Pepe Beúnza pioneered conscientious objection to military service in Spain in .
He was recently interviewed for el Periódico.
Excerpts [my translation]:
On , Pepe Beúnza, 23, was
tried by a military court in Valencia for refusing to perform military
service, then mandatory. He was sentenced to a year of imprisonment in a
punishment battalion in the Sahara.…
There are many things to object to.
Yes. Not to accept military propaganda, nor military expenditures. That
is to say, tax resistance. Now the army, which lacks all prestige, and
needs to find soldiers, searches for young people. Also the schools must
object.
Who must we obey?
Our own consciences, with responsibility. A person must have dignity,
responsibility, and freedom. This is what it is to be human.
, at the door of the Tax
Agency on the Gran Vía de Murcia there has been a public protest to mark the
launch of the tax year 2008 filing season in order to foment war tax
resistance.
As with every year, the tax resistance campaign is carried out by the
organizations Alternative Antimilitarist / Conscientious Objection Movement,
Ecologists in Action, and the General Confederation of Labor.
War tax resistance is an act of civil disobedience against an unjust law that
obligates us to pay for military blunders, and we make it publicly,
collectively, and conscientiously.
