War on War! For an anti-militarist voice at sea!

The War on War coalition has joined the f.Lotta campaign to bring an anti-militarist voice to the seas. We are a coalition of organisations and individuals who share the urgency to act against war and militarism. A colonial genocide is taking place before our eyes, the prospect of global conflict looms, and ‘rearmament’ and the war economy are on the agenda of all world governments. Organising to stop the war machine is a necessity.

The Mediterranean. Illustrating the link between war and borders

War causes exile

War is one of the most significant causes of exile: it is war that often causes people to leave, displaces populations, kills and threatens. Wars are often caused by the very states that arm their borders. Every Western intervention in Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Sahel, every conflict provoked to safeguard imperialist interests, produces its share of deaths, instability, and exiled people.

Borders as a tool of imperial control

The Mediterranean (eastern, central and western), the Balkan route, the Belarus-Poland border: police and military measures at Europe’s borders are multiplying and becoming increasingly deadly. Far from stopping at geographical boundaries, this border violence is becoming globalised. In addition to the outsourcing of migration control, a criminal practice of European governments, there is a structural precariousness of exiled people and a system of imprisonment, expulsion and deportation – in countries that claim to be welcoming.
From the perspective of imperialist Europe, borders are not a path to political affirmation but a tool of repression, legitimising state violence and the exploitation of the Global South by the countries of the North. They are a fundamental cog in the wheel of armed power and xenophobic ideology that underpin the process of militarisation that we denounce.

Operations SOPHIA and IRINI, which are supposed to respond to the ‘migration crisis’, are military operations launched by European naval forces with a mandate to destroy or render ‘inoperable’ ships carrying exiles. The use of aircraft, drones, and, of course, human personnel shows that, far from being motivated by good intentions, the European Union considers humans seeking refuge in Europe to be enemies. The fight for freedom of movement is intrinsically linked to the fight against war. We stand against militarisation and borders, against the construction of a fortress designed to reject exiled people fleeing conflicts that Europe is partly responsible for.
Against this dynamic, we mobilised in Toulon against the ‘Mer & Défense’ day, which promoted the ‘dronisation of the Mediterranean space’. On 14 July, in Paris and elsewhere, we participated in initiatives that built an internationalist and anti-racist ‘counter 14 July’.

Violence at borders, a new ‘opportunity’ for the arms business

European capitalism profits from conflicts that cause exile

The countless conflicts that are the main reasons for exile represent economic opportunities for the arms industry. French and European companies offer their services to the highest bidders, thereby fuelling these conflicts, as shown by the example of Thalès, Dassault and MBDA, complicit in war crimes in Yemen, Lacroix Défense and KNDS, whose weapons are used in Sudan, and ST Microelectronics and Eurolinks, which export to Israel. Converging Franco-European interests, the military resources allocated to wage war ‘against terrorism’ in the Sahel have been conveniently diverted to ‘control migration flows’ in Niger and Chad.

What do we bring to f.Lotta?

We wish to strongly emphasise that the suffering of exiled people is caused by a certain organisation of global space, brought about by imperialist forces pursuing their own interests. We want to oppose the militarisation of the Mediterranean region, which is made possible by the racist dehumanisation of displaced people. It is urgent to remember that far from being a haven of peace that must be defended, Europe is complicit in the war and destruction taking place in the countries of the Global South. Finally, we must place opposition to Western imperialism and the neocolonial order that causes war and exile at the heart of our struggles.