DEM VOLKE DIENEN

The outbreak of the war in Ukraine and the German government's course of rearmament are pleasing one person in particular: the arms industry. As the fourth largest arms exporter, the FRG is at the top of the war business and has a lot to offer. In 2021, more than ever was earned with German weapons. Now, with the new war and the lavish upgrades the German state wants to make to its armed forces, the arms industry's profits are likely to grow even more.

Just over a week ago, we already reported that the German imperialists want to allocate significantly more money to the defence budget in the future. According to what has been decided in the coalition agreement of the traffic light government, the so-called 2 per cent target of NATO is to be fulfilled, which states that 2 per cent of the gross domestic product is to be invested in the armed forces. That would be at least 73 billion euros a year, while last year's budget was still 46 billion. With the situation in Ukraine, where Russian imperialism launched a bloody war of aggression on 24 February, the situation has changed again. Even if the German imperialists did not wish for this war at this moment, they are now trying to get the maximum profit out of it. Above all, this war offers an opportunity to justify the increase in military expenditure and thus to meet the 2 per cent target.

We publish an unofficial Russian translation of the statement from Red Women's Committee Hamburg against the imperialist war in Ukraine, that has been sent to us.

Proletarians of all countries, unite!

Down with the imperialistic War!
German troops out of Eastern Europe and the World!

France's Interior Minister has announced that the left-wing internet platform "Nantes Révoltée" will be banned. The internet platform has existed for ten years and is accessed by millions of readers every month.

Early this morning, Russian imperialism attacked Ukraine. Putin deployed Russian forces on Ukrainian territory. Russia announced that it had destroyed the military infrastructure of the Ukrainian air force. The attack is happening from several sides, including from the Crimean peninsula and the territory of Belarus. Ukrainian President Selenskyj has declared a state of war.

At the Munich Security Conference last weekend, Federal Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) declared her intention to increase the FRG's military expenditure. Thus she said: "We will continuously increase this defence expenditure as well."

In the middle of last week, French imperialism announced that it was withdrawing its troops from the West African country of Mali. With France's withdrawal, the deployment of the German Bundeswehr, which is officially deployed in Mali with 1100 soldiers, is also in question. Even before France's decision to withdraw its troops, the German mission in Mali was increasingly on the line, because what has become clear is that this war cannot be won. The pretext of wanting to ensure stability in the region turned out to be more and more clearly a lie. With the two military coups in 2020 and 2021 at the latest, it has once again become clear that Mali is not a country in which the bourgeoisie succeeds in creating something like stability. In recent years, resistance, that is, what is usually called terror in the bourgeois media, has multiplied. Over the years, attacks on reactionary forces increased and doubled several times. In 2019, the average was two attacks per day perpetrated on imperialist forces.