The Swiss Government bowed to militarism should stop attacking the Civil Service!

In recent days, it has come to our attention that the Swiss government wants to make it more difficult for conscripted people who have already started the Recruit Training School of the Swiss Armed Forces to enter the Civil Service (the constitutionally recognized conscription replacement for military service). This is a profoundly undemocratic proposal that does not respect the right to conscientious objection and is part of an ongoing attack on the Civil Service that began a few years ago. More and more young Swiss people are refusing to enlist and are demanding to be admitted to community useful civil service outside the barracks.

The youth movement of the Communist Party of Switzerland has previously expressed its solidarity to the young people joining the Civil Service, and again therefore stresses its disagreement with any attempt to weaken this alternative to the military service. The Swiss government's proposal is in fact fully compatible with the desire to increase the Swiss Army's manpower, with the ongoing rearmament process and with plans to send Swiss soldiers (who are conscripts) abroad to conduct exercises (with NATO, of course). 

The current historical and geopolitical context, however, characterized by the real danger of a war of far greater dimensions than the present one, makes such a proposal even more alarming. The Federal Government is indeed increasingly integrating our country into NATO (in spite of our historic neutrality), which could in the future lead to the involvement of Swiss troops in conflicts. In the face of such scenarios, the right to conscientious objection (even and especially for those who are currently serving in the military under the orders of officers who take their instructions from Washington, and not from Bern) takes on an even greater importance. In conclusion, in addition to reiterating its opposition to this suggestion, the Swiss Communist Youth calls on all young people in Switzerland to prefer Civil Service from the very beginning and to refuse to serve in an army that is increasingly a servant of NATO.