June 2, 2024
Resisting the Complexes of Empire
As we enter the eighth month of Israel’s
genocidal campaign against Palestinians, the flow of weapons to Israel
continues from the United States, Germany, Canada, Italy, Australia, and other
Western countries. Even as some governments claim to have halted transfers or
to not be sending weapons at all, they continue to provide licences or parts
and components that are instrumental to the continuing onslaught. As people are
now being pulled from the rubble in Rafah, in a strip of land already known as
the world’s “largest open-air prison,” in a country and people bordered and
confined by a violent settler colonial state, the relationships between the
profiteers of the military-industrial complex, the prison industrial complex,
and the border industrial complex come starkly into focus. And in the demands
of the student encampments, the connections of these structures of state
violence to universities becomes clear as well.
Hundreds of thousands
participated in a peace march in Hungary’s capital, Budapest on Saturday,
denouncing the EU’s policy of escalating tensions with Russia. The event
culminated with a speech by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who accused Brussels
of bringing Europe closer to a global conflict.
The demonstrators marched
from the iconic Chain Bridge to Margaret Island on the Danube River.
Many carried flags,
chanted pacifist slogans, and held signs reading “No war” and “Give us peace,
Lord.”
“Never before have so many
people lined up for peace. We are the biggest peace corps, the largest
peacekeeping force in Europe,” the prime minister said, as quoted by Reuters.
“Europe must be prevented from rushing into war, into its own destruction.”
Orban said his country
must draw lessons from the devastation it went through the darkest times of the
20th century. “In the two world wars, the Hungarians lost 1.5 million lives,
and with them – their future children and grandchildren,” he told the crowd.
“I’m saying this slowly so
that Brussels would understand: we will not go to war. We will not go to the
East for a third time, we will not go to the Russian front again.”
Orban urged everyone to
support the “pro-peace and pro-sovereignty” agenda of the ruling Fidesz party
in the European Parliament election next week. “Do we want to shed Hungarian
blood for Ukraine? No, we don’t,” he said.
Since the start of
Russia’s military operation in Ukraine in February 2022, Orban has repeatedly
accused the EU leadership in Brussels of dangerous brinkmanship with Moscow and
warned that the bloc must not allow itself to be dragged into a full-blown war.
Budapest has refused to
provide any military aid to Ukraine and threatened to veto financial assistance
to Kiev. Orban heavily criticized the economic sanctions imposed on Moscow by
the EU, arguing that the bloc had “shot itself in the lungs” by undermining
trade and its own energy supply.
Videos:
https://x.com/IgnazBearth/status/1796878305376731346?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1796878305376731346%7Ctwgr%5E03a1875ff6604cecec63601ac7b66b6adeb3b715%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rt.com%2Fnews%2F598644-budapest-peace-march-nato%2F
https://x.com/wolsned/status/1796920750462361610?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1796920750462361610%7Ctwgr%5E03a1875ff6604cecec63601ac7b66b6adeb3b715%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rt.com%2Fnews%2F598644-budapest-peace-march-nato%2F
https://x.com/SILVERF26971227/status/1796957975979884981?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1796957975979884981%7Ctwgr%5E03a1875ff6604cecec63601ac7b66b6adeb3b715%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rt.com%2Fnews%2F598644-budapest-peace-march-nato%2F
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