Germany · Perspektive Online · · 2h
Sand in the gears of rearmament: For a strong anti-militarist movement!
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The Rheinmetall Disarming Action Week took place in Cologne for the second time in a row. In the first week of September, the Colonius television tower towered over the associated protest camp in the green belt. Large parts of the German antimilitarist movement as well as international activists came together there.
In addition to various cultural and political events at the camp, there were flyer campaigns, rallies, spontaneous demonstrations and even marking and blockades of rearmament sites in Cologne and the surrounding area.
The activists repeatedly sought conversations with the Cologne workers, for example on the park paths around the protest camp or in the district next to a blocked barracks. The rejection of war and rearmament, it turns out, is shared by many.
On September 1st, which also marked the first day of the camp as International Anti-War Day, there were militant demonstrations all over Germany. Hundreds of people also took to the streets in Cologne and started the Rheinmetall Disarm Action Week with a powerful demonstration.
An eventful week
During this week there have been several more direct attacks on those locations involved in the rearmament. For example, the headquarters of the Conjointe de Coopération en matière d’Armement (OCCAR) is in Bonn and was sprayed with red paint by activists. The opponents of the war also left the messages “War against war” and “Stop warmongers”.
In an article on Indymedia, the activists wrote about OCCAR: “This is where the European imperialists develop their strategies and decide on the deaths of thousands if not millions of people in the wars of the future.” The OCCAR organization manages cross-state arms cooperation between EU member states. The headquarters in Bonn therefore plays a central role in the rearmament of the EU.
Also in Bonn, the group Peacefully Against Genocide held a civil disobedience event at a Rheinmetall branch. Around ten activists stuck themselves to the entrance to the buildings. They held a sign that read: “Rheinmetall is complicit in genocide.” In doing so, they primarily drew attention to German participation in the genocide in Palestine in the form of arms deliveries. In the end, their protest action was able to block the entrance and exit of the suppliers for a few hours.
Rheinmetall Disarm: 2,000 war opponents defy police violence and cauldrons
Detained for six hours
The highlight of the week was a large demonstration on Saturday, September 5th, in which around 2,000 demonstrators took part. There was a combative atmosphere right from the start. There were loud slogans, signs and banners with slogans such as “War against war”, “Youth against conscription – down with imperialism” and “Fight the warmongers”.
With this revolutionary spirit, the demonstration in Cologne was a thorn in the side of the police forces from North Rhine-Westphalia. Because if the German state wants to implement its goal and actually become the strongest military power in the EU, then it can only do so with a population that does not resist militarization. No wonder that the police want to keep the demonstrators' resistance in check.
This was specifically reflected in the fact that after a few hundred meters the officers began to arbitrarily separate different demonstration blocks from each other and encircle a large part of the demonstration. The result of police violence was over 200 injured demo participants, who were hit specifically on the head and jaw by the police.
There were dozens of lacerations and some were seriously injured. In addition, the police temporarily denied paramedics access to the boiler, and the police also actively restricted reporting by using barriers. Ultimately, some of the demonstrators were held for up to six hours. Despite all the repression, the police were unable to stop the combative expression, the good mood and the political external impact that day.
The protest is having an impact!
The activists also counted the blockade of the Liège barracks among the successes of the action week. Around 200 activists blocked the main entrance to the barracks for one working day. Here too there was police violence as the blockade was cleared over several hours.
The special significance of the Liège barracks is that it serves as the headquarters of the Federal Office for Personnel Management of the Bundeswehr (BAPersBW). The authority is therefore not only centrally responsible for the administration of the Bundeswehr, but also for recruiting soldiers and other employees.
For example, it also organizes the sending of military registration questionnaires, which are mandatory for 18-year-old men to fill out. Anyone who expresses an interest in the Bundeswehr is called up for military service - and since July, anyone who says they are not interested in it is also called up. The Bundeswehr is still progressing too slowly in recruiting.
The blockade of the Liège barracks shows, above all, that antimilitarist practice is already effective today. Because the blockade of the barracks wasn't just about the impressive images for the press. The real success was that the barracks employees were asked by their superiors to take vacation for the day.
After two hours, employees were allowed into the building via the west entrance, but the entire barracks was restricted in its work that day. The fact that some employees were encouraged to work from home if possible did not change this.
The camp also had such charisma - even before the first tent was pitched - that the Bundeswehr career center in downtown Cologne remained closed for the entire week. Employees from the barracks in the area were advised not to come to work in Bundeswehr uniforms.
Sand in the gears of militarism
This shows what relevance the Rheinmetall Disarming Action Week has had and will continue to have. It also shows that the Bundeswehr perceived the activism as a real threat to the smooth running of things. On the other hand, conversations with employees revealed that the Rheinmetall disarm camp is being used to paint a horror scenario of leftists gone wild. Not even the slightest sympathy for the activists or their goals should arise.
This year's Rheinmetall Disarm Camp shows us that, on the one hand, a small core of activists can already paralyze a barracks, mark arms companies and take the streets through spontaneous demonstrations. It is therefore possible to actually throw sand in the gears of militarism, at least for a day. On the other hand, it became clear that the consistent positions against the war and against rearmament were met with support on the street.
In its evaluation of the week of action, the Federation of Class Struggle Organizations (FKO) emphasized that the support and solidarity from the working class must also lead, beyond the week of action, to organizing together against rearmament and social cuts.
How to continue against the war?
The Anti-War Day and the Rheinmetall Disarm Camp are over, but there are still a wide variety of opportunities to organize against the war in October - and this with the most diverse parts of our class.
One possibility will be the peace demonstrations in Berlin and Stuttgart on October 3rd. This year's demonstrations have a new quality, especially because some youth organizations are joining in to demonstrate explicitly against conscription. In Berlin there will be a large-scale rally in front of the Brandenburg Gate the day before, at which well-known bands will perform. There will also be some speeches from students under the motto: “Don’t feel like war and conscription”.
In Stuttgart, an anti-capitalist bloc with several class struggle organizations will take part in the peace demonstration. The alliance creates a connection between the cuts in the welfare state, the weakening of the eight-hour day and the hundreds of billions that the German state is investing in military equipment.
It is clear to the alliance that the rearmament comes at a high price for the working class; in the worst case, they even pay with their lives. The wars are fought exclusively for capital interests, from which only those in power benefit. As part of its mobilization for the demonstration, the alliance created a website where war profiteers from Stuttgart and the surrounding area can be seen on an interactive map.
As in Berlin, the main part of the demo is organized by the peace movement. This is ideologically heterogeneous and characterized by both internationalist and reactionary positions.
Antimilitarism is antifascist
In recent years, the Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) has had a strong influence on the peace demonstrations. Sahra Wagenknecht and Alice Schwarzer were the faces of the protests a few years ago. The fact that the BWS could currently become a stirrup for the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt and advocates joint work makes it clear how important it is to take to the streets with clear principles.
Consistent antimilitarism also means taking to the streets against the currently growing fascism. Because it is not only the electoral parties of the Left, the Greens, the SPD and the CDU that support a course of rearmament, albeit with varying severity. The AfD, which is the parliamentary arm of the fascist movement in Germany, will continue to fuel the rearmament particularly hard and also wants to rearm internally.
An example of this is that after his election victory in Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD's top candidate Ulrich Siegmund spoke about using military equipment in deportations.
The fight against militarization must also be waged in companies. One example of this is the Action Outcry – Stop the Arms Trade! initiative. Because the VW Osnabrück location was actually supposed to close in 2027 as part of the VW savings plan. The state of Lower Saxony is now taking over the plant together with the Israeli financial investor Aurelius and wants to produce weapons there in the future.
There is just as broad resistance to weapons production at this location as there is to the Elbit Systems weapons factory in Sangerhausen. Elbit Systems is also an Israeli defense company that is profiting from the genocide in Gaza.
External armament, internal control – but resistance is growing!
United against militarism
All recent actions against rearmament clearly show that a small core of activists and revolutionaries are already making antimilitarism a practice. In the long term, however, this movement alone will not be able to do much to counter the militarism of the German state.
For the actions in the coming period, it is therefore important that very different parts of our class at all possible levels must become part of a broad anti-militarist and class struggle movement - a movement that has a clear goal in mind ideologically and politically: In order to consistently fight wars, the causes must be tackled at the root and capitalism as a social system must be abolished.
Because our strength is that we are many. It is we who are supposed to build the tanks or go to war. We are also the ones who can stand together against militarism.
This text appeared in the October 2026 print edition no. 115 of our newspaper. The edition is in its entiretyhereto find.
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