[Note of Sans Nom: On the night of Monday to Tuesday, June 17, thirty-six vans belonging to war profiteers Telekom and Amazon went up in smoke in Berlin: 17 of the former’s vehicles in the Lichtenberg district, and 19 of the latter’s in the Britz district, within minutes of each other at around 3am. Here’s a translation of the communiqué on this anti-militaristic attack, which appeared on de.indymedia the same day]. Translated by Act for freedom now!
Anti-militaristic attack on army collaborators, Amazon and Telekom
Last night, several vans belonging to Amazon and Telekom were set on fire in the south (Britz district) and east (Lichtenberg district) of Berlin. Neither fences nor cameras were able to prevent anti-militarists from attacking these two army collaborators. Both companies benefit enormously from widespread militarization and wars. That’s why it’s appropriate to sabotage them.
Instead of a champagne reception, we chose to celebrate the opening of Amazon-Tower with the carcasses of burned out cars. But we don’t find this hideous building to be sickening only because of its impact on the neighborhood, but also because of all the other dirty tricks up the tech giant’s sleeve, and especially because of its active participation in war and genocide. Amazon’s servers and Cloud Services are used by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to store the huge amounts of data resulting from mass surveillance of the Palestinian population. With its subsidiary, Amazons Web Services (AWS), Amazon is one of the IDF’s partners. In 2021, AWS, Google and Microsoft signed contracts for the IDF to use their servers (Project Nimbus). Since the Israeli invasion and the complete destruction of the Gaza Strip that has resulted, the IDF needs much greater computing capacity to employ its military AI programs (Lavender, Where’s Daddy?).
For this, it is mainly AWS servers that are used. The IDF and AWS collaborate very closely and consult each other on certain air strikes. This means that the annihilation and starvation of Gaza taking place before our very eyes, the planned forced displacement of the entire population, and the AI-based massacre and mutilation of hundreds of thousands of people, many of them children, are calculated and stored on Amazon Web Services servers. But Amazon is also militarily active in several other fields: for example, as a major economic partner of the US military and as a generous sponsor of King Trump’s military parade last Saturday in Washington. State and Capital moving in the same direction towards fascism.
War, militarization, genocide and imperialist politics are all based on high technology today. To function, the state and global military system requires a highly complex technological infrastructure. In Germany, this is managed and developed by the state-owned Telekom. No war works without technology, and the German Federal Army benefits enormously from the militarization taking place worldwide. Telekom supports the Federal Army in the field of cyber-defense, and trains soldiers in IT. Companies like Telekom are profiting from rearmament, from the government’s 400 billion budget to make people “fit for war”, and from the reintroduction of military service.
In the same way, Telekom is making money as an IT supplier to border authorities, police and intelligence services, on the war against refugees on Europe’s external borders and on the increasing militarization at home. Nor have we forgotten that, they are one of the world’s largest telecoms providers thanks to its acquisition of the Greek telephone operator OTE under the Troika measures. Telekom was a major beneficiary of the wave of massive privatizations during the Greek crisis. For this reason, the company has already attracted a great deal of criticism, both here and elsewhere, becoming the target of numerous attacks.
In addition, Telekom is doing business with techno-fascist Elon Musk’s Starlink company through T-Systems. T-Systems offers the US and other countries a service that uses thousands of Starlink satellites to send text messages into space, despite zones without cell service. Elon Musk isn’t just a gleaming fascist, he’s the richest man in the world, and with his megalomaniac projects wants to colonize not just Earth, but also space and the planet Mars. In the race to see which macho man has the most satellites and the most power, he is closely followed by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, with his Project Kuiper satellite project (soon to include 3,200 satellites). These two companies now resemble non-state empires that also have ever-greater military importance: so Starlink not only supports the Ukraine and Israel in their military attacks with data – Musk also has the power to prevent these same attacks by not making Starlink data available. So, with their networks of technocrat companies, Musk and Bezos not only profit from war, they can now also determine its course.
We believe that today, as in the past, it is legitimate to attack the military’s collaborators. What’s surprising is not that anti-militarists are attacking military enterprises, but rather that not everyone who abhors war and mass murder is doing the same. What’s surprising is not that anti-militarists want to sabotage war, but that all those who are against militarization and rearmament don’t get active contributing to disarmament. What’s surprising is not that people are deeply affected by the genocide and war of extermination in Gaza and the forced displacement of Palestinian populations on the West Bank, but that half the world has apparently become accustomed to watching a far-right government commit genocide. What’s surprising is not that so many people are trying to stop this genocide, but that so few are trying to reduce to ashes the homes, businesses, warehouses and infrastructures that profit from and make possible this merciless bloodbath.
Whether in Palestine, Congo, Sudan, Ukraine or Myanmar – it’s the dominant who profit from wars.
Sabotage and revolt are right, it is right to demand life against militarism and the technologies of death, just as it is right to demand and defend antimilitarism against nationalism.
It’s right to liberate life from militarism and war, from the state and patriarchy.
Against all wars and armies.
Love & strength for Maya on hunger strike and for all the others imprisoned in the Budapest affair, for Nanuk, Daniela, and the anarchists N and M.
A hug and fiery greetings to Athens, where Marianna, Dimitra, Dimitris, Nikos and AK are being held prisoner in the Korydallos jail.
In memory of Kyriakos Ximitiri’s struggle
source: Berlin (Germany): 36 vehicles of war profiteers go up in smoke | Act for freedom now!