Camp, Days of action and demo against war, Armament and isolation in Kassel from 30. August to 4. September 2022

In a hail of bullets
Militarization is back. And she came to stay, and to fundamentally change our society. According to the governing parties and many media, rearmament is the only answer to the current situation – a moral and ethical necessity, only honest expression of solidarity. Whoever rejects or even questions them, is disparaged, take sides with Russia or be ignorant and unworldly. It's like always: There is only friend and foe, black and white, Criticism is betrayal. It's not easy, to be against the war, once it actually starts. In fact, militarization stands for that, what she has always stood for: Suffering and misery for large parts of the population.

The War in Ukraine
The Russian war of aggression is a disaster for the people of Ukraine and also for a large part of the population in Russia. The latter tried at the beginning of the war, to take to the streets for peace. You didn't make it, to become powerful. We did not make it, to support them. Instead of peace, heavy weapons are increasingly being called for here too.

But in order to achieve peace, it needs the refusal of those, whose lives are being sacrificed in this war. More guns won't put an end to the dying - Ukraine faces years of war, countless deaths are already to be mourned. To preserve the territorial borders of the Ukrainian nation-state at all costs, to burn the Ukrainians as cannon fodder in the Russian war of aggression, this cannot and will not be the vanishing point of our policy.

Upgrade in time lapse
The rulers portray the Ukraine war as a paradigm shift, in doing so, he simply continues the development of the last decades. On the one hand, this applies to the tug of war over Ukraine as a geopolitical zone of influence between NATO and Russia, but it also applies globally: Wars have long been part of everyday life for millions of people around the world. The more the ecological, economic and social crises worldwide, the more violent and numerous the military conflicts become.

Western countries are fueling this development, as are Russia and China, even if they disguise their motives in a different guise. Some talk about the »necessary« defense of supposedly »Western values«, others, such as Russia recently, act out of alleged »self-defence«. Ultimately, they enforce all their geopolitical and economic interests with military means - be it in Mali, Libya or Rojava. The double standards, condemning Russia's illegal war of aggression against Ukraine, while Turkey is doing the same without comment in the Kurdish autonomous regions, can hardly be surpassed in cynicism and hypocrisy.

Here in Germany we can now supposedly only 100 Save billions for the Bundeswehr from the »enemy in the east«. But pretty much everything, what now in the context of 100 Armament billions are to be procured, was also planned before the Russian war of aggression. The target of 2% of GDP for rearmament has been for 2014 in conversation. The budget of the War Department is since 2014 of 32,4 on 46,9 billion euros in 2021 gone up. Olaf Scholz' »Zeitenwende« is actually a time lapse. The window of opportunity, that our collective state of shock opened after the beginning of the war, was routinely exploited.

Meanwhile, the champagne corks are popping in the headquarters of the arms companies, share prices explode. You know: their profit goes far beyond the economic. The main beneficiaries of wars - responsible for hunger, Misery and death - become "socially sustainable" guarantors of freedom and security.

Militarization
Militarization has a deep impact on our society. In doing so, it can connect to the patriarchy. Men are forced into a fighting "heroic" role on the front lines, women in a vulnerable, pushed into a pitiable position. The Ukrainian state makes this state doctrine, by refusing to leave the country for deserters or conscientious objectors or putting them in jail.

Who is allowed to flee Ukraine, is welcomed in the EU. As long as they are white people, that fit into gender norms. Everyone else continues to experience harassment at the external borders, illegale Push-Backs, risk of death. As does everyone else, who fled the “false wars”.. Those in internment camps, freeze at borders, drown in the Mediterranean.

And breaking out of the fossil economy is also a long way off - it is being sacrificed to the logic of intensifying competition. Fracking in Germany and liquid gas from the dictatorships in the Middle East, Restarting coal-fired power plants and extending the lifetime of nuclear power plants - nothing is currently unthinkable.

Our resistance
As internationalists and anti-militarists, we stand in solidarity with them, who rebel against wars - who sabotage, desert, escape. We fight with them, who refuse to obey their warlords. Solidarity means rejecting and recognizing the warmongering incitement, that our allies are beyond the front lines. The boundary still runs between top and bottom.

We are not alone. Our comrades are in Italy, South Africa, Australia, in Russia and also in Ukraine. We are many, and we are diverse. We are Kurdistan Solidarity, we are the fight against the border regime, we are trade unionists, we are the climate justice movement, we are feminists and pacifists. The fight against militarization unites us, because it threatens us all. Let's come together in this resistant diversity - let's live together, learn and fight.

Together to Kassel
We go to the city, which stands for the continuity of German armaments production like no other. Not least because of this, it was almost completely destroyed in the Second World War, and yet armaments production still takes place at its center, belongs to the transport of tanks to the everyday street scene.

We call you, from 30.08. to 04.09.2022 to camp, Action days and demonstration to come to Kassel. In a time, which is characterized by the Documenta15 – the world's largest exhibition of modern art. The world watches and visits this city. And let her see our resistance.

The wars of this world must be ended as soon as possible. We oppose militarization and rearmament. We need 100 billion euros for health, Education and the ecological transition, instead of shoving it up the arms industry's ass. We want out of the global capitalist system, that so many disasters, crises and wars.

We call you:
* Come to the camp with days of action from 30. August to 4. September in the Goethe facility in Kassel.
* Board with us the armaments production in Kassel 2. September.
* Come to the demonstration on Saturday, 3. September at 13 Clock at Kassel Central Station.

Disarm Rheinmetall, June 2022

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