Andreas' Homepage

Why the Ministry for Peace is a particularly stupid idea

In PN 2472 Eddy Canfor-Dumas makes the case for a Ministry for Peace as part of the government. However, it seems he is so deeply rooted in government thinking that he does not even feel a need to explain why a ministry should be a good idea. We have ministries for everything that we (we? - or the government?) think is important, and obviously, peace is important, so we need a ministry as “part of government dedicated to pursuing and promoting peace”?

From 23 to 29 January the "policentric" World Social Forum (WSF) was held in Caracas in Venezuela, the country of president Hugo Chavez's "Bolivarian Revolution". No surprise then that the WSF received organisational and financial support from Venezuelan state institutions -- almost all ministries and the Metropolitan police, plus the nationalised state oil company PDVSA -- and that Chavez addressed the forum, and used it for one of his usual anti-imperialist speeches.
However, not everything is bright in the Bolivarian Revolution -- especially when you come from an antimilitarist background -- and the small but beautiful Alternative Social Forum, organised by Venezuelan Libertarians and anarchists -- and which took place in parallel to the state-sponsored event -- provided space for a more critical discussion of present day Venezuela.

In Russia, 23 February is traditionally the "Day of the Defenders of the Fatherland" — converted from the Soviet "Red Army Day".
But for the Chechens and Ingush it is the anniversary of the deportation of their entire people from the Caucasus to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzistan by Stalin back in 1944. They were only allowed to return in 1956, to a country which was then populated by Russians and neighbouring people — one of the sources of today's conflicts in the North Caucasus.

In this experimental article on visions-based on the writings of anarchist Gustav Landauer and the lyrics of 1970s German rock band Ton Steine Scherben - Andreas Speck argues that while visions should guide us, provide us with energy, and stimulate our imaginations, they shouldn't turn us into slaves to our ideals.
"Reality is realised in our time through the ideal, only through the ideal."

# Andreas Speck

Visions - a difficult topic during times of war and of increased militarisation and marginalisation of peace activists, but perhaps then, even more important.

Presentation at the WRI Seminar at Hill End, 29/30 July 2000

• Andreas Speck, Treasurer, War Resisters’ International

I could make it easy and simple, because anarchists aim to abolish the state – any state – and so why even think about linking with the state? Why even think of linking with an institution, that – from my perspective – is one of the main »causes of war« WRI seeks to abolish? Isn’t the state just an institutions that needs to be fought against?