The first public presentation of unsubmissives (total objectors) in the barracks took place last March 6 by means of a direct action inside the Military Government in Madrid. Five people (one from Elx, one from València, two from Pamplona and one from Bilbao) Placido Ferrandiz Albert, Carlos Perez Barranco, Alberto Isaba Lakabe, Ignacio Ardanaz Ruiz and Javier Gomez Sanchez, left, days ago, the quarters where they were doing military service and publicly presented themselves as unsubmissives in the barracks. Then, they tore up their military cards. With the idea of declaring themselves as deserters and making firm their negative to come back to the quarters, they enter the Military Judge office and explain him the reasons that led them to left military service.
The Judge offered the five the possibility of rejoining their military destinations. In this case the offence would be "unjustified destination dereliction". But they refused this proposal emphasising their decision of not keeping any military citation so the offence would be "desertion". In the Military Laws, this offence implies court-martial and a military prison between 2 years- 4 months -1 day , and 6 years. Unexpectedly, the judge refused to arrest the five unsubmissives and let them free.
It's another way of civil disobedience to militarism that joins unsubmission to military service and his substitutive civil service, fiscal objection and military expenses and arm trade denounce. It consists in leaving military service within the framework of an organised campaign. This act is qualified by the military Justice as desertion and punished with prison sentences between 2 years, 4 months and 1 day, and 6 years in a military prison.
Why do we say NO to militarism?Our antimilitarist attitude is based on ethical and political convictions. The army exemplifies and propagates values of domination, hierarchization, authoritarianism presents at our society.
Nowadays, in the spanish state, we consider that militarism is gaining ground. We can see it in the following aspects:
The professionalization of the spanish army implies a huge growth of the military expenses and, therefore, less money for social needs. Military expenses for 1997 in the spanish state amounts to 1.900.000.000.000 pesetas. This includes not only the Defence Ministry budget, but also that of his related organisms, military pensions, the Guardia Civil, spanish contribution to NATO and OEU, etc. That amounts to more money than assigned globally to ministries of Education and Culture, Environment, Industry and Energy, and Fishing and Feed. We are witnessing a process of economy militarisation as is revealed by the financing of EFA (Eurofighter) project charged to Industry Ministry budget. Moreover, the spanish state exports more and more arms mainly to countries that systematically violate human rights. There are several examples like Turkey (that at the moment is massacring kurdish people), Morocco, Thailand, Chile, Argentina, and Indonesia.
The integration of the spanish state in the military structure of NATO is another step in this escalade of militarism. An organisation that, in spite of disappearing after the end of the Cold War, reorganises itself and redefines its goals. Its new discourse is based in the intervention, with the aim of keep imposing on the south the political and economical interests of developed north. In short, to keep imposing an unfair international world order based in neoliberalism.
On the other hand, militarism is not reduced to the military structures. It invades more and more aspects of society: the progressive growth of social control through street videocameras, proliferation of private security brigades, growth of the number of imprisoned people and macroprisons, etc.
All the Conscientious Objection Movements (MOC) in the spanish state demand the opening of a reliable, accurate, and profound debate about who are the truly enemies of our society and which are the legitimate means to exercise its defence. In our opinion, main enemies are militarism, economic, social and cultural inequalities and the lack of civic participation in the assumption of decisions concerning the whole community We propose as defence alternative a model where the whole society could assume, based in non-collaboration with unfairness and practice of civil disobedience, as we illustrate with unsubmission, fiscal objection, education for peace, arms trade and military expenses denounce and, from now, with unsubmission in the barracks.
M.O.C.
Conscientious Objection Movement
Movimiento de Objecion de Conciencia.
M.O.C.- VALÈNCIA
Roger de Flor 8, baixos
VALÈNCIA
SPAIN