The assembly of Balkan solidarity network gathered at the Balkan anarchist bookfair in Prishtina, Kosovo is calling for ‘Transnational days of action against militarism and nationalism’ between 1st and 10th October 2024. We call on everyone to organize actions in their own localities and in their own ways during this period, opposing the conditions of war: nationalism, militarism, patriarchy, and exclusionary politics, among others. We call for actions against the arms industry and the transport of weapons, against all national military apparatuses, multinational military coalitions, and the increasing militarization of our societies. As in previous years, we propose to emphasize our solidarity with all deserters, war resisters, and total army objectors.
The call for days of action is rooted in the long-term efforts of the anarchist movement in the Balkans against militarism and war that was once again confirmed during the final assembly at BAB2024 in Pristina, during which we emphasized: “War is an intrinsic part of the capitalist system. Whether low-intensity or full-blown, it serves as an important tool for the expansion of capitalism by opening new sources for exploitation, such as land, sea, minerals, all living beings, or the production and sale of weapons as capital. We don’t fall into the trap of considering a conflict as a binary between nation-states, although we do accept its nuances and contexts of how they happen; we see it as a war of capital against societies. Wars in Ukraine, Sudan, Syria, Myanmar, Sub-Saharan Africa, cartel wars in Mexico, and others all share the same logic of domination and expansion of capital, which only brings death and destruction.”
To this we add more on the particularities of our geography: “We recognize that the states of the Balkans are not mere sideline spectators to the spectacle of war but an intrinsic part of it; from hosting major world military installations, provide training grounds for armed forces, offer logistics and corridors for arms and troop transfers, contribute technical know-how, playing a significant role in global war maneuvers and producing and selling weapons around the world, thus, with being part of and enabling murder and genocide. While private and state sectors work hard, hand in hand, to develop even the smallest Balkan countries into serious arms-producing and/or purchasing region, we see increasing pressure on local societies to accept a new, ever more militarized reality under the pretense of fear and uncertainty for the future.”
Perhaps the most vile and evident example of war logic currently in front of our eyes is the genocide happening in Gaza and the attacks in the West Bank against the Palestinian people, with tens of thousands of civilians dead and the whole region destroyed, in continuous broadcast on our screens; all these supported by world imperialist powers and the military-industrial complex, including Balkan states, which provide political and military support. The genocidal war of annihilation in Gaza serves as both a reminder of the West’s colonialist ability to conduct wars of extermination and as a thanatopolitics laboratory, showcasing what the ruling classes currently want and are able to do to entire populations.
We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and call for resistance in each Balkan locality to disrupt the political and military support provided by the Balkan states to the state of Israel. We recognize that the enemy is not only war itself but also the states and capitalist systems that perpetuate it and profit from it.
Once more we emphasize the urgent need to organise campaigns against the arms industry, the war profiteers of all kinds including those that supply the military machine with food, energy and any other resource. We must not forget about resistance against all and every national military apparatus and multinational military coalitions. We must continue to struggle against all nation-states and all supranational political and economic unions and conglomerates, that claim our lives, our societies, the natural resources and the territories in which we live; against military mobilization and their industry that feeds on the wealth we produce; against rulers that claim to govern in our name while only protecting capital and ruling classes; and against all that enables war to thrive. We recognise here a need to be present and active in a space of public discussion and in spaces of the anarchist and antiauthoritarian movement in particular.
Over the walls of nationalism and war!
No border divides us, no nation unites us!
Stop the genocides in Gaza and everywhere!
Solidarity with all deserters!
#BalkanAnarchistsAgainstWar
Balkan Anarchist Solidarity Network
Gathered in Prishtina during Balkan
Anarchist Bookfair, 7th July 2024
