Spain (State of)

WRI's affiliate in the state of Spain - Alternativa Antimilitarista.MOC - are holding their summer gathering from 29th July to 2nd August, in Barcelona. The camp will include debates and workshops – more information is available here: http://www.sinkuartel.org/es/noticias/antimilitarismo/800-alternativa-antimilitarista-moc-encuentro-de-verano-2015.html

At the same time, Peace News are holding their own summer camp in the UK. The 'low impact, high participation' camp is being held at the Crabapple Community near Shrewsbury, from 30 July to 3rd August: More information is available here: http://peacenewscamp.info/

Antimilitarists in Spain have spoken out in solidarity with young Ukrainian's studying in the country, who have been recalled to fight by the Ukrainian government. Alternativa Antimilitarista.MOC Madrid has called on the Spanish government to protect six young Ukrainian on a study trip in Spain, after two young people recieved letters from the Ukrainian government in February, calling them up to military service. The students currently have to return to Ukraine every year to renew their permit. The organising group - Asociación de Asistencia a la Infancia de Aragón – has been organising such trips since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, and is looking for ways to extend the young people's stay in Spain for several years.

Providence Equity Partners is a global private equity firm focused on media, communications, education and information investments. Providence Equity Partners have a history of profiteering from war, including owning the company U.S.Investigation Services, which trained the violent and secretive 'Emergency Response Unit', an Iraqi paramilitary security organisation. However, Providence are our particular focus this month because the company has just bought an events company called Clarion Events.

The first ever international week of action for military-free education and research was held between 25-31 October 2014. This follows on from a day of action last year. Antimilitarists across the world took action to raise awareness, and challenge, the role the military has in education and research in educational institutions. This role gives them access to young people - to lay the groundwork for recruitment later in life, and to promote military values.

Different groups used the week of action in different ways. Some challenged military presence in schools through direct action, some publicly debated the presence of the military in education, others showed films, wrote articles, and campaigned on social media.

14th April marked the Global Day of Action on Military Spending.

Latin American antimilitarists shared this declaration: No queremos más armas para Latinoamérica!

Find below the report of an action against the Las Palmas Naval Base, and see here some photos of the evening action in Athens.

International activist enter water of the Spanish military to denounce military expenditure and infrastructure, pointing out that “War starts from here: let's stop it from here!”

Today, on 14 April, the Global Day of Action on Military Spending (GDAMS), 40 antimilitarist activists from groups coming from Britain, Germany, the United States, and from several Spanish cities and the islands of Tenerife and Gran Canaria, took part in a nonviolent direct action at the Navy Base (Arsenal Militar) of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. They visualised the global threat posed by military spending with a huge banner marked with yellow marks along which to “cut” definitively military spending and military infrastructures, penetrating military water by 200m. The activists approached a quay where the war ships Tornado and Meteoro of the Spanish navy where moored, in front of which they let two helium balloons of a diameter of 2m rise marked with antimilitarist symbols.

michelle renyé (March 2014)

Women decide, the State guarantees, society respects& the Catholic Church does not intervene!

20 February was the 25th anniversary of the first  presentation of insumisos to compulsory military service in the state of Spain. Thousands followed, in squares, courts, and even in prison. Niether civilian or military courts, disqualifications or prison could stop insumisión. In fact, by assuming the consequences of their desobedience,  turn on a loudspeaker for their demands. WRI supported the movement since the first declarations of insumisión, and continues to work closely with Alternativa Antimilitarista MOC. We celebrate 25 years of disobedience!

Carlos Pérez Barranco

In December 2001, the last recruits abandoned military barracks across Spain after having completed the final nine months of obligatory military service. In many European states, the end of forced recruitment had been motivated almost exclusively by the military forces' evolution towards global intervention operations, whilst in Spain the system of forced recruitment had collapsed despite years of government efforts.

Eva Aneiros

On 25 September 2012 and the following days, tens of thousands of people surrounded the Congress of the Spanish Government in Madrid, with the MPs inside, in an action called '25S Rodea el Congreso' (Surround the Congress). The objective of 25S was to request the resignation of the government as a first step in the putting in motion of a process to create a real democratic society.

From 29 to 31 May the UDT (Undersea Defence Technology Europe) arms fair took place in Alicante, State of Spain. This is one of the most important fairs of the military industry, focusing - as the name says - on wars in the sea.