Supporters and signatories of the “We refuse to simply accept rearmament and struggle in Europe” manifesto on the steps of the Spanish parliament, March 26, 2025.
A whole bunch of actors, filmmakers, singers, and different cultural employees—joined by greater than 16,000 signatories and over 850 social organisations—have launched the manifesto “We refuse to simply accept rearmament and struggle in Europe” in opposition to the mass rearmament programme of the European Union and its militaristic drift.
The manifesto additionally denounces the NATO-backed Zionist genocide in Gaza, coinciding with a separate assertion signed by 700 members of the US Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), criticising the Academy for failing to talk out in defence of Hamdan Ballal, co-director of No Different Land, who was brutally assaulted by Israeli settlers and troopers within the occupied West Financial institution final week. An additional 19,000 individuals have signed a global petition calling for the safety of Hamdan Ballal and the group behind No Different Land.
These statements replicate the widespread opposition amongst cultural employees and artists to the genocide in Gaza and the West Financial institution, in addition to to the militaristic insurance policies being superior each by the European Union and the fascistic authorities of Donald Trump.
The manifesto endorsed by Spanish artists was introduced by actors Juan Diego Botto and Carolina Yuste outdoors the Spanish parliament final Wednesday—the very day Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez stood earlier than that very same chamber to defend the acceleration of defence spending. Sánchez plans to extend navy spending to 2 % of GDP, bringing ahead the unique 2029 deadline. Sánchez has already introduced that this escalation is not going to be submitted to a parliamentary vote however imposed by decree by means of the Council of Ministers—the place he’ll rely on the help of his junior companion in authorities, the pseudo-left Sumar coalition.
The manifesto opens by stressing the significance of robust social companies and peace: “Society wants the safety that comes from high quality public healthcare and training for all; younger individuals want a house to reside in; our elders don’t wish to see their pensions put in danger; and above all, we don’t need our kids and grandchildren to expertise the horrors of struggle.”
It then poses a direct problem to present coverage undertaken by the European ruling class: “To what extent, precisely, does the unchecked improve in navy spending—proposed for approval by European governments with out public debate, with out transparency or element, and with urgency—contribute to that peaceable future?”
The textual content rejects the wall-to-wall propaganda of the media and the political institution that rearmament will carry peace, insisting as an alternative that “it would carry us even nearer to struggle.”
In step with the WSWS’s repeated warnings that overseas wars are inevitably accompanied by repression at residence, the manifesto notes that “militarised contexts typically come hand in hand with setbacks in rights, freedoms, and social insurance policies; they generate worry and social alarm, creating the proper situations to normalise mechanisms of repression and authoritarianism, which we’re already starting to witness.”
Considerably, it additionally challenges the often-repeated imperialist propaganda that rearmament is required to defend in opposition to potential Russian aggression, arguing that “if that had been really the case, the stance in the direction of Netanyahu could be the identical as in the direction of Putin.” The manifesto accuses Europe of “remaining silent or, worse nonetheless, supporting Israel in its genocide in Gaza and the West Financial institution, and even persecuting those that denounce it.”
It reminds readers that “the individuals of our nation have repeatedly demonstrated their dedication to peace and anti-war insurance policies,” recalling the mass protests in opposition to the Iraq Warfare and the resistance to Spain’s NATO accession within the mid-Nineteen Eighties.
Criticising the truth that militaristic insurance policies will probably be paid for by employees by means of cuts to employees rights and social spending, the manifesto warns that “the cash from our public hospitals, our faculties and public universities, our heath care system, our social safety and security nets for occasions of hardship … goes to be redirected to purchase tanks, rifles, fighter jets and missiles for struggle, just because the war-mongering elites presently governing Europe and the US have determined so.”
In its ultimate part, it declares that “wars are deliberate in comfy workplaces, however it’s the individuals who pay the value,” concluding with a robust assertion: “We refuse to simply accept struggle, as a result of we don’t need the peace of the graveyards, as a result of historical past exhibits us that the one reasonable path to peace shouldn’t be navy, however political. Get to work and pursue peace—we demand it.”
The manifesto has acquired the backing of a few of the most outstanding and internationally recognised figures in Spanish cinema, together with Javier Bardem, Aitana Sánchez Gijón (The Machinist, A Stroll within the Clouds, The Chambermaid on the Titanic), Luis Tosar (Take My Eyes, Maixabel), and Juan Diego Botto (1492: Conquest of Paradise). It has additionally been endorsed by administrators corresponding to Montxo Armendáriz, writers together with Manuel Rivas and Isaac Rosa, and musicians like Rozalén and the Spanish-Palestinian composer Marwan.
Help for this manifesto by actors corresponding to Oscar-winning Javier Bardem marks a big step ahead. In 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Bardem and different artists had been initially trapped and echoed NATO’s propaganda, lowering the struggle to Putin’s expansionist ambitions. Bardem joined a protest outdoors the Russian embassy in Madrid, describing Putin as “a determine who exhibits each signal of being an imperialist and ultranationalist.”
Whereas the invasion of Ukraine was totally reactionary, and Putin represents nothing greater than the pursuits of Russian capitalism and the oligarchy—in search of to take care of a level of autonomy in its dealings with the imperialist powers—the truth stays that these NATO powers are undeniably the principle aggressors. They’ve systematically labored to encircle and threaten Russia ever for the reason that Stalinist paperwork dissolved the Soviet Union over 30 years in the past.
Now Bardem and lots of different artists are taking a step ahead by supporting a manifesto that hyperlinks struggle, austerity and repression, whereas warning of European and US struggle plans and drawing a connection between the struggle in opposition to Russia and the brutal Zionist genocide in Gaza.
The presentation of the manifesto was backed by MPs from Podemos and Sumar—the 2 pseudo-left organisations which have served as coalition companions of the Socialist Celebration (PSOE) since 2019. Their presence was not solely a wretched act of hypocrisy, however one which utterly contradicts the highly effective message of the manifesto.
Since 2020, they’ve collaborated with the PSOE in launching the most important improve in navy spending in Spanish historical past, supported NATO’s struggle in opposition to Russia in Ukraine, and maintained arms commerce with Israel. Their attendance at such occasions is nothing greater than an try and obscure the truth that they’re absolutely embedded within the Spanish and NATO-aligned capitalist, militarist, and imperialist equipment.
Regardless of the presence of Podemos and Sumar, this manifesto represents an important step ahead, revealing the deep opposition inside Spain’s cultural sphere to militarism and rising navy expenditure. It displays the emotions of the working class, which doesn’t wish to see its social rights destroyed in trade for the acquisition of weapons.
Nonetheless, it should be harassed that interesting to the European Union will lead nowhere. Over the previous many years, European governments have backed US wars throughout the Balkans, the Center East, Japanese Europe and Africa. At this time they help the struggle in Ukraine and again Netanyahu’s far-right regime and its genocide in opposition to the Palestinian individuals. Domestically, they’re imposing brutal austerity measures and more and more integrating neo-fascist events into energy and implementing their insurance policies.
These governments can’t be anticipated to alter course. The social pressure that should be mobilized in battle primarily based on the broader opposition to struggle expressed by these artists is the working class.
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Publish date : 2025-03-30 20:59:00
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The post A whole bunch of cultural organisations in Spain converse out in opposition to struggle and Europe’s large rearmament drive first appeared on Love Europe.
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Author : love-europe
Publish date : 2025-03-31 10:48:00
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