{"id":456322,"date":"2026-06-10T18:45:31","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T16:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/06\/10\/internazionalismo-in-tempo-di-guerra-la-societa-civile-deve-essere-in-prima-linea\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T19:30:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T17:30:31","slug":"internationalism-in-times-of-war-civil-society-must-be-at-the-forefront","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/06\/10\/internationalism-in-times-of-war-civil-society-must-be-at-the-forefront\/","title":{"rendered":"Internationalism in times of war: civil society “must be at the forefront”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 The new internationalism must start with civil society. Today (10 June), the European Parliament hosted a debate on the future of cooperation, solidarity, and integration in an era marked by conflict. The meeting was organised by The Left parliamentary group, with MEP Ilaria Salis<\/strong> opening the proceedings by highlighting \u201cthe importance of relationships between people fighting similar struggles\u201d and of \u201cthe community as both the guide and the objective of institutional actions.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 To reflect on the new internationalism, The Left has sought to bring as many voices as possible to Brussels. First and foremost, that of Pablo Quesada<\/strong> (Podemos), who was on board the boats of the Global Sumud Flotilla during the <\/span>last mission<\/span><\/a>. Quesada recalled, first and foremost, the situation facing \u201cour comrades of the land Flotilla, seized by Libyan militias and left to fend for themselves, with virtually no consular assistance.\u201d The Flotilla\u2019s most recent experience is \u201cunprecedented and unique,\u201d not because of the demonstration of Israeli violence, but \u201cbecause of the contribution it makes to the discourse on internationalism.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, we are still stuck on the idea that \u201cviolence must be directed at white Europeans in order for it to be discussed publicly,\u201d but experiences such as the Flotilla \u201chelp to widen a rift between the Israeli narrative and the reality of the genocidal state.\u201d The new internationalism, Quesada continued, \u201cmust involve the decolonisation of ourselves. We must demand that states break with the structures that sustain the colonial system<\/strong><\/span>.\u201d And this is where \u201corganised civil society comes into play, which must be at the forefront of the fight against all forms of imperialism.\u201d While states \u201csuch as Spain take a stand against genocide, yet continue to sell arms to Israel and maintain academic collaborations, people are taking action.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The key role of civil society was also highlighted by Martina<\/strong> <\/span>Steinwurzel<\/b>, the initiator of the Let cuba breathe<\/a> campaign. The crisis in Cuba and the embargo \u201care nothing new,\u201d she noted, \u201cbut we are facing the most difficult moment in its history.\u201d Citizens, however, \u201chave managed to reach the island and show their solidarity. Why can\u2019t governments do the same?\u201d The contradiction, according to Steinwurzel, is glaringly obvious: \u201cSince 1996, with the <\/span>Blocking statute<\/span><\/a>, the European Union has recognised that the United States may not trade with Cuba, but it has also made clear that European companies are not required to comply with US sanctions.\u201d The reality we face today, however, \u201cis quite different.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The event took the form of a sort of assembly, and numerous civil society organisations (Mediterranea Saving Humans, From the River to the Field, Un Ponte Per and many others) took the floor to share their experiences of cooperation, struggle, and resistance. The picture that emerges has many faces, but a single message: there is a human tide that wants to get involved to change course, united by anti-fascism and anti-colonialism<\/strong>. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The parliamentary group The Left has organised a meeting to reflect on the future of internationalism, drawing on experiences of solidarity and cooperation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7911,"featured_media":456282,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[29788],"tags":[29452,25755,26651,34409,33394],"class_list":["post-456322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diritti-en","tag-societa-civile-en","tag-news-parliament-en","tag-ilaria-salis-en","tag-internazionalismo","tag-ue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7911"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456322"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":456323,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456322\/revisions\/456323"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}