GCOMS at the WRI magazine

Resisting militarisation and militarism within the Spanish state- War Resisters’ International

This article was written by Koldobi Velasco Vázquez and Ander Eiguren Gandarias for the War Resisters’ International magazine ‘The Broken Rifle’

Find the full article here.

You can also find the article in Spanish.

Introduction

” […] Struggles against this militarization and against militarism come in different colours and forms, in order to seek to put an end to this savagery which militarizes everything it touches, naturalizing violence and weapons as the only ways to resolve conflict.

We start from a key premise, which is that this fight is interlinked with other emancipatory struggles. We are looking for a systemic transformation; a move from domination, exploitation and forms of oppression to a model of development that is non-capitalist, non-racist, anti-colonial, anti-patriarchal, non-extractivist, non-Statist, non-ableist, not based in ecocide nor homicide… this other world without violence. In this way, our links and work in solidarity with other movements is key to these struggles, since all the axes of domination and privilege are fundamentally linked, and therefore so are our responses to them, which we seek to articulate with a more global and less fragmented outlook. “

Resisting the military budget

-Tax objection to the military budget: ” The campaña de objeción fiscal al gasto militar (OFGM, or Tax Objection to the Military Budget in English) is a civil disobedience campaign sustained in Spain since 1983 – some 36 years ago. “

-Condemning military spending and social control.

-The Global Campaign on Military Spending (GCOMS): ” GCOMS is an international campaign, set up in December 2014 and promoted by the International Peace Bureau (IPB). The objective of the campaign is to convince governments to invest in health, education, jobs and climate change instead of investing in the military sector. We urgently need to build humane security structures around the world, putting an end to war and destruction at the same time. “

Financing the arms trade

– Campaign against militarized banking: ” The Campaign against militarized banking arises from the need to expose the links of a high number of Spanish banking institutions with companies that manufacture arms, through their financing.” More information here: http://www.bancaarmada.org/es/

Militarization of borders

-Campaign: Spain is at war on its borders: “These actions seek to denounce and make visible the neo-fascist and militarized politics towards migration of the Spanish state, using diverse methods.”

Fighting the politics of war internationally

-Influence defence policies in the EU: “Some organisations focus on researching and exposing othe military industry lobby in the EU. They petition the different parties before EU Parliament elections, asking them to not sign up to the project to rearm the EU, in order to reject four areas of development for European military power: the European defence budgets; the European Defence Industrial Development Programme; the European Defence Research Programme (EDRP); and the proposals for a new European army.”

-Fighting social militarization, war, and its manoeuvrings: “Development of different actions: Against the military operations abroad, in which Spain is involved in 21 interventions.[…] Against troops abroad and war training in different territories. […] Show of support for nonviolent resistance occurring in any relevant area.[…] Denunciation of the normalized military presence in different areas: parties, drills, exhibitions, sport, culture, politics, religion, social activities…”

-Development of peace cultures, and demilitarizing education: “Participation in different campaign actions, such as: Demilitarize Education (https://desmilitaritzem.blog.pangea.org/es/).[…] War is not a Game.[…] Commemorating 30 years of the campaign to refuse military service. […] Development of anti-military summer schools.[…] Monthly programme of community radio https://www.ivoox.com/podcast-pan-rosas-noticias-paz_sq_f110305_1.html.[…] Workshops, interviews, conferences. […] Web pages: https://www.antimilitaristas.org/; https://www.antimilitaristas.org/-Webs-Amigas-.html.

-Platforms for peace and neutrality and against the criminalization of protest.

– Demilitarization of the environment and spaces occupied by the military.

– Constructive alternatives: “We are part of community-level-working towards humane safety and nonviolent popular resistance such as: Joining together in self-managed social centres. Building spaces of sovereignty (in food, energy, democracy).[…] Cooperativism (Banca Fiare, Som Energí, Som Communicación…).[…] Struggles for social justice and against all forms of inequality and oppression: platforms, collectives, fair trade… “