Down with Wars!
(For Light and Life)

War! Do you know what the word war means? War is the action of taking hundreds of thousands of men in the prime of their lives to the slaughter, making them walk and live days and nights in the most continuous brutalization, thinking of the most advantageous way to hurl themselves at those who they do not even know, nor have done them any harm, preparing to plunder, burn, slaughter all the young people they find in their destructive path, and ready to form lakes and rivers with their blood on the battlefield. How horrible is this!

To dispossess a smaller thief (a nation) for the benefit of a bigger one, in defense of a rag called a flag, of a little fatherland in whose soil the fruit of their energies is exploited daily and where spouses, mothers and small children, all prone to die of pain and hunger, have been left abandoned and without resources.

Patriot of this fatherland that tyrannizes you!

Reflect!

You have realized that war is going to be declared; you are hastily called to the barracks.

You leave home and the workplace through which you supported your family, which you abandon, leaving them in misery, to run to defense of the fatherland, of your exploiters. Yes, only theirs, because you, a miserable worker who lives off the fruits of your labor, have no fatherland. Your fatherland is the planet Earth, even more so, it is the entire Universe. The men you call enemies are your brothers… Yes, your brothers in exploitation, who suffer the same tyrannies that you endure, whom you do not know, and not knowing them, cannot be your rivals.

Answer me:

What does the fatherland do in times of peace, for the sake of you patriots?

What will it do after the war is over?

Will it give you a piece of conquered land if it is victorious?

Reflect!

If you return from the war healthy and without punctured skin, you will find your home in an already frightful misery. That is, if you have left any economy behind.

Oh, how dearly it costs you to defend the fatherland of your masters, you patriotic imbecile!

Enough is enough! It is necessary to destroy the army and privileges; but for that it is necessary, it is of indispensable necessity, that you enlighten yourself, that you understand and conquer your rights. For if it is necessary to shed blood, do not hesitate; but never even half a drop in defense of our enemies; the exploiters…

Reflecting on the example of past wars, you will proclaim after me. Down with wars! Death to militarism! Long live the righteous and the Universal Fatherland!

Isolina Bórquez
Antofagasta, Chile