"DIKTΥO SPARTAKOS', the network of the conscripts / What is it and what does it struggle for?

"DIKTΥO SPARTAKOS', the network of the conscripts

What is it and what does it struggle for?

Greetings to the thousands of comrades that struggle against the Kapitalist-Imperialist 'New Order'. Greetings to all of those that struggle for the workers' rights, to all of those that fight against the policies of national governments, international capitalist organizations (EU, NATO, UN) and the US. These policies lead to the deterioration of the position of workers and bring more austerity and wars all over the world. Their ultimate aim is to impose on the world the dictatorship of the Free Market Economy and to allocate the energy resources to capitalists.

What is the Soldiers-Network 'Diktio Spartakos'?
In both Greece and Turkey, conscription still exists. No matter their political orientation (center-left, center-right, pro-islamic or military-oriented), governments at both sides of the Aegean use the young people from the labour class as soldiers and - when needed - as cheap labour force. The role of these young people for the government is to be wasted for the sake of the competition for regional domination between the Greek and the Turkish bourgeois class.

Nationalistic and racist views try to present the two nations as opponents that have fought several times against each other even while the two countries were both NATO members. In both countries, minorities are repressed. In both countries, the propaganda of the state, the army and the media demands from the people to respect the 'national unity' between workers and employers to deal with the danger coming from the other country.

Greece and Turkey are proved to be champions in military expenditures around the world. Our people suffer and are forced to limit their needs, so that more weapons are bought. At the same time, American, European, Greek and Turkish military industries are making huge profits from selling these armaments. Moreover, thousands Greek and Turkish soldiers participate in imperialistic military interventions of NATO, the Euro-Army and the UN and in the occupation of several countries. Lastly, due to the global financial crisis and due to the rise of social inequalities, the chance of an uprising of the workers has increased. NATO, the Euro-Army and the governments are planning to suppress such uprisings using military means.

Diktyo Spartakos, the network of the free conscripts is against to all this.

Diktyo Spartakos is active since 1992. Since then, it aims at creating a movement inside and out of the army. Diktyo Spartakos is the driving force of the movement that cancelled the plans of the Greek government for establishing conscription at 18 years old, just after school. Moreover, it forced the government to limit the period of the military duty to 9 months. Diktyo Spartakos defends the rights of conscripts and struggles for the respect of human dignity in the army against the military dogmas of the militarism that prioritize the readiness to fight of the army.

Diktyo Spartakos plays the main role in the development of Free Syndicalism for conscripts. Diktyo Spartakos is the backbone of the antiwar, antinationalist and antimilitary movement.

The Greek army is participating in international missions in 15 foreign countries. Diktyo Spartakos had a major contribution in the movement that blocked the participation of conscripts in such missions. Diktyo Spartakos demands the abolishment of NATO, the Euro-Army and the EU and the closure of their military bases in Greece.

Conscripts in uniform participated in public events, manifestations and demonstrations against the bombing in Yugoslavia in 1999 and later on against the imperialist interventions in Irak, Afganistan and Caucasus.

In December 2008, during the uprising of the youth and the working people in Greece that followed the murder of a young high-school student by policemen, and while the government was planning to order the army to suppress the uprising, there was a huge reaction within the army. Diktyo Spartakos gathered hundreds of conscripts' signatures from 52 military units that declared their opposition to this plan. Besides declaring their opposition, these conscripts carried out small info-actions inside their camps.

All these actions convinced the political and military leadership that there is no way that they could make the conscripts to stand against the uprising people. It was also made clear that conscripts are not going to patrol and arrest immigrants. Diktyo Spartakos does not obey to the Dogma's of Emergencies Laws that use the army as the ultimate repression force that protects the interests of the bourgeois class against the working people.

Our goal is to block the war engine and to stop the armaments' race. We want to contribute to the development of an international movement of workers in which Greeks, Turks, Cypriots and Kurdish workers will struggle for their rights and the fulfillment of their needs. The only road that leads to peace in the Aegean Sea, the Balkans and the Middle East is the road of the common struggle of workers against the nationalistic blindness of national states and the imperialistic interventions.

In the current period, we need to develop a radical anticapitalist movement of workers that will struggle to overthrow the governments that impose Middle-Age working conditions and extreme state oppression to the working people and drag the people to military conflicts.

Our response to the Totalitarianism of the world of the rich is the overthrow of power of the bourgeois class by the globalized struggles of the workers.

'DIKTΥO SPARTAKOS', the network of the conscripts

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