15-M movement, an opportunity for demilitarisation
Article published in War Profiteers’ News
The 15-M movement has not emerged as a movement with necessarily overt antimilitarist, pacifist or nonviolent overtones. It has, however, from its very inception declared itself as “pacifist”, and conducted its protests through “peaceful means” and “without violence”.
Without having carried out a detailed analysis of what this means
exactly I can say that the many thousands of people in the squares of
the Spanish State, have opted to carry out actions and raise their
voices without using violence.
The development of this element
has led to the 15-M movement as nonviolent, but it does not necessarily
embrace the nonviolent logic which promotes the rejection of violence in
a holistic way, in all areas of life and society, as the coherent path
to follow, in order to create a culture of peace.
Nonviolence is
mainly understood as a strategy, as a way of ensuring that their protest
actions are embraced by the society and the media. But it is also true
that there are many people who are indignadxs who consciously or
subconsciously, are questioning militarization by simply defining
themselves as nonviolent. This organic questioning of militarization,
one of the basic pillars of the oppressive system which they are
criticising and attempting to change is evident throughout the 15-M
movement. The ways in which the use of machista and discriminatory
language are avoided or rejected in the 15-M assemblies, the use of
horizontal methodology, the rejection of imposed leadership and the use
of consensus based decision making are all part of a strategy which
de-legitimises militarist practices.
Even though it is true that
the role of the army, war, or arms trading have not been amongst the
priorities of the 15-M protest movement, there have been many assemblies
which have organised (and continue to do so) training seminars which
include the debate on the militarization of society. For example, talks
have been given on military spending, arms trading, the
economic-military cycle and the financing of the arms industry and war.
They have even created, at least in Barcelona, a sub-commission of
topics under the name of Anti-warmongering and Non violence, which looks
at incorporating these issues within the work dynamic of the indignadx
movement.
An issue that has been readily accepted in the 15-M
movement is the critical link between the economic crisis and military
spending and provides an excellent opportunity for furthering work
against militarism. The crisis is the backdrop to the explosion of
indignation that sparked this social movement. The people are looking
for answers which explain why there is a lack of resources for even
basic services and that provide alternative solutions to the drastic
budget cuts in the health, education and social services sector that
have occurred across the Spanish State.
The vast amount of
Spanish military spending for the maintenance of a disproportionate
military structure, through the purchasing of new arms, military
investment in R+D and their participation in military operations abroad,
is increasingly being coupled with arguments which confirm how the
movement is trying to look for alternative solutions to the crisis. The
so called Contents Commission, which is trying to create a basic
programme of consensus which would be used to influence political
parties and governments, has, from the start, included the reduction in
military spending as part of their basic demands. This is good news for
the anti-militarist and pacifist groups, because it is certainly not a
coincidence that this demand be included in the largest Spanish social
movement in recent times. Work carried out by peace activists to raise
awareness about militarism has born fruit within this movement. The
current challenge is to get the message across to those who make
political decisions. In any case, the extraordinary capacity to
communicate and disseminate information about the 15-M has become an
opportunity to ensure that pacifist messages reach society and are then
converted into political decisions. With general elections just round
the corner, and within a context of cuts in public spending affecting
those who have suffered most up until now, not only in Spain but
throughout the world, there is now a window of opportunity for a drastic
reduction in military spending and, consequently, in militarisation.
However, in order to achieve this, the peace movement must double its
efforts in order to include the reduction in military spending as one of
the main demands of the 15-M and as a measure needed in order to face
the economic crisis and avoid the collapse of the welfare state.
In
conclusion, the 15-M is helping disseminate a pacifist message within
society and, at the same time, the pacifist movements, both within and
from outside of the 15-M, are helping to ensure that this be a social
movement based on peaceful means and which proposes the reduction in
military spending. The joint challenge in the future is to ensure that
the 15-M becomes more closely linked to non violence, to teach the
indignadxs about these issues, to learn from non-violent direct action
experiences and show that the crisis was caused by a corrupt and
oppressive system: Capitalism.
Capitalism is a system which, in
turn, is supported by economic, political and military pillars. Fighting
against militarisation is struggling for radical social transformation.
The 15-M must include pacifist values as their own but, in order for
this to happen, those who work for peace must also integrate themselves
within the 15-M. The La indignación is increasingly going international.
The protests inspired by the movement have reached over 800 cities
throughout the world. We are getting closer than ever to ensuring the
support of a social majority, which is able to force political decisions
in the coming years to include some of the historical pacifist demands.
If I am optimistic about one thing, it is that although they have the
arms and the money, we have reason on our side. The sensible thing would
be not to spend on weapons, on wars and on violence.
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