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| Photo: Gearóid Ó Loingsigh |
In a recent article on the decision of the Petro government to add extra money to an already existing contract with Israel for the maintenance of the KFir, whilst it considered the replacement of the planes, I commented on the Mandatory Social Service that the government introduced. I described it as cheap labour for the rich and I received a complaint on this point that says that the kinds of service contemplated did not include that type of work. He has a point regarding a throwaway comment by me that was a little imprecise, as those who carry out the social service will not be the direct employees of some rich family or other or some multinational company either. But they are in fact cheap labour and in this article, I aim to explain the problems with this new mandatory military and civil service model.
In July of this year, Law 2384 of 2024, which in turn changed Law 1861 of 2017 that was in force on the issue of the forcible recruitment to the ranks of the Colombian army i.e. the so-called Military Service. But this law does not, at any stage, break with the military logic nor does it challenge those who agree with forcible recruitment by the state. Throughout the conflict a lot has been said about forcible recruitment by the guerrillas and paramilitaries, but the main forcible recruiter is never mentioned: the state. To describe it as such may annoy many, but do the youth really want to do the service? We know that there are many refuseniks who have never turned up at the barracks and lack the prized military card that the rich simply buy. It has been calculated that there are more than 600,000 such refuseniks.
Law 2384 offers some opportunities for study to those recruits who are not secondary school graduates, but maintains the differences between these and those who have completed their secondary education. Those who didn’t serve 18 months, whilst those who did serve 12 months. The difference between them is family income and in some cases the rural/urban divide. There is nothing progressive in keeping those class differences alive. Poverty and the lack of real opportunities in life are punished, regardless of whether the military service includes some element of study or not. If it is about chances to study, well they could just offer courses, without any need to force them to join a military, police or prison service.
Now Article 11 of Law 2272 created the Social System for Peace as an alternative to military service. There are eleven options, various issues such as education, protection of the environment, work with victims of the armed conflict, looking after disabled people and older vulnerable people, people affected by natural phenomena or threats etc. They are all activities that should be the reserve of the state both in war and peace, and looking after disabled people or old people is something for the health, education and housing system. But it is not the case. Social programmes that exist in other countries and are managed and implemented by well-paid professionals, will in Colombia be badly paid jobs carried out by poorly trained people from the Mandatory Social Service. Why not train those youths in those fields and pay them a proper wage?
What the government aims to do, is to introduce a partial change, a new rule that almost certainly seems “progressive” to them as the youths can opt not to do their military service. It is regulated by a decree which the next government can and will undoubtedly change. There is another option which would be more difficult and cumbersome for the next government to change: abolish military service.
In other parts of the world the mandatory social service was not viewed as an alternative to military service but rather as the flip side of the same coin. The argument put forward was that the state kidnaps the youths, to either enlarge the ranks of the military as cannon fodder or carry out social services that the state does not want to take responsibility for, paying good salaries, but rather as something “voluntary” that falls on the same communities at all times. This was done through a social service in the very institutions of the state, in outsourced bodies that took on state functions or in NGOs seeking cheap labour. This last situation may apply later on in Colombia, there is no lack of NGOs that do not want to pay good salaries to those other than the directors etc.
Spain is one of the emblematic cases of the fight against both services. There the youths opposed both things. The slogan was “that they not kidnap our lives” and 50,000 youths refused to carry out either service, which was seen as a crime at the time. They declared themselves Insubordinates. Almost 1,000 of them were sentenced and jailed.[1] Furthermore, “they were given sentences of complete barring from dealings with the state for periods of between 10 and 14 years”,[2] and that change was introduced by a socialist minister i.e. the so-called progressives of the period. The alternative system that offered a “social service” similar to that preached by Iván Cepeda, Petro and the rest of the Historic Pact also went into crisis.
At the same time, compared to the insubordination, the alternative service was seen by an increasing number of youths as something “easy” and not a bit “radical”. Hundreds of thousands applied to do it instead of the military service and they collapsed the system, as it was conceived of being a minority option and there were never enough places. Moreover, the movement managed to get many NGOs and associations to refuse to offer places and collaborate, which in practice was a real boycott of putting into place the alternative service, which ended up choking it. The majority of youths that opted for the service, in the end did not do it, due to the lack of places, which collapsed the entire civil and military recruitment system.[3]
And to further complicate the situation, some joined the army and declared themselves insubordinate once they had enlisted keeping the focus on militarism and the army.[4] The social service in Colombia is not an alternative to militarism, but rather an integral part of the military system. Those who do not finish their social service, unjustifiably as the decree reads, will be reported to the Ministry of National Defence. And how many places there will be is also a military decision.
Article 2.2.38.5.1. Rules on the authorization of places. The annually available places for the implementation of the Social Service for Peace shall be decided upon by the Technical Committee in line with the Annual Plan for Enlistment submitted by the Ministry of National Defence.[5]
And like a bad joke, amongst those who can put themselves forward are those “who run the risk of forced recruitment”, although military service is not seen as such. Now, whether it is the result of a campaign or just simply due to the lack of enthusiasm to do military service, what will happen to the youths who ask to do the social service but cannot find a place? Do they run again the following year? Do they have to do military service? We don’t know yet, but it is a weakness in the system that should be exploited to place the state system of forcible recruitment in a tricky position in the same way as they did in Spain.
The PH reached the same agreement with the military and the putrid Colombian oligarchy as the PSOE did in Spain with the vestiges, and at the time still serving functionaries, of the Fascist dictatorship of Franco. They dare not abolish military service and now come along with the tall tale of social service in order to block any anti-militarist movement. It is shameful and once more shows that under the PH, capitalism, militarism, the oligarchy etc. continue to work as before. Now those who kidnap the youth, do so with a smile on their faces and say there is an alternative that is still a type of forced recruitment, even if it is “civil”.
References:
[1] Barcelona Metròpolis (n/d) Que no nos secuestren la vida: insumisión. Jordi Muñoz.
[2] El Salto Diario (20/02/2019) 30 años de Insumisión. Josemi Lorenzo Arribas.
[3] IRG (05/2013) El movimiento de Insumisión al servicio militar en el Estado Español: en legítima desobediencia. Carlos Pérez Barranco.
[4] Ibíd.
[5] Decree 1079 of 2024
⏩ Gearóid Ó Loingsigh is a political and human rights activist with extensive experience in Latin America.
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