Burn the War Machines---Anti-Militarism actions in Germany (trans)

On the night of June 29, 2009, four military vehicles of the Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces) were torched in a car parking facility in Ulm. Three so-called “Wolf” models and another multipurpose land vehicle were heavily damaged, estimated to be higher than 150, 000 euro. A major police operation initiated directly after the attack has come up empty handed. In a statement claiming responsibility released after the actions, in addition to a “rejection of the dominant system”, the authors discussed the necessity to “take the fight directly to the Bundeswehr and the war-profiting enterprises” through acts of “financial damage and the disabling of war machines.” The “militant approach” is seen as a “a legitimate means in the fight against war and exploitation...since war always means oppression, violence, rape, and murder.”

Since the attack, a group of criminal police investigators have been trying to illuminate and intimidate the city's leftist scene. The usual suspects were subject to searches both at home and at work, thus planting seeds of suspicion in their respective social circles. In addition to this, phone calls, letters, and question targeting the parents are an attempt to further make the left feel insecure. The numerous questions regarding alibis are attempts to provoke statements, thereby limiting the principle of exclusion. At the same time, the police use the opportunity through general questions regarding contacts to score more info about the leftist scene. Since no one was caught red-handed, the police want to investigate the suspects through the statements of unsuspecting witnesses.

The first six months of this year, in addition to the dozens of attacks on DHL (a company which has emerged as a central profiteer of the privatization politics of the Bundeswehr) vehicles set ablaze, numerous vehicles of the Army have also been subject to attack. On February 26, 2009, three radio vehicles in a contractor's garage in Burg were attacked, with damage estimates of 100,000 euro. On March 13, 2009, a van belonging to the Bundeswehr was the subject of an arson attack in a suburb of Berlin. The biggest act of arson so far this took place on March 13, 2009 on the land of a Dresden military academy—involved a coordinated attack on 9 military vehicles with damages estimated at 3.3 million euro. With an arson attack on e “Bundeswehr Info Mobil” in the southwest city of Heilbron, an estimated 10000 euro in damages were inflicted. None of these attacks resulted in injuries nor arrests, and nowhere could a political motivation be ruled out.

In Germany, we are witnessing a powerful rebirth of militarism. Although we are nowhere close to an uprising against capitalism, but already is the Bundeswehr being prepared for it. Inside the country, a propaganda campaign—involving conferences, movie theatres, schools, government offices, public oaths, large tatoos, and military parades (e.g. Müllheim June 27, 2009) —aims at freeing German soldiers from the “historic baggage” of National Socialism. Outside the country, of the roughly 7200 serving soldiers, about 2000 are in Kosovo, where they are deployed as police and have been trained for future deployment inside Germany. The mission of the over 4000 soldiers in Afghanistan, however, represents the normalization of war in the German public sphere—thus the acceptance of dying on orders for a political goal. This ignorance must broken—be it through the death of Bundeswehr soldiers in war or through the destruction of the military machines at home.
No more war!