A-Infos (en) France, Mouette Enragée #40 - Is youth soluble in militarism? (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The habitual force of Macron's "talking points" and the corruption of 
words remains a state asset conducive to collective brainwashing; open 
or covert, asymmetric or hybrid wars, terrorism or "mad states," the 
constellation of hotspots that crisscross the map are all motives for 
producing and controlling fears. From rhetoric to measures taken in 
response to its own debacle, the ruling bourgeoisie has nevertheless 
only succeeded in demonstrating its increasingly right-wing drifts and 
its democratic renunciations. ---- Resilience: The Final Word ---- The 
global insecurity orchestrated by capital is mirrored by the permanent 
anxiety of the working classes. Thus, Emmanuel Macron's call for 
resilience is supported by an essential "civic rearmament," in other 
words, a mobilization. Thierry Ribault, a social science researcher at 
the CNRS(1), sees this as state survivalism. Behind this term, one can 
sense the constant recourse to the Ukrainian model and what was at the 
beginning of the 1920s a struggle against state capitalism that the 
Bolsheviks would install and a resistance to German imperialism in 
1941-45 - is, in the face of Putin, held up as an example: "the lesson 
of Ukraine is that it is a resilient people[...]The gift they make is 
that of their sons." Resilience - a word from pure sciences and 
psychology - is the term that its political promoters substitute for 
that of resistance, a word that is too heavily connoted. The "lesson" of 
the war in Ukraine offers Macronist ideology the opportunity for a 
double-edged semantic maneuver. First, Ukrainian resilience is a eulogy 
for the sacrifice of its children, interpreted as a fact. Therefore, and 
this is the second blow, the "lesson" is that national resilience must 
be based in advance on what is circumscribed as inevitable.

The information report on national resilience(2) also unequivocally 
states that resilience is preparation for war. Educating workers to 
serve the "total defense" of the nation. Especially since "among many 
young and old, the abundance inherent in the consumer society has made 
them forget the possibility of material lack; the habit of comfort has 
caused them to lose the aptitude for hardiness." However, "Of the entire 
population living below the poverty line, nearly a third are minors. If 
we add young adults, 45% of poor people are under thirty. The situation 
of young adults and children is different. "Those aged 18 to 29 are 
mostly young people who have difficulty entering the job market. They 
often come from parents from modest backgrounds themselves, as our 
education system is marked by social inequalities. Those under 18 live 
in low-income families, either due to parental unemployment or a 
separation, sometimes both. They suffer from their parents' situation," 
denounces the Inequality Observatory. In other words, young people from 
struggling neighborhoods represent a prime breeding ground for the 
inevitable youth mobilization, dreamed of by the Macronist elite and 
expressed in the form of "social mixing."

According to the 2024-2030 Military Planning Act(3), the State expects 
that "a hardened and resilient army[...]will rely on a better-equipped 
and integrated operational reserve." This is a new model designed to 
achieve the balance of "one reservist for every two active-duty 
soldiers" by 2035." In figures: 105,000 reservists. Achieving this 
ambitious quota requires strategic thinking. Indeed, even after the 
exfiltration of troops on overseas operations in Africa, the armed 
forces are currently short 2,600 soldiers, adding to the 10,000 deployed 
on national territory as part of the Vigipirate plan and its offshoot, 
Operation Sentinelle, whose usefulness is, moreover, objectively 
contested by some star-spangled banners.

Universal National Service

While the government website dedicated to youth describes the SNU as an 
educational project for the emancipation and empowerment of young 
people, aiming to fully involve them in the life of the nation and 
nurture the republican crucible; for the one created specifically, it is 
a civil service which is aimed at all young people aged 15 to 17 who 
wish to live a great collective experience, make themselves useful to 
others, create strong bonds and discover a talent for commitment(4). Up 
to coercion since the second year high school students who have not 
found an end-of-year internship will be automatically put in the 
barracks. More prosaically, it's about transforming youth gangs into 
troopers in order to "reestablish authority."

And its corollary: the abuse of authority. As a result, as in the "real 
army," the relatively recent laws of civilization (against racism, 
sexism, homophobia, etc.) are still unofficially considered 
recommendations rather than written orders. And submission to the 
hierarchy, humiliation, and psychological and physical violence against 
trainees are inherently commonplace. Like police violence, these 
incidents are considered to be only isolated blunders. We won't recount 
here the litany of natural impulses of career soldiers that have been 
leaked to the press. The newspaper Politis(5) - among others - has 
provided precise information on the true basis of the "values of the 
Republic."»

According to the Ministry of Youth, the initial cost of the SNU, 
extended to an entire age group, was EUR2 billion. Staff reinforcements 
(National Education, associations), notes the Court of Auditors, are "in 
this context insufficient to absorb the additional workload." The bill 
is closer to EUR3.5 million to EUR5 million per year. However, the tight 
budget doesn't need that. It adds that "it is clear that in terms of 
social diversity and commitment, the program's ambitions have not been 
achieved(6)." In other words, the generalization of the SNU has been 
relegated to the pile of essential issues.

The fact remains that military training is based on volunteering, which 
is intended to be the antechamber to commitment...

Military Preparation

Military preparation is an old favorite in the making of the French 
warrior. Jules Ferry, already, behind the certainly noble idea of 
offering access to sport to the working classes - particularly rural -, 
nourished the vengeful impulses following the loss of Alsace/Moselle and 
unbridled colonialism: "The time of Jules Ferry was the time of 
conscriptive societies, true auxiliaries of the School, which, through 
the associated practice of gymnastics, shooting and military 
instruction, would work towards the mobilization and incorporation of 
youth.(7)" Jean-Pierre Chevènement (8) was the first to hear the 
Marseillaise reintroduced into schools. A champion of conscription - the 
national service of the time -, he saw it as "a powerful factor of 
integration" and "a school for catching up on the national spirit.» This 
logically accompanies the conviction of Charles Hernu, Mitterrand's 
Minister of Defense: "young people must arrive in the army prepared by 
school," which was the origin of the first Defense-Education Protocol of 
1982 - a political indoctrination based on a symbiosis between education 
and defense. The eras of Attal, then Barnier, then Bayrou, then... stem 
from the same lineage aimed at distilling a National Education/Army 
osmosis, faithful to the republican tradition.
The MP is therefore an incentive prelude to enlistment. It takes the 
form of internships. The program is divided into three components, 
involving total immersion within the regiment: training in military 
behavior; training for operational missions; and military and sports 
physical training.

Boulogne has acquired the "Marine" (PMM) version of the hoped-for craze, 
an incongruity repaired according to Frédéric Cuvillier. It was again at 
school (Dezoteux) that the meeting took place; and La Voix du Nord went 
into raptures over the girls already seeing themselves as Rafale pilots. 
If we add the Montreuil edition, the daily describes what promotes 
"solidarity and cohesion": inside, "we learn to recognize the ranks"; 
outside "begin to march in step, learn the U-turn, the rotation to the 
right, to the left... Not necessarily obvious but it's only a beginning 
(!)" However, "[...]he who can, with pleasure, march, in ranks and 
formations,: it can only be by mistake that he received a brain; a 
spinal cord would be more than enough for him" dared Albert Einstein in 
How I See the World (1949). To end on a high note, the mayor of Boulogne 
takes the cake by putting all his excellent qualities in the same bag, 
in Le Mag of January 2025, along with the five other PMM of Hauts de 
France: "Boulogne, the leading fishing port, the leading European center 
for seafood processing, intends to embrace, within its identity as a 
comprehensive maritime city, all the professional and technical fields 
that make up French maritime life." A siren song in full agreement with 
Macron's refrain about the responsibilities that fall to the 
"territories." All that remains is to adapt the former hub-port(9), now 
an intermittent pontoon for cruise ships, to the vessels of the French Navy.

The end of an era

Historically, the sheer disinterest in the uniform was forged after the 
end of the wars of decolonization; Both budgets and personnel were 
revised downwards. The mute memory of those conscripted in Algeria 
weighed heavily on the struggles against conscription. Moreover, the 
beginnings of the reduced usefulness of soldiers "thanks" to nuclear 
weapons devalued the use of ground troops. Then came the suspension of 
national service in 1997, under Jacques Chirac.

Politically, the influence of the post-'68 struggles made the army a 
public issue, as it attracted so many opponents. Just like that, 
struggles of worker insubordination and rejection of military authority 
multiplied. The army became a political object to be fought, and 
anti-militarist positions were everywhere. From Larzac to nuclear tests 
in the Pacific, from the state's accommodation of South American 
putschist juntas to the judicialization of insubordination... While 
intellectuals and "red priests" show solidarity, conscripts undertake 
demonstrations, including within the barracks themselves, from which 
soldiers' committees will emerge fighting against exceptional 
justice(10). The army is also the target of a far-left movement that 
denounces it as a tool for repressing the labor movement and a supporter 
of capitalism. The maps of military and industrial zones sometimes 
overlap (Lorraine, Brest, Lyon, etc.).

The tragic episodes of recent years have brought a renewed familiarity 
with the roving fatigues, far short of reason. Deprived territories are 
therefore seeing a revival in a gradual return to the generalization of 
national militarism. As for businesses, any can adapt to the war 
economy; "militarism has a specific function in the history of capital. 
It accompanies all historical phases of accumulation," Rosa Luxemburg 
recalled in The Accumulation of Capital, on the eve of the First World 
War(11). In 1913, however, it was not yet known that the war would not 
be short, "fresh, and joyful," in the same way that today it would be 
surgical, with "zero deaths" (military). Nevertheless, the economic 
mechanisms developed by capital vary little. Deprived territories would 
therefore see a revival in a gradual return to the generalization of 
national militarism. A return to the days of barracks would bring a 
breath of fresh air to cities whose economies relied on the local 
regiment, just as rearmament in the strict sense would be a source of 
employment on both sides of the street.

A Youth in Disarray

The marked depoliticization of youth today, amid the standardization, 
confusion, and conformism of both parties and intermediary 
organizations, is seemingly giving way to a strong notion of 
"commitment," particularly for environmental or humanitarian causes. It 
is on this soil that Macron's government has laboriously planted its seeds.

The state has developed an extraordinary advertising campaign to recruit 
young people based on acceptable criteria: camaraderie, public service, 
and other basic principles for saving nature and people for some, 
integrated; for others: a job. The poster campaign (s'engager.fr)-for 
both the SNU and the mobilizable reserve-has grown steadily, with the 
theme "can you do it?" and has been plastered from high schools to bus 
shelters. The first were friendly, cool, focused on team spirit, and 
genuine camaraderie... Then there was talk of ego and equal opportunity 
(!) - "I come from far away and I will go far" - ending with an apology 
for "brothers in arms"; all exhibiting a fraternity largely born of 
diversity. To cast a wide net, Skyrock PLR (for rap) hosted military 
personnel on its frequency for a week, and now there is Skyrock PLM 
(for... military personnel).

Anne Muxel, research director in sociology and political science at the 
CNRS (CEVIPOF/Sciences Po), conducted a study on "Young People and War," 
a study presented under the auspices of the Military Academy's Strategic 
Research Institute (IRSERM). A number of paradoxes emerge, testifying to 
their fear of the future, incomplete or distorted representations of 
what war is, and the effectiveness of military propaganda. Thus, half of 
young people would think "a war is possible on French soil, whether 
civil, global, or nuclear"! In the thick study in question, we discover 
that the majority would be ready to kill and die for the homeland, 
including on foreign soil. A significant number would even accept 
torture and other vicissitudes of belligerence. This commitment is 
fueled by a very "classical" vision of war, with the Second World War as 
its "reference matrix" - through films - fueled by live images from 
Ukraine or Gaza. In short, death and destruction are being wrought in a 
ground war.

Another finding: 80% of young people express distrust of political 
parties, 60% of the government, and 42% of the police! It would be hasty 
to see them as Yellow Vests; 98% of them now consider the army useful; 
62% think that a new compulsory military service would be a good thing(12).

The discrediting of the "political class" is counterbalanced by the 
growing influence of the army among "the" youth. However, this stance 
has no political basis; it is "driven" by events. The army claims to 
enlist young people based on their values, only to divert them toward 
its own, with the usual excesses. By playing on concepts (commitment, 
society, etc.), she hooks a generation that sees little to rebel 
against, while the events in Kanaky are a colonial war, the hunt for 
migrants a persecution of scapegoats, and the repression of social 
movements-including environmental ones!-are led by mobile guards.

A majority of military personnel vote for the far right. The very same 
one that all the Republican fronts that are wooing its electorate claim 
to be stemming... The old refrains of the Republic are permanently 
dormant, to the point that General Lecointre, Chief of Staff of the 
Armed Forces until 2021, chose to resign, even though the President 
(Macron) told him that he wanted them to continue working together, 
because they share a common understanding of the role of the armed 
forces (Le Monde online, June 13, 2021). For Lecointre, the role of the 
armed forces is recolonization... (13)

(1) Author of Against Resilience in Fukushima as Elsewhere, published by 
L'Échappée
(2) Information Report, No. 5119 - 15th Legislature - National Assembly
(3) LAW No. 2023-703 of August 1, 2023, relating to the military program 
for the years 2024 to 2030
(4) respectively 
https://www.jeunes.gouv.fr/le-service-national-universel-snu-265 and 
https://www.jeunes.gouv.fr/le-service-national-universel-snu-265
(5) Sexual harassment, assault, racism: the hidden face of the SNU - POLITIS
(6) 
https://www.ccomptes.fr/fr/publications/le-service-national-universel-snu
(7) From Military preparation in France (1900s-1930s): a forgotten 
sporting heritage? Lionel Pabion
(8) Following in the footsteps of François Mitterrand, after serving as 
Minister of Research and Industry from 1981 to 1983, he became Minister 
of National Education from 1984 to 1986, then Minister of Defense from 
1988 to 1991 and Minister of the Interior from 1997 to 2000. A left-wing 
sovereignist, he became close to... Dupont-Aignan in 2015. Quite a program!
(9) See Fortunes of the Sea, High-Speed Shipping Lines: The Blue 
Illusions of a "Green Capitalism," Acratie Editions
(10) For more information: 
https://www.jean-jaures.org/publication/la-crise-antimilitariste-des-annees-1970/
(11) "When we reduce the means of subsistence necessary to maintain the 
labor force, we thereby free up a corresponding quantity of constant 
capital and living labor. This constant capital and living labor can be 
used for a different production, if there is an effective demand for 
this production in society. It is the State that represents this new 
demand.[...]This time, however, the State is not asking for means of 
subsistence[...]but for a specific category of products, the war engines 
of militarism, naval or land armaments."
The Accumulation of Capital, Volume II, 32, Militarism, Field of Action 
of Capital
(12) Summary: Young People and War: A Resurgence of Patriotism?; Survey: 
etude-116-muxel-les-jeunes-et-la-guerre.pdf sometimes contradictory on 
certain points in passing...
(13) "Our common destiny, we Europeans, is the Mediterranean and Africa, 
(...) the need to act collectively in Africa and the 
Mediterranean"[...]"Europe will have to decide to defend its interests, 
including by military means." General 
Lecointrehttps://blogs.mediapart.fr/aime-bonny/blog/290424/la-nostalgie-de-la-barbarie-francaise-en-afrique-cas-du-general-francois-lecointre

https://lamouetteenragee.noblogs.org/
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