The immediate predecessor of insubordination was the movement of conscientious objectors initiated in the last years of the Francoist regime, a movement seeking legal recognition of the right not to perform the, then, compulsory military service on conscience or moral grounds.[1] Conscientious objectors, therefore, refused to join the Spanish Armed Forces, but were nevertheless prosecuted and tried by it, and in many cases ended up in military prisons.[1]
In 1984, the Congreso de los Diputados passed a law on conscientious objection, which recognised the rights of objectors, establishing an alternative civilian service of 18 months, called "Prestación Social Sustitutoria" (Substitutionary Social Service, PSS), as an alternative to 12 months compulsory military service. The previous objectors were then amnestied and freed from military obligations.[1] A few of them, however, considered that the longer duration of the PSS penalised objectors, amounted to forced labour, and deprived ordinary workers of their jobs; they demanded complete abolition of military service.[1] Those objectors therefore rejected the amnesty and returned to Spain apparently ready to be called up.
When the army tried to enlist them again, the so-called "Insumisos" (insubordinates) refused to join either the army or the PSS. By doing so they committed a crime and were tried again, but the existence of a largely unfavourable public opinion to compulsory military service made the judicial proceedings, especially when the penalty included imprisonment, a considerable political cost for the government.
Refusal to perform military service was punishable under the military penal code, and was part of the jurisdiction of the army, with a minimum penalty of a year in jail. Refusal to perform PSS was punished by the ordinary penal code, with two years, four months and one day in prison.
In subsequent years the number of young people refusing to join the army or, once recognised as conscientious objectors, refused to perform PSS, exponentially increased. If repression of the "insumisos" was difficult, given the broad social support that they had, it was even more difficult when undertaken by the military courts, because the military courts were denounced by antimilitarists as "judge and jury" in the army's own cause, and because the accused were not part of the army, but remained civilians. Also, the adjudication of civilians by military courts and sending them to prison evoked for many the Franco era.[2] Thus, the army asked the government to release it from the task of repressing the insubordination movement, which was finally agreed by the government. From then the "insumisos" were tried by ordinary courts. Despite this, in the first years the ordinary courts continued applying military law. Later the ordinary courts judged the "insumisos" by applying a reformed version of the ordinary penal code that included the crime of refusing to perform military service, with an increased penalty to equate it to that applied for refusing to do PSS.[3]
Insubordination was mostly a purely antimilitarist movement. There were also, however, people who joined the insubordination for other reasons, especially, in more recent times, people favouring a professional army. One of the most important components of the insubordination movement were the Basque, Catalan, Galician or Canariannationalists, not necessarily anti-militarist, although the majority were also strong antimilitarists and antiimperialists; that especially applied to the Galicians and Canarians, who denounced the presence of any military force in their respective territories, and routinely protested against them. The BasqueAbertzale left also considered the Spanish army an occupation force in the Southern Basque Country, and campaigned for full withdrawal of any Spanish army from Euskadi;[4] who refused to serve in a "Spanish" army. Another reason for insubordination was the popular perception of the Spanish army as a fascist and/or francoist institution, a perception renewed by the various coup attempts in the 1980s, like the 23F in 1981 or the 2J conspiracy in 1985. Some people also opposed military service on religious grounds, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses or some pacifistChristians.[5]
Tactics and strategy
Regarding the strategy to follow in civil disobedience, there were also different viewpoints:
Some "insumisos" chose not to avoid prison, considering that the existence of prisoners of conscience favoured the objectives of the movement due to the high political cost to the government of having objectors in prison.
Another group, on the other hand, sought to avoid prison through an elaborate legal defence, as they felt that freedom (interim or final) was a small victory and that imprisonment could discourage young people of military age to join the movement.
A third group (sometimes known as the "invisibles") also declared insubordination to the courts, and did not go to their own trials, and did not accept orders to report to prison. They survived by hiding, at least until they were located and arrested. Many, however, managed to remain free until the total disappearance of conscription. This strategy was advocated and practised by the Colectivo Antimilitarista Pro-Insumisión (Pro-insubordinatio Antimilitarist Collective, CAMPI), that rejected the right of any court to judge the legitimacy of their ideas, and on the other hand considered the PSS an arbitrary punishment that provided the state with a free and forced workforce, removing employment opportunities to qualified persons for those functions. This group was active in many cities. The majority of anarchists also followed this tactic.
Those who could not be "insumisos" (for example, men who had already completed military service or women) put up initiatives of "self-incrimination": based on the legal principle that whoever incites someone to commit an offence is also guilty, they signed statements accusing themselves of promoting insubordination. Self-incriminations were generally not accepted by the courts. Many people used self-incriminations to establish an active link with the insubordinate movement, among them prominent intellectuals, politicians, filmmakers, singers, actors and other personalities and celebrities.
The Spanish insubordinate movement was a civil disobedience movement unparalleled in any other European country, its closest precedent in the Western world being the disobedience and insubordination to the Vietnam War in the United States.[6] Attempts to do something similar in other countries, such as Germany and France, failed due to the lack of a social base and popular support. The success of insubordination in Spain has been attributed to an antimilitarist sentiment supposedly rooted in the Spanish society and linked both to the resistance against conscription during the Carlist Wars and during the Rif War between 1909 and 1927, and even some have tried to establish a relationship of this movement to the wide diffusion of anarchism in Spain (a minor phenomenon elsewhere), specially in the first decades of the twentieth century.[7]
Insubordination was one of the main causes of the reduction of military service from 12 to 9 months and, later, of its total abolition. The other main cause was the 1996 pact between the People's Party and the Basque Nationalist Party and Convergence and Union in 1996, that included the disappearance of military service in 2001.[8]
Hundreds of "Jehovah's Witnesses" remain in prison, with sentences of more than ten years, for refusing compulsory military service. In the castle of San Fernando (Cádiz) over 200 conscientious objectors served long sentences, almost all members of Jehovah's Witnesses.
Project of "Voluntary Service for Development", as an alternative to military service, is presented. Receives more than 1,250 signatures of people willing to do it.
International nonviolent march for demilitarisation in La Linea, Andalusia, and Gibraltar. Fifteen nonviolent activists from different countries climb over the closed Spanish gate from Gibraltar into Spain; thirteen of them are taken under heavily armed guard the whole length of Spain to Port Bou, and deported to France.
The Human Rights Association granted their annual award to the conscientious objection movement.
The MOC defines its lines of action against the PSS: disobedience and total insubordination and boycotting the entities that collaborate with the implementation of the PSS.
1988
First year of the PSS.
The CNOC (National Council of Conscientious Objection) begins to reject collective conscientious objection statements.
Legislative Decree on the incorporation of women into the army. The first women enter the Spanish Army.[9]
1989
First collective presentations of "insumisos", that were both against military service and the PSS.
Covert amnesty: most objectors go to the reservation in "deferred integration".
43 objectors begin to fulfill the PSS.
Enrique Múgica Herzog, Minister of Justice accuses the "insumisos" of "using conscientious objection to destabilize the democratic state and of being supported by radical and violent elements" and warns them that "all the weight of the law" would fall upon them.
The Ministry of Defence declares that "there isn't a general feeling against conscription, but some social sectors contrary to the concepts of sacrifice and solidarity".
Military Service Law amended: the cases of insubordination will now be judged by the civil jurisdiction. Penalties were increased to 28 months.
1992
107 trials are held against the "insumisos".
The Progressive Union of Prosecutors publicly criticized the statement of the Attorney General of the State, requesting the imprisonment of the "insumisos".
First sentences absolving "insumisos", the majority in Barcelona.[10]
42.454 applications for the PSS, a 51% more than the previous year.
The 19.87% of the people called to join the military service declare themselves "insumisos", refusing also to do the PSS.[6]
56% of the Navarrese youth called to the military service or the PSS joins the insubordinate movement, rejecting both.[11]
Campaign or all or none denounces the selective repression.
Amending of the Prison Regulations: the "insumisos" will have more favourable prison conditions.
Start of the campaign of disobedience to the new prison conditions: the plante.
1994
A confidential report of the CESID about the antimilitarist movement was leaked to the press. The secret services have been monitoring it. This puts public opinion even more in favour of the movement.
Objectors serving in Bosnia-Herzegovina report their instrumentalization against the movement and sign a letter of support for the "insumisos".
PSS Special plan: subsidies are given to private entities that accept objectionists.
Juan Alberto Belloch, minister of Justice, publicly recognizes that the growth of insubordination is a "state problem".
188 insumisos are serving sentences in prison.
The "plantes" continue.
Limited hunger strike of 46 insubordinate prisoners at the prison of Pamplona. Dispersion of 8 of them.
1995
The new penal code was adopted. The "insumisos" will now be "disqualified", although jail still remains as a possible punishment for them.
The association of pro-insubordinate municipalities EUDIMA is created in the Basque Country . EUDIMA tries to prevent young people from their municipalities from being forcibly recruited by the army.
There are 348 "insumisos" at prison.
The Defence Ministry revealed that only one in five objectors makes the PSS.
The People's Party wins the elections and announces the full professionalization of the Armed Forces in 2003.
Professional recruitment figures fall, below three candidates per seat.
Takes effect, retroactively, the new Conscientious objector Law. The new law equals the length of compulsory military service and the PSS, and passes to the reserve to thousands of objectors on hold. The number of outstanding extension exceeds one million people.
The José María Aznar government announces that the replacement leaving the barracks in December 2001 will be the last to perform the compulsory military service, two years before the previous planning.
Last official conscription: festivities and antimilitarist actions in various parts of Spain.
460 "insumisos" partially pardoned by the government, no more people will go to jail for being against compulsory military service, the government announces. The disqualifications from holding public office are maintained for 4 years.
Demonstration in Alicante against the Day of the Armed Forces: 5000 protesters. Two antimilitarists of the Tortuga Group remaining 12 hours atop of a palm tree in the promenade where the parade was going to be celebrated.
2002
All the crimes related with insubordination disappear from the penal code. Amnesty to about 4000 processed and to the 20 "insumisos" that remained in prison.
Insubordination in popular music
One of the main ways of propaganda of the Insubordinate movement was music, mainly within the punk scene, but also in pop and pop rock, Metal, Ska and other scenes. Antimilitarist music was very popular among the youth during the campaign against Military Service. Some groups like Negu Gorriak even donated their profits to the movement. Among the most notable songs and hymns are:
^Mario López (2004) Enciclopedia de paz y conflictos.Granada, Universidad de Granada.
^Mario López (2006); Política sin violencia. La noviolencia como humanización de la política. Bogotá. Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios. ISBN978-958-8165-28-8
^Eoin O'Broin; Matxinada: historia del movimiento juvenil radical vasco. Tafalla, Editorial Txalaparta, 2004. ISBN84-8136-385-5.
^Arturo García Lucio; Insumisión, respuesta coherente al militarismo. Iglesia viva: revista de pensamiento cristiano, ISSN 0210-1114, Nº. 173 (SEP-OCT), 1994, pages 499-517.
^Xavier Díez; La insumisión voluntaria. El anarquismo individualista español durante la Dictadura y la Segunda República (1923-1938). Germinal: revista de estudios libertarios, ISSN 1886-3019, Nº. 1, 2006, págs. 23-58.
