Elio Pagani was among the first conscientious objectors to military production in Italy. (Photo courtesy of Elio Pagani)
As a child, whenever Elio Pagani heard a roar, he would look up. He would follow with his eyes the plane that had taken off from the runway just a few kilometers from his home in Venegono, in theprovince of Varese, Italy. Those planes that appeared in the sky so frequently shaped the direction of his life: initially, he was fascinated by them and pursued them, but at a certain point he tried to stop them. Elio studied to find out what enabled those large metal butterflies to fly. In 1974, fresh out of high school, he started working for Aermacchi, an Italian aeronautical company specializing in the construction of military aircraft, that is now part of Leonardo – the Italian defense, aerospace, and security company controlled by the state.“I started by doing calculations to check whether the flight test results matched the predictions,” Elio recalls.
Elio Pagani during his time at Aermacchi. (Photo courtesy of Elio Pagani)
A turning point in his life happened in 1976, when Elio met South African trade unionist John Taolo Gaetsewe, who urged the workers to sabotage the production that supported apartheid. Elio realized that the planes he was helping build, armed with bombs and missiles, were being delivered to South Africa under apartheid, as well as to Brazil and to Argentina under the military regime. This knowledge shook him: “My work was supporting regimes that denied my values.” Italy had already seen collective cases of conscientious objection to military production, but Elio’s stance was different. At Aermacchi, questioning war production was taboo. His objection was “assertive”: “I didn’t just want to stop collaborating with evil, for which it would have been enough to resign.”
The interview Elio Pagani gave to Famiglia Cristiana in March 1988. (Photo courtesy of Elio Pagani)
He took the first step on March 16, 1988: he denounced, through an interview and a press conference, Aermacchi’s involvement in the military reinforcement of racism in South Africa. “The next day, my bosses were waiting for me in the office. They told me they wanted to fire me, but they didn’t.” Elio’s independent thinking prompted him not to give up, despite criticism from colleagues who accused him of “biting the hand that fed him.” His perseverance led to the creation of a platform that called on Aermacchi to control arms exports and diversify production. “It forced Aermacchi to create a Civil Aviation department, where I was transferred.” The company fired him anyway in 1991: “It was a violation of my rights, as I had three children and I was a member of the union executive. Upon gathering my belongings, my colleagues applauded me.”
That was the last time Elio walked through the gates of Aermacchi, but his conscientious objection to military production didn’t end there. He organized demonstrations in the squares and went on hunger strikes. “If I had pretended nothing was happening and just focused on my work, I would have earned more money. What matters is not saving yourself, but ensuring that everyone can survive from the beast of war.” More than thirty years on, Elio still has the tenacity that made him one of the first conscientious objectors to military production in Italy. Today, his pacifist mission against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, European rearmament, and Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians continues as president of the Abbasso la Guerraassociation. “There has never been a just war. We need a nonviolent army of people that overcomes individualism and indifference.”
