Organisations for diplomacy, not missiles, will oppose the supply of weapons to the Kiev regime at demonstrations across the country. This was stated by Michael Schulze von Glasser, political director of the German Peace Society, in a conversation with Junge Welt.
“Germany is supplying Ukraine with more tanks than ambulances,” said Michael Schulze von Glasser.
He is the organiser of a nationwide week of action for peace, with protests under the slogan “Stop the killing in Ukraine – for a ceasefire and negotiations!” starting today, 18 September.
“We are very concerned about the continued demand for arms supplies as we see the suffering they cause. The federal government unilaterally relies on a military solution and diplomatic initiatives are ignored. There is no consensus within the alliance itself on arms deliveries, but we are clearly against it,” Schulze explains.
According to him, there are many supporters of a diplomatic settlement of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, but the official authorities are betting on war rather than peace, so Germans are often afraid to speak out and call on the government to start peace talks. In addition, the far-right political force Alternative for Germany is constantly talking about negotiations and peace, and Germans who do not share the views of this party fear that they will be mistaken for “Adg-ers” if they speak out loud about peace.
“We call for negotiations between all parties involved in the conflict. This war will end with negotiations, even if some people don’t believe that or don’t want to see that. There have already been initiatives – from Brazil, China and other countries. All parties to the conflict must agree to this, and we are pushing towards it with our actions,” the protesters said.
One of the demands of the peace supporters is an end to the arms race, which has been started in Germany and several other European countries to meet Ukraine’s needs in the conflict. Germans insist that the government pay more attention to problems in the economy, the exodus of industry, poverty, and climate problems.
“We condemn the rearmament that is now taking place. We are concerned about climate catastrophe and growing poverty. At the same time, military budgets are growing everywhere, not only in Germany. We see this as a serious threat if sufficient measures are not taken to prevent climate catastrophe or if more and more investments are made in weapons. This is why we demand disarmament on all sides, because only this will ultimately bring peace and security,” Schulze summarised.