Militarism: Most Degraded Slave-Spirit

By on 15. October 2019

Militarism is to be appraised first of all as a psychic condition. It is the renunciation of
one’s own thought and will, the transformation of man into a dead automaton guided
and set in motion from without, carrying out blindly every command without being
conscious of his own personal responsibility. In one word, militarism is the meanest and
most degraded form of that slave-spirit raised to the status of a national virtue which
despises all the rules of reason and is devoid of all human dignity.

– Rudolf Rocker (Nationalism and Culture)

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Course Schedule

By on 15. September 2019

 

DEMILITARIZATION AND DEGROWTH

 

28th Sept to 27th Oct (Every Saturday and Sunday)

 

Venue: Dylogg Coworking, B66 Chetak Bridge, Gautam Nagar, Bhopal.
Time: 6PM-8PM

For registration contact: 9806578808.

 

Fees: Free (voluntary donations to cover the costs of research material and coffee is accepted.)

 

About the Sessions:

This course is about the past and its implications on our future. It could also have been called “The Doomsday Clock and How to Reverse It”.  It is about two of the biggest existential treats that human beings face and about their largely ignored inter-relation and their combined impact on human rights and survival. The threats are: Climate Change and Nuclear Weapons.

This course will try to look more closely at the working of the institutions that are fueling this convergence of climate-nuclear Armageddon. The Indian National Security State, after the fossil driven industries, is likely the biggest contributor to this fateful convergence.

The 2018-2019 Union Budget of India spent Rs 1,14,915 crore on Rural Development, Rs 41,765 crore on Housing and Urban Affairs, Rs 54,600 crore on Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Rs 71,000 crore on Road Transport and Highways, Rs 22,357 crore on Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Rs 85,010 crore on Human Resource Development.

While it spent Rs 4,04,365 crore on “defense” (and it does not include a number of secret spending and spending on defense under Ministry of Home Affairs header.)

More information on the massive reach and corrosive effect of Indian war economy can be found in this article.

There is not only great potential for accelerating climate action that can mitigate the threat of ecological collapse in utilizing the enormous resources of the defense industry to producing and installation of alternative energy technologies but also of creating new transportation, water, and other infrastructures. These could be good pay jobs with good conditions.

New international institution of conflict resolutions and end of the war (or threat of war) based solutions will reduce state and non-state violence and terrorism.

Today, Disarmament and Conversion are not just moral obligations, they are essential for human survival.

The sessions should interest people concerned about human rights, climate change and human survival. Activists  working in any field will likely find the content useful and relevant. In ten days we will look at:

 

Schedule

1. Overview of the course: (28th Sept):
What are the existential threats? What is the National Security State? What is a war economy?

2. Merchants of Death: Indian War Economy and Its Costs: (29th Sept)
What are the social, economic, human and opportunity costs of having a war economy?

3. India: Rogue State. (5 Oct)
Looks at impact (human rights abuses and other crimes) of the Indian National Security State outside and inside India’s internationally recognized borders.

4. Culture of Militarism. (6th Oct)
Discussion on how militarism invades all aspects of our day-to-day life. From cellphones, Marvel movies to crime industry.

5. Tropic of Chaos: Ecological Breakdown and New Authoritarianism. (12th Oct)
With shortage of essential resources like drinkable water and soaring food prices, what is the National Security States’ plan?

6. Congealed Auschwitz. (13th Oct)
Discussion on various aspects of terminal nuclear war.

7. Towards a Peace-Race? (19th Oct)
Looks at some alternative institutional structures that can take us in the direction of a global civilian economy.

8. Degrowth, Planetary Stabilizing Policy “or” Revolution? (20th Oct)
Looks at various theoretical alternatives for avoiding worse case ecological collapse.

9. Movie: The Plan (26th Oct)
We will watch a documentary about the Lucas alternative plan that made a military establishment into a civilian enterprise and its relevance today.

10. Open Discussion. (27th Oct)
After brief overview of how anti-militarist, anti-imperialist and disarmament movements inform and integrate with local and more urgent struggles we will try to look at the possibility of integrating these issues in campaigns in Madhya Pradesh, and specifically Bhopal.

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The Crash Course

By on 10. July 2019

DEMILITARIZATION AND DEGROWTH:
Indian War Economy or Survival

A series of 10 lectures in 5 weeks on the social and ecological cost of India’s permanent war economy.

Starting 28th September 2019 in Bhopal, India.

Register here 

For more information: +91 98 0 657 88 08

 

“Here, then, is the problem which we present to you, stark and dreadful and inescapable: Shall we put an end to the human race; or shall mankind renounce war?” – Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell (1955)

Conversion!

This website and the course on which it is based are about conversion: economic and social conversion. Converting the growth based capitalist system into an economically democratic system without growth and at the same time converting the permanent war economy into a civilian economy. 

The permanent war economy is the political economy of those sets of institutions – governmental and private, known and secret, whose primary or major objectives are set around armaments – their production, procurement, research, maintenance, use and; wars – small, big, covert, overt, and preparation for them.

A civilian economy, on the other hand, is the economic system focused on developing and maintaining infrastructures and industries whose primary goal in the betterment of social life and individual freedom. It utilizes the money, infrastructure, technical expertise and manpower used in destructive war industry for civilian and productive use.

The 2018-2019 Union Budget of India spent Rs 1,14,915 crore on Rural Development, Rs 41,765 crore on Housing and Urban Affairs, Rs 54,600 crore on Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Rs 71,000 crore on Road Transport and Highways, Rs 22,357 crore on Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Rs 85,010 crore on Human Resource Development. 

While it spent Rs 4,04,365 crore on “defense” (and it does not include a number of secret spendings and spending on defense under Ministry of Home Affairs header.) 

More information on the massive reach and corrosive effect of Indian war economy can be found in this article. (https://stokemagazine.wordpress.com/2018/10/02/security-and-peace-vs-the-national-security-state/). 

Arms to Renewables and More.

There is not only great potential for accelerating climate action that can mitigate the threat of ecological collapse in utilizing the enormous resources of the defense industry to producing and installation of alternative energy technologies but also of creating new transportation, water, and other infrastructures. These could be good pay jobs with good conditions. 

New international institution of conflict resolutions and end of the war (or threat of war) based solutions will reduce state and non-state violence and terrorism. 

Today, Disarmament and Conversion are not just moral obligations, they are essential for human survival.  

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