January 2020
• Date: 01 January 2020
• Pages: 53-67
• Author: Aide Esu

52 Bethlehem University Journal 37 (2020)

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53

Bethlehem University Journal 37 (2020)

“A Foras, Out”

“A Foras, Out”: Youth antimilitarism

engagement in Sardinia

Aide Esu

Abstract

This paper presents a short review of the A Foras, Out movement in Sardinia

and examines its youth branch, the student collective (Collettivo studentesco)

for university and high school students. Since the late 1960s, grassroots

movements, associations, committees, political groups, antimilitarists and

ecologists have struggled against land occupation by NATO and other military

forces and called for the drastic reduction or elimination of military activities

on the island that was later related to the emergence of environmental risk and

diseases. By participating in networked collective actions, these young activists

reclaim the land occupied by the military and elaborate a legitimisation-based

political rhetoric that undermines the legality of the presence of military bases

in Sardinia. The young activists emerge as social actors in engaging debates

within the movement about of civil disobedience practices that sometimes

cross the boundary of illegal practices (e.g. cutting fences around military areas

to stop training). Their engagement pushes the actions of the senior non-violent

antimilitarist activists into a new, not yet dened practice of antimilitarism

incorporating diverse political platforms: from independence movements to

traditional workerism, anarchists to radical left-wing movements. We analyse

the youth group’s agency in transforming antimilitarism from general pacism

into a mixed antimilitarist-eco, neo-independence movement calling for new

regional sovereignty.

Keywords: Youth agency, antimilitarism, illegal practices, social movement

Disclaimer: The opinions and views expressed in this article do not represent the

opinions of the Journal’s editorial board and staff of the Dean of Research at Bethlehem

University. The accuracy of the material and any errors in this publication are the sole

responsibility of the author.