Fernando García Gascón, MOC-València.
As the famous phrase goes: ‘A ghost haunts Europe: the ghost of the...’. Today Europe and the world are haunted not by one, but by many ghosts. Monstrous capitalism has evolved, like the Pokemon bugs, and now presents itself to us in the guise of populist oligarchism. Its ghost-apostles are: Trump, Musk, Milei, Meloni and their cronies united in that ultra international. Its most salient features: the savage monetarisation of all the activities carried out by human beings to cover their needs (food, health, communication, culture, leisure, transport, sexual relations, etc.). ) This insatiable desire to increase profits translates into protectionist trade measures; into ultra-nationalism; into climate denialism, because environmental awareness is an obstacle to unlimited growth; into its unhealthy rejection of immigrants, blaming them for all evils; but especially, into rampant militarism and the determination to dismantle the whole range of public services: health, education, social services... (the so-called welfare state). The aim is that only the privileged few who can afford to pay the privatised service providers will enjoy them. Hence the fact that the US federal budget to support its armed forces is the highest of all; that federal and international institutions are being abandoned; or that thousands of civil servants are being laid off in all public administrations, following a pattern well portrayed in Michael Moore's films.
And how will this wave of renewed capitalist ultra-conservatism affect us? In the countries where the servants of the new faith reign, they have long been governed under a full-blown capitalist regime of which the USA is the best inspiring example. For their followers, the citizens finance with their taxes the military expenditure of the American Armed Forces which take the lion's share of the federal state budget... On the other hand, public health care does not exist, or is charity, public education does not exist, or is marginal and social services are privatised, like everything else, retirement pensions for the salaried classes are ridiculous and force pensioners to continue working for life in order to support themselves with dignity... Paradise, isn't it? That is why neo-capitalism attacks the welfare state that still exists in countries like the European ones, which still provide universal public services, not for free, but financed by taxes. This attack is directed precisely against the financing of the welfare state itself, with the demand to cut social spending in favour of military spending.
This is the line taken by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. According to his own words, when he phoned the leaders of NATO nations that had not yet met the military spending target of 2% of GDP, he told them: ‘that they had to take the money from wherever necessary’, suggesting that if they had to cut other items such as social spending, they should do so... Outrageous, but this is how the monster of capitalism and militarism feeds, cutting money for social spending to increase and continue increasing military spending, which only provides profits for the arms and war industry. As you can see, military spending seriously harms civil society and the quality of public services it receives... In the end, really, we ask ourselves: who do we have to defend ourselves against? Which enemies threaten our freedoms, our welfare state, our public health and education? Russia? China? North Korea? These countries have their own capitalist and militarist regimes, very similar in form and substance to those in this part of the world and, far from being in conflict as we are led to believe, they share markets, profits and other privileges... So where is the monster? Who is the enemy against whom we should defend ourselves? Well, we have to defend ourselves, no more and no less, against those same companies and the capitalist oligarchies that rule us and the rest of the world. Their puppets are Trump, Putin or Milei, ventriloquists of the old revamped capitalism that speaks to us through their puppet mouths.
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Thus, to help eliminate the threat of global war, whether conventional or nuclear, and to end the conflicts that are active, the most sensible and convenient thing to do is to safeguard the security and neutrality of Spain, and also of Europe. Undoubtedly, leaving NATO and closing the US military bases that are strategically distributed throughout Spain, Europe and the rest of the empire: practically all over the world. Let us not forget that having offensive devices installed in our territory against other countries, even nuclear ones, led us to a very compromising situation in the 1980s, during the so-called ‘Euromissile Crisis’, when our country, along with Europe, became the target of Russian SS-20 long-range missiles, due to the existence of the famous Pershing and cruise missiles installed in those military bases.
It is clear that our interests as citizens, our security and our need for defence are opposed to the interests of the military-industrial complex of the ‘Atlantic Alliance’ (NATO), the maintenance of foreign military bases on Spanish territory and the new wave of rearmament and senseless warmongering that is sweeping Europe and the world at a global level. To avert this threat of militarism and war, which is increasingly becoming a very real possibility, we need to tackle the problem from a deeper perspective and delve into the root causes of conflicts (Gulf War: control of oil, war in Ukraine: access to rare metals, etc.). To commit ourselves not to collaborate with the social militarism that is progressing day by day, to denounce forced recruitment in any country, not to accept the financing of military expenditure, which is always to the detriment of social expenditure, to leave NATO and to close all military bases, while maintaining a neutral and non-belligerent position.
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As the Declaration of War Resisters' International of 1921, which is still in full force today, states: ’War is a crime against humanity. I therefore pledge myself not to support war of any kind and to fight for the elimination of all causes of war’.
Wars generate, since time immemorial: militarism, totalitarianism, mercantilism, savage capitalism, war industry and, most worryingly, the passivity of citizens in getting involved in the issues that really concern us: our Security, the Defence of Welfare and Social Progress.
Cheers and Antimilitarism!
