Today I speak from Gernika,
from this land
who still feels the horror of the bombing,
that should never have happened again,
neither here nor anywhere else.
Today I am overcome by shame,
ashamed to be a man,
white and European man.
Shame… of being human.
How is it possible that in the 21st century
there are leaders—and peoples who follow them—
that they still believe that by preparing for war…
do they build peace?
How can we accept,
with complicity and impunity,
ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and Gaza,
the betrayal of the Sahrawi people,
the proxy wars in Ukraine,
in Sudan and halfway around the world?
I feel ashamed.
because of the double standards of our governments,
that condemn the atrocities of the enemies…
and justify those of the allies.
They preach peace… they praise Pope Francis
while they profit from the war business.
I feel ashamed of the West.
through centuries of colonization,
of exploitation and violence
that they continue, that they don’t stop.
We are kidnapped.
by a monster with many tentacles:
the military-industrial complex…
denounced by Eisenhower,
which is also today
political-media and financial complex!
This monster…
makes enemies for us,
Fear feeds us,
and steals our hope.
And where is the citizenship?
Where is it, where are we, the million young people?
that we refused military service?
It is no longer enough to sign manifestos.
Not even shouting in the streets.
We need to act. Organize. Resist.
Faced with this war lobby…
as Moratinos proposes,
We build the peace lobby.
Every week for 30 months,
we demand “stop the wars”,
let’s stop the wars,
in front of twenty Catalan town halls
and delegations from the Ministry of Defense.
Today, a hundred of the
first objectors and insubordinates
We invite you to join the campaign.
“Conscience against war”!
With a commitment to say no:
Not with our vote.
Not with our taxes.
Not with our work, our time, our lives.
Not even with the lives of our daughters and sons.
With a commitment to say yes:
Yes to defend ourselves, but without killing,
without hating, without destroying.
It is not a utopia.
There are already thousands of groups fighting
for a habitable Earth for all
with courage, with dignity, without rancor.
It’s time to be this army of peace,
this army without weapons,
Gandhi’s Santi Shena.
A living network… that protects without destroying.
A Nonviolent Civil Self-Defense Network
alternative to Violent Military Defense.
And let’s follow the golden rule,
common to all cultures and religions,
also as a political norm:
“Do not do to others
“what you don’t want done to you.”
Because we either abolish war…
or war… will end up abolishing us!