Your Wars Just Aren’t Worth It

The Belgian Workers’ Party is the strongest rising force on Europe’s radical left. Its general secretary, Peter Mertens, writes for Jacobin on his party’s fight against the EU’s rearmament plans.

Peter Mertens, general secretary of the Belgian Workers’ Party (PTB) at a rally. Photo courtesy PTB.


This coming Sunday, we will take to the streets of Brussels. Not for a minor issue but for a fundamental choice: “Welfare, not warfare.” For today Europe seems determined to massively rearm, making it increasingly resemble Donald Trump’s militarized United States.

Europe’s ruling class loves nothing more than to separate social justice and peace, as if the war economy were a foreign policy issue far removed from questions like what fills our children’s lunch boxes, how we will pay our hospital bills, or the retirement age. That, at any rate, is the lie they’d have us believe.

The truth is simpler. The same governments that claim there is no money for our social security can suddenly find billions for weapons. The same political leaders who want people to work longer roll out the red carpet for Lockheed Martin, Rheinmetall, and other arms dealers. The same ministers who cut spending on the sick, unemployed, and pensioners write blank checks for the war economy.

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