Supporters and signatories of the “We refuse to just accept rearmament and warfare in Europe” manifesto on the steps of the Spanish parliament, March 26, 2025.
Tons of of actors, filmmakers, singers, and different cultural staff—joined by greater than 16,000 signatories and over 850 social organisations—have launched the manifesto “We refuse to just accept rearmament and warfare 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 extra 19,000 individuals have signed a global petition calling for the safety of Hamdan Ballal and the workforce behind No Different Land.
These statements mirror the widespread opposition amongst cultural staff 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 offered 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 army 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 the Council of Ministers—the place he’ll depend on the help of his junior companion in authorities, the pseudo-left Sumar coalition.
The manifesto opens by stressing the significance of sturdy 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 dwell in; our elders don’t need to see their pensions put in danger; and above all, we don’t want our kids and grandchildren to expertise the horrors of warfare.”
It then poses a direct problem to present coverage undertaken by the European ruling class: “To what extent, precisely, does the unchecked enhance in army 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 deliver peace, insisting as an alternative that “it should deliver us even nearer to warfare.”
Consistent with the WSWS’s repeated warnings that international wars are inevitably accompanied by repression at dwelling, the manifesto notes that “militarised contexts usually come hand in hand with setbacks in rights, freedoms, and social insurance policies; they generate worry and social alarm, creating the right circumstances 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 direction of Netanyahu can be the identical as in 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-Eighties.
Criticising the truth that militaristic insurance policies can be paid for by staff by cuts to staff 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 warfare, just because the war-mongering elites presently governing Europe and the US have determined so.”
In its remaining part, it declares that “wars are deliberate in snug places of work, however it’s the individuals who pay the value,” concluding with a robust assertion: “We refuse to just accept warfare, as a result of we don’t want the peace of the graveyards, as a result of historical past reveals us that the one lifelike path to peace isn’t army, however political. Get to work and pursue peace—we demand it.”
The manifesto has acquired the backing of a number of the most distinguished 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.
Assist for this manifesto by actors corresponding to Oscar-winning Javier Bardem marks a major 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 warfare to Putin’s expansionist ambitions. Bardem joined a protest outdoors the Russian embassy in Madrid, describing Putin as “a determine who reveals each signal of being an imperialist and ultranationalist.”
Whereas the invasion of Ukraine was solely reactionary, and Putin represents nothing greater than the pursuits of Russian capitalism and the oligarchy—searching for to keep up a level of autonomy in its dealings with the imperialist powers—the fact 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 warfare, austerity and repression, whereas warning of European and US warfare plans and drawing a connection between the warfare 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 enhance in army spending in Spanish historical past, supported NATO’s warfare in opposition to Russia in Ukraine, and maintained arms commerce with Israel. Their attendance at such occasions is nothing greater than an try to 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 army expenditure. It displays the emotions of the working class, which doesn’t need to see its social rights destroyed in trade for the acquisition of weapons.
Nonetheless, it should be pressured that interesting to the European Union will lead nowhere. Over the previous a long time, European governments have backed US wars throughout the Balkans, the Center East, Jap Europe and Africa. Right this moment they help the warfare 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 power that should be mobilized in battle primarily based on the broader opposition to warfare 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 Tons of of cultural organisations in Spain communicate out in opposition to warfare and Europe’s large rearmament drive first appeared on Love Europe.
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Author : love-europe
Publish date : 2025-03-31 23:21:00
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