We work for war: the Military-Industrial Complex in your city. The ERiS Case in Forlì (Italy)

Abstract

This paper brings together and articulates a series of texts produced by the No ERiS Campaign concerning the ERiS Project (Emilia-Romagna in Space), an initiative promoted in the Emilia-Romagna region (Italy) by the Thales Alenia Space consortium alongside seven Emilian-Romagnan companies, with the support of the Fondazione Cassa dei Risparmi and the Municipality of Forlì, through the Mercury Foundation. The project envisages the construction of a nanosatellite antenna production hub on public land in the Ronco district of Forlì, with an estimated investment of 25 million euros funded mainly through public resources. The texts analysed denounce the military nature of the project, challenge the promoters’ narrative -who present the project as exclusively for civil use, never acknowledging its military dimension-, document the chain of institutional and corporate responsibilities, and report on the collective resistance actions deployed in response. The article situates itself within the tradition of critical and emancipatory science, understanding that transformative knowledge necessarily passes through the articulation of voices that, through direct action and counter-information, challenge hegemonic consensus and make structures of power visible.