Text was produced as a statement of support and a call for an anti-militarist protest on 4th November 2023 in Tržič/Monfalcone (Italy).
War is Here!
The wars are currently being fought in in many parts of the world. Syria, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Myanmar to name but a few, and, of course Ukraine and Palestine/Israel. The names of new geographies are added to the deadly list practically every few months. Despite all attempts that strive to normalise tem none of these wars is a natural catastrophe that just happens and over which we have no control. War never just breaks out, it is rather that those who benefit from it must often go to considerable lengths to create the conditions in which it becomes possible. Much of the work of creating those conditions takes place far away from the battlefields, in centres of power, including in the structures of the European Union and NATO. We are pushed into this by our membership in these interest groups, and are therefore obliged to admit to ourselves that the war is our business too.
Servicemen and servicewomen of the Slovenian Armed Forces are currently deployed on military missions in several parts of the world, mainly in what is called the strategically important so-called Western Balkans, or the former Yugoslavia. In the past, they have been part of the occupying forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. They were in a quasi observer role in Lebanon, Syria, in a vague role in Mali and probably elsewhere. Today, according to official sources, they are present in Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and North Macedonia. The presence is varying from observation to intelligence, but at least in Kosovo, it also implies the possibility of direct participation in armed conflicts. In addition, as part of its NATO membership, the Slovenian army is deployed in the territories of Slovakia and Latvia as part of the "NATO Eastern flank". It has provided arms to the Iraqi and Afghan authorities in the service of the occupying forces, and most recently to Ukraine with a generous shipment of heavy weapons. Slovenia is at war.
Investing in the military, i.e. buying weapons, is regularly on the agenda of every Slovenian government, regardless of the political parties in power. While the previous government, led by Janez Janša, allocated EUR 780 million for the period from 2021 to 2026, the current government, led by Robert Golob, has even surpassed it, approving new investments to the tune of more than 1 billion euros for the period up to 2026. The platitudes about ensuring security conceal the fact that, in reality, it is primarily a business. Although they try to convince us of the necessity of the army through various propaganda techniques, its purpose lies primarily in catering to the war industry, in necro-capital, that is to say, as befits capitalism, in the turning and hoarding of money by the elites, in this case, literally, over corpses.
Slovenia also has a number of enthusiastic opportunists in this field. This spring more than 40 Slovenian companies responded to a call for tenders from the Ministry of Defence (MORS), expressing their readyness to participate in the production of ammunition. Information on which companies these are and whether any deals were actually concluded afterwards has so far been withheld from the public. The arms business is, according to the MORS itself, a domain of secrecy, with material often marked 'internal', especially when public money is being funnelled into the pockets of private war profiteers. According to the information that is publicly available, one of them is Arex defence, whose CEO Tim Castagne proudly boasts that 2022, the year of the war in Ukraine, was for his company "the best year in [our] history1". Business is apparently booming for other local manufacturers and arms traders, as evidenced by one of the few MORS press releases2 that does, ocasionally, offers a glimpse behind the curtain. In 2022, under the heading "Export and transfer of military weapons and equipment", an amount of more than €36.5 million is recorded, which represents more than double the figure for 2020, when it was just over €17 million. In 2022, Slovenian companies also exported arms or parts for their manufacture to Israel. The war is here, and so are the war profiteers.
Despite its own public-relations efforts and the authorities' support for militarism, the Slovenian Armed Forces still faces doubts concerning the justification of its existence. People who work daily to secure the material conditions for their survival do not see the how ravages of war, of which the army is the first harbinger benefits them. This is also why war and military propaganda are becoming increasingly aggressive: military fairs, recruitment drives in high schools and colleges, promotional campaigns, and last but not least, the use of the army at the border since 2015 should also be understood in the context of the normalisation of the military presence in daily life of a society. It comes as no surprise then that recently much was talked about the public tender for a military reality show. This is an illustrative part of a broad public relations campaign to use public money to build the appeal of war for young people. Large billboards, video spots, apps, the occupation of public spaces are just particular expressions of the normalisation of the idea of a militaristic society that is entering more and more aggressively into all spheres of life. War is here too and we are being prepared for it all the time.
War is therefore a daily reality for millions of people around the world, and Slovenia is fully engaged in it with all its power in terms of politics, militarily and with arms. Its role may be minor in absolute terms, but it exists and influences other aspects of society. Every investment in war means that funds do not go into education or social transfers, every mission abroad means extra funds that are not available for the public health budget, practically every "humanitarian mission" means only the enforcement of a particular sphere of interest, every political support for genocide means the normalisation of a world in which it is legitimate, and every criminalisation of organising against war means a step further towards an authoritarian society.
The terror of the occupying armed forces of the Israeli state against the people of Palestine has brought the war, in all its horrific dimensions, back into the headlines after only a few weeks of relative pause. After witnessing the 'transfer' of the Armenian population from one state territory to another (of which there is currently no sign in the headlines), we are horrified to see a new and even bloodier episode in the decades-long colonial march of the Israeli state, which has all the hallmarks of a genocide against the Palestinian people. But the mass murder that is taking place on the other shore of also our own Mediterranean is not just a matter of those who are dying in it or of those who are pressing the buttons or pulling the triggers: it is deeply implicating not only the United States, but also the European Union, and also Slovenia, under the leadership of the Prime Minister, Robert Golob, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Tanja Fajon. The war, occupation, ethnic cleansing and genocide in Palestine are therefore also our business - we must take a stand and show which structures in our local environments are creating the conditions of war all over the world.
Across the so-called Western world, there are protests, condemnations, public interventions demanding both that the respective authorities stop supporting the colonial project in Palestine and ceasefire. But protests for an end to the attacks, for peace and justice for all those living in Palestine/Israel, are in many places banned, the media and social networks censored. There are numerous examples of people losing their jobs simply for expressing something as universal as support for a ceasefire or mourning for all the victims. Under the guise of fighting anti-Semitism, those who publicly pledge their names and bodies against the continuation of apartheid, occupation and genocide are targeted. Jews are not safe from this either, as they speak out en masse throughout the so-called Western world and reject the crimes that are being committed in their name on a daily basis. They too are arrested, punished, silenced, discredited. For example, the State of Germany, which is so burdened by its historical responsibility for the Holocaust, is once again daring to deprive Jewish organisations of their right to act in public, to determine what Jews can and cannot do. This time, they must not call for peace and for equal respect for the lives of Palestinian men, women and children. At the same time, Slovenia is sending back people who are fleeing from the Russian Federation to escape conscription, even though their flight is a direct expression of their non-participation in the war, in this case against Ukraine and, indirectly, against NATO. This is yet more proof that it is not in the interests of the elites to put an end to the war and to abolish its conditions, but to continue with the ongoing destruction and violence.
In Slovenia, too, the voices of dissent against Slovenia's support for the war are being interrogated by the Sova, the Ministry of the Interior, with the apparent support of the government, is tragicomically intimidating the population with the alleged threat of a terrorist attack, and, following the example of Italy, is re-establishing police control at the borders. The psychosis that never really ended and the war on terror have thus returned to the great door like a ghost from the past, with which the elites of society want to subject their society once again to a state of emergency. In Slovenia, too, we are witnessing a convulsive effort to manufacture images of the terrorist threat. These would be laughable if they did not once again bear ominous witness to the extent to which the elites are ready to disregard acts when it is necessary to satisfy their own interests. The Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Defence, or the police and the army, are working in unison here. In the context of 'allied solidarity', the Slovenian army in the NATO pact is contributing its piece to the mosaic of the deadly war against migrants on the Mediterranean Sea, and the Slovenian police on the country's borders. At the same time, the authorities are abusing the "new crisis situation" to impose new-old authoritarian regulations. War is indeed here too.
War, weapons, genocide, repression, none of these is inevitable. Just as capitalism is not inevitable and self-evident. All are contrary to the interests of the majority of the world's population and are leading the world to ruin. That is why we do not want to be mere mute spectators to genocides being committed in front of the whole world. We are opposed to spending public money on armaments, on war, on the army and the police and their infrastructure. We will only achieve peace in the world when the conditions that make war possible are abolished once and for all. What we also do not want is capitalist peace, which for many of us also means a life of deprivation, daily violence and exploitation, and in many places also preparation for a new war.
Concretely, to demand peace today is to demand the dismantling of the apartheid regime and the occupation in Palestine/Israel, the end of all military interventions in Ukraine, the dismantling of the military industry and the dismantling of military organisations of all kinds. At the local level, this means, among other things, the absence of war propaganda and a constant struggle against nationalism, patriarchy and all other expressions of the idea that human beings can be attributed different levels of rights.
That is why we are joining the anti-militarist protest in Tržič on 4 November 2023. In a region that was marked by the war that a hundred years ago was to end all wars. Where even today, some people celebrate victory and build a discourse that every war in history was inevitable and logical. Where nationalisms live on today. We are on the side of different ideas: we are on the side of the abolition of borders, on the side of coexistence and cooperation, on the side of a vision of a landscape where in the future many languages can be spoken, including those who are coming anew, and of building a communities that would not be based on relations of exploitation.
STOP MILITARISATION!
AGAINST THE ARMS INDUSTRY!
NO WAR, GIVE US PEACE!
STOP GENOCIDE IN GAZA!
Initiative against militarism
1 n1info.si/novice/slovenija/slovenska-obrambna-industrija-je-v-polnem-zagonu/
2 www.gov.si/assets/ministrstva/MO/Javne-objave/2023/Porocilo_za_javnost_tabelaSLO-2022.pdf