The Mad Seagull - No to the militaristic recruitment of youth! - While strolling through the heart of the city, a banner hanging from the gates of an elementary school immediately catches the eye of passersby. Its design, its garish colors, the youthful features of the figures, the very place where it is displayed-everything about it evokes, at first glance, a feeling of strangeness, even unease. Boys and girls of deliberately indeterminate age, depicted in a manga style and dressed in military uniforms, smile at the horizon in an evocative scene (1)... Like women's bodies, the bodies of young people and children have very early on been targeted by propaganda, whether it serves commercial, political, or religious interests, or all three at once-it matters little, as long as the control and power exerted over them are thereby legitimized and increased.
In the case at hand, a "Marine Military Preparation" program is nothing less than the enlistment of minors and young adults between the ages of 16 and 21 in a program that includes, among other activities: "wearing the uniform, handling weapons, participating in military ceremonies, learning about the Defense organization, visiting warships, learning drill..." Making something that amounts to subordinating them to the exclusive interests of the bourgeoisie appealing to young people is the sleight of hand to which the local left, under the banner of the city of Boulogne-sur-Mer, is complicit. The signage affixed to the bottom of the banner in question and the dissemination of the recruitment campaign on the municipality's website leave no room for doubt (2).
"Militarism, a field of action for capital"
A militaristic wind is sweeping across Europe. Under the pretext of the conflict in Ukraine and international instability, the European bourgeoisie, losing ground, is once again playing out the unholy alliance of industrialists, politicians, and the military. In France, the latest multi-year spending bill passed by parliament hands out EUR436 billion to industry bosses, while Macron reintroduces compulsory military service (3). Across the Rhine, the coalition of German conservatives and socialists is not to be outdone, allocating EUR377 billion to rearmament, and the state is also attempting to reintroduce compulsory conscription against the will of a majority of the population (4). On the eve of the First World War, Rosa Luxemburg asserted that, for the capitalist class, militarism had become indispensable from three points of view: "1. to defend national interests, (...) 2. to constitute a privileged area of investment for both financial and industrial capital, (...) 3. to ensure its class domination over the working people..." (5) As we discussed in a previous article, the possibility of war should never be taken lightly. For capitalism, war has a specific function: to destroy excess capital and launch a new cycle of accumulation. However, we will refrain from categorically stating, as some do, that we are on the verge of another global conflagration. For the time being, let us try to act where we live against all forms of militarism and those who promote them.
The left, militarism...
Contrary to the fiction perpetuated by some, the relationship between the left and the military has always been unambiguous, and as far as the Socialist Party is concerned, its inclination has never wavered. The founding act of its allegiance was the unanimous vote in August 1914 by the Socialist parliamentary group for war credits and martial law, which restricted liberties. From that date onward, and well before that with regard to the colonial question, the Socialists would consistently support the bourgeoisie's wartime endeavors.
As for the civic alibi of a republican army guaranteeing democratic values, it dissolves in the face of history (6). This army, in the pay of industrialists and financiers, has been guilty of the worst colonial and imperialist atrocities from the 19th century to the present day, while in mainland France it shot workers in Fourmies in 1891, fired on miners in 1948, and "will be called upon to open fire if necessary" against the Yellow Vests by the governor of Paris in 2019...
...and the school
Anyone who remembers the "left's rise to power in 1981" knows that, barely settled into the Élysée Palace, Mitterrand hastened to reassure his American counterpart at the time, Ronald Reagan, about his true intentions... The Communist ministers would soon learn, to their cost, the role they had been made to play in this charade. Thus, as early as 1982, while the famous "110 Proposals for France" called for "progressive and simultaneous disarmament with a view to the dissolution of military blocs...", the Socialists, Charles Hernu for Defense and Alain Savary for National Education, jointly signed the first "Army-School Protocol." In 1989, it was Chevènement's turn to present a new version, and on April 11, 1995, the right, back in power, naturally followed in the reactionary footsteps of the Socialist Party. The two François, Bayrou for National Education, and Léotard for the army, once again intended to give "young people lacking direction the necessary keys to find their way in a world in crisis" (7). Since then, all governments, without exception, have worked to bring schools and the army into close collaboration.
The youth's response, without ever forgetting the class issue!
Under the bellicose Macron regime, this policy of regimenting youth has reached a new level. The fiasco of the National Universal Service (SNU) has not dampened the enthusiasm of his administration, which persists in forcing the military into school curricula and institutions at all costs. "Global Defense Classes," the intervention of military officers in schools, the dissemination of militaristic propaganda financed by arms manufacturers, the organization of supposedly "educational" "projects" directly linked to the Ministry of Defense, the mention of the military on the baccalaureate diploma... A whole arsenal of measures now contributes to conforming the minds and bodies of young people to the customs of the military. Among these young people, the primary target remains children from working-class backgrounds. Getting their skin riddled with bullets for industrialists and financiers, even in the age of so-called technological warfare, remains the privilege of the proletariat. Those for whom the school system has already done its work of selection and social reproduction, those struggling in the precariousness of dead-end programs and dead-end jobs, and to whom the military institution is now extending a merciful hand.
In Germany, young people are particularly mobilized against the military service that some would impose on them; demonstrations regularly take place, bringing together thousands of high school and university students. In France, school blockades and actions have taken place in several cities, such as Saint-Nazaire, where a thousand demonstrators marched in the streets and where the "Down with War!" collective intends to create an "Anti-militarist and Popular Front." In Italy, mass, class-based actions against war and militarism have shattered the image of a society supposedly fallen under the spell of the far right.
Against capital and its militarism, let's debate together, organize ourselves, and act!
Boulogne-sur-Mer, May 9, 2026
Notes
(1) A propaganda tool that oozes AI from every pore...
(2) https://www.ville-boulogne-sur-mer.... . Furthermore, elementary school premises belong to the municipalities; they alone decide whether to make them available, if necessary...
(3) It is ironic to learn that neither the bellicose Macron nor Trump has performed military service.
(4) A survey commissioned by Stern magazine indicates that 61% of Germans would not fight for Germany. Only 17% would be prepared for armed "defense" in the hypothetical scenario of a "military attack against Germany." A law would also require any man of fighting age to obtain military authorization to leave Germany for more than three months!
(5) Macron's war economy, or producing to the sound of gunfire: https://lamouetteenragee.noblogs.or...
(6) In France, throughout the 19th century and under all regimes, the army shot workers. To quote Diana Cooper Richet: "Whatever the regime, monarchical, imperial, or republican, soldiers fired on angry crowds on several occasions, even when women and children were involved." In: The Angry Crowd: Miners and the Strike in the 19th Century. 19th Century History Review, Volume 17, 1998/2. Crowds in the 19th Century. As a
reminder: Rosa Luxemburg was assassinated on January 15, 1919, by soldiers acting under the orders of the ruling German Social Democrats.
(7) Signing of the Defense-National Education Protocol on April 11, 1995, at the Hôtel de Brienne.
https://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4726
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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