The anti-militarist groups that make up the EH platform began to meet around two years: Armiarma Grupo Feminista Antimilitarista; Acción de Paz Antimilitarista; Bardenas libre; KEM-MOC de Bilbao; Mujeres contra la Guerra; de Vitoria; Sin Guerra Eibar; Sin Jaizkibel militar; Kaki; La Guerra begins here. They had already organized another joint initiative, such as the “Armas Eusko Label para la guerra” campaign, to make visible and denounce the links between the arms industry, war and migration, and encouraged further steps to the “beautiful environments” created, explains Escalante. Now we debate the definition of the character and work of the platform – that is why they have warned that both Oleaga and Escalante do not speak on behalf of the platform – but until the reflection ended the desire to do “something practical” emerged: “We decided to study an armoury company to give a more general picture of the armoury”. This is the reason for the book produced by the antimilitarist group of Vitoria and published on behalf of the platform.

Oleaga considers that the book is an “excellent tool” because it describes a “mafious and full clientele network” making history of the company SAPA and the Aperribay family. It says that it can be read as a “novel of black intrigue” and lists various virtues of the work: that military production destroys the myth of what generates jobs, which highlights the laundering exercises carried out by the arms industry in relation to health or medical companies, which offers an alternative to the conversion of military production into civilian production, which awakens “hunger” to meet other Basque companies... And above all, it proves that “war begins here.”

White blue bleach

The book does not investigate or refer to the relationship of the Aperribay family with football, is limited to businesses and events directly related to the armory. Escalante has not, however, ruled out the existence of business links between the two areas: “We have only published things that we can demonstrate, but we have more rumours and rumours than what happens in the private clubs of some football teams.”

The antimilitarist Patxi Azparren linked sport and armaments in another way on the day of the book's presentation at the Koldo Mitxelena library in San Sebastian. He said that families like Aperribay, who do business with the weapons that kill people and war, need “marketing” to achieve “social recognition”, and for that he has used Real Sociedad. The current chairman of the group is Jokin Aperribay and his former vice-president, Joaquín Aperribay, during the term of office of Iñaki Alkiza, member of the board of the Ibon Aperribay San Sebastián Gipuzkoa Basket group. Escalante stressed that the laundering exercises of the “merchants of death” are common, another Basque arms company, Sener: “He who was president for decades, Enrique Sendagorta, was the funder of the social work of his Opus Dei. He wrote a book about Christian philosophical ethics. Andrés Sendagorta, current president with military studies, is president of the Instituto de Empresa Familiar at the state level, where the company appears as a model man”.

“If you associate aperribay with sport, with football, with something popular,” says Oleaga. “How do you think that the same person or family will be able to do business by selling weapons that will kill elsewhere in the world or create refugees?” Sport and the fight against war are often portrayed as two different worlds, with numerous initiatives for “peace” and also in Real Society. In June of this year, the Txuri-Urdin team organized the conference "Memories of war and football" with former Bosnian footballer Meho Kodro, recalling the Balkan war of the 1990s in the context of the Ukrainian war. Oleaga claims the need to “break” with this hypocrisy: “Such a person cannot smile normally on television, he is a criminal.”

Times of militarism

Escalante says that in recent years militarism has been greatly strengthened. Pandemic has placed the first turning point. The reader will recall the prominence of the military in the press conferences to announce the measures of the Spanish Government, but the influence was deeper: “Militarism spread throughout the world and in Euskal Herria, hierarchizing, disappearing disobedience...” And after the most crude of the pandemic, the war in Ukraine broke out. “It has once again deepened militarism,” says Oleaga. Western states have multiplied their military budgets, arms companies have grown in stock, China has also become an enemy, NATO has been reformed. Even a part of the left has internalized the militarist discourse.

“Power plays to propose a temporary solution: “What can we do now, right now?” explains Escalante, denouncing that Ukraine is one of the most numerous wars. To get out of this trap he proposes to look: “Our remedy cannot be a quick medicine. We have to work from today to stop the next war, knowing that the war begins here.”

Pedagogy of cruelty

Women against War have discussed the normalization of war and death. “There is terrible terror. In the 1980s, this country refused NATO, in the 1990s it fought against military service, in 2000 it went out into the streets against the Iraq war. Wars continue, but citizenship does not respond. What has happened?” Oleaga says. He raises a concept of feminist anthropology, Rita Segato, in search of explanations. “Segato speaks of the “Pedagogy of cruelty”, of the programming of people to counteract empathy with the suffering of the other.” It is a standardisation process. “The war in Ukraine, like all others, caused a great impact at first, but they make us a spectacle and in the end we get used to it. The same has happened with the dead of the Mediterranean, the months of the Bidasoa still give us the alarm, but we are on the way.”

Challenges of the anti-militarist movement

What do you do to fight all this? Firstly, to strengthen and renew the anti-militarist movement. Escalante sees the “sleepy xamar” movement: “It is true that it is waking up for some things, but in general we are always. You need new people, new people taking responsibility.” He has highlighted the two anti-militarist groups created in recent years, Armiarma and Women against War, both feminists and women. “Christ has brought us fresh air.” Oleaga, a member of one of these new groups, says it is very important to militate in anti-militarist groups, “strengthen” emerging networks and “keep on the street”.

But Escalante says that it is essential that young people take the witness, and those of Vitoria have the doubt whether they are not the “antimilitarists of all life”, but, without wanting to, “act as stoppers”. It encourages young people to join antimilitarism and believes that if this happens their generation should continue to work, but “from the third line”.

Escalante believes that the second big challenge is to “open” antimilitarism. “Militarism is widespread throughout society and must be responded to by society as a whole. For example, if we denounce the linking of some educational centres with armaments, their staff and teachers should be involved in the complaint. Or if we propose to replace the military production of arms companies with civilian production, local workers and unions should be involved.” Discussion and reflection are needed among all those involved. “We have often made too narrow approaches, we have thought about everything and we have proposed it.”

Changing the world since war

Oleaga claims that war, patriarchy and capitalism go hand in hand and that all three must be put to an end. “Our species has a long history. Patriarchy, on the contrary, only 10,000 years, capitalism is much less, but in this short space humanity has been displaced to the edge of the abyss”. Depletion of natural resources, climate chaos, massive migrations, poverty, war... “Humanity and the planet are in an emergency situation.”

Oleaga proposes to start the demolition and construction of the new world by ending war and militarism: “We have thousands of reasons to keep fighting and we will keep fighting. Because here begins the war, and although we are very small, here is our work.” These are not good times, so we have to transform the time. “As Malen repeats from our group, we always go against the wind, but sometimes the wind changes direction.”