General Mandon, recently appointed Chief of Staff of the Armed forces and on official duty at the Elysée palace, keeps giving warmongering speeches.
A month ago, he explained that the civil population should be ready for “a military clash with Russia” in the next “three to four years”. Last week, speaking in front of the mayors of France, he asked that we be ready “to accept economic suffering and the possible loss of our daughters and sons”.
Our children in uniform and marching to death is the future that the leaders of this country have in store for us! It’s a truly revolting prospect but it really is the future they’re actively preparing for us.
This summer, the Health Ministry asked hospitals and regional health agencies to be ready to treat hundreds of thousands of war wounded. Last week, the government published a survival kit that includes survival in a war situation. And next Thursday, Macron is going to announce the introduction of voluntary national service in 2026. It’ll be on a voluntary basis for now but it’s no less than bringing back military service.
Things are speeding up on the re-armament front. Dassault will be able to ramp up production of Rafale fighter jets. Production of Caesar cannons has doubled. Near Lorient, the Britanny Foundry that once manufactured car parts is set to produce shells. Just as it did in 1914-1918, industry is converting to weapons production. And there’s no shortage of money, in fact the military budget is up by 3.5 million euros!
And of course there’s all the brainwashing to get us into condition. Not a day goes by without Russia being presented as public enemy number one. Not a day goes by without us being told that Russia is getting ready to attack us and we must be able to defend ourselves.
The government is playing the innocent victim that only wants peace. But who engenders the wars on the planet? Who turned Africa and the Middle-East into permanent war zones for the oil fields of TotalEnergies, the uranium mines of Orano, the contracts of Thales and Dassault or the markets of Crédit Agricole and BNP Paribas? It was the major powers, France included!
The French government isn’t seeking peace, it’s defending the interests of capitalists and has always done so by force.
In Ukraine, France joined the U.S. and NATO in their power struggle with Russia, helping to set up military bases and maneuvring to bring the riches, agricultural land, minerals and companies under Western control. Then Putin turned this silent war into an armed clash and a bloodbath. But our leaders are not exactly blameless!
By supplying material resources and military instructors, France has pretty much turned this war into its own war, but has left Ukraine with death, destruction and never-ending debt. U.S. and European leaders are now squabbling over how to keep plundering Ukraine and the peace plan they are plotting is nothing more than a division of the country between the major powers.
Capitalist support for this or that war, this or that side is not determined by the defense of higher moral values or defense of the homeland but by hard cash interests!
In 1915, Rosa Luxemburg, the German revolutionary, wrote: ‘The legend of defending the fatherland is as inextricably a part of the game of war as powder and lead.’ That legend is still in use today and we are now being bombarded with it.
A columnist upheld General Mandon’s call for sacrifice, explaining that Europe and France have to be defended because they are: “the freest little piece of land in the world”.
But freedom for whom? For the worker chained to his or her machine? For the worker who isn’t even free to work? For the worker who has no money? For the undocumented foreign worker? Not for any of them!
For the working class, liberty, democracy and sovereignty are not yet a given and can only be so when we overthrow the capitalist class and our own leaders. That’s the only just war and the only one worth making sacrifices for.
We must reject the war that Macron, the generals and the arms dealers are only preparing for the sake of their sales, their profits and their domination of the world.
Nathalie Arthaud