Hello, good afternoon, I am Pablo García Cano from Madrid, I am going to speak on behalf of the coordinating team of the campaign that is being developed in the Spanish state in favor of an immediate ceasefire, a stop to the war in Ukraine.

I am a trade unionist of Comisiones Obreras (CC.OO.) Industry, member of its federal council and secretary of the works council of the John Deere agricultural machinery factory in Getafe, which has more than 1,100 workers.

In the Spanish state, around 20 events have been held so far in different cities of Madrid, Castilla la Mancha, Andalusia, Catalonia, the Basque Country and Valencia, with a total attendance of more than 1,500 attendees, mostly various activists, union leaders, politicians, or from different social entities with a great plurality. Thousands of signatures have also been collected in the call for an immediate ceasefire, a stop to the war in Ukraine. We started this campaign for a cease-fire to the war from the first moments of 2022.

First of all, I would like to tell you that in my factory on May 5 we had the opportunity to receive the visit of the president of the government, Pedro Sánchez, who came to see a dual training experience. Several members of the works council were able to welcome him and exchange a few words with him. We quickly put two things to him.

To support the possibility of maintaining and improving the partial retirement model with a relief contract in the manufacturing industry. This allows a worker with 33 years of contributions to retire at the age of 61 without losing purchasing power in his pension and that in exchange a full-time relief worker is incorporated under the same conditions. Instead of having to wait for the general retirement age, which this year is 66 years and 4 months. This is important for us, we included it in the agreement and now the company does not want to apply it.

Secondly, we told Pedro Sanchez that he should support and follow the orientation for peace that the president of Brazil Lula da Silva, a few days before, had said in Lisbon and in Madrid. We told the Spanish Prime Minister that our country should also listen to and defend these words of Lula for advocating an immediate ceasefire to the war in Ukraine, which is also affecting us so much throughout Europe on a social and economic level. Sanchez told us that indeed he values and appreciates very much the words and efforts of President Lula for peace and a ceasefire in Ukraine, but that he had also told Lula very clearly that we must also start from the fact that here there is a country that has been, that is being attacked and another country that is the aggressor, the one that has caused the invasion, millions of refugees and destruction.

Well, that is what Sánchez told us in a very brief interview. We wanted to take advantage of the occasion to bring up 2 concrete issues that concern us workers and that the occasion was not just a simple greeting, smiles and handshakes for photos.

At this moment, the Spanish political news is focused on the early call for general elections for July 23^rd by Pedro Sanchez after the electoral defeat in the regional and local elections of May 28th. Undoubtedly, the result will be very close and is not decided in advance. Although at the beginning the media and the polls predicted a clear victory of the right wing, there is now a certain recovery of the left wing. We will see what happens.

But if something strikes us is that in the pre-campaign and now in the election campaign it is really very difficult to follow a debate on concrete proposals. There is much insistence on talking about the possible pacts and electoral calculations of each bloc, rather than on a real exchange of proposals. Especially what we appreciate and what calls our attention the most is an absolute silence on the war in Ukraine and on everything related to the Spanish involvement in it.

No party speaks, inquires, questions or proposes anything about the war. No force explains, nor criticizes anything about the shipment that the Ministry of Defense is making of weapons and equipment to Ukraine, or about the Spanish deployment of 1500 soldiers, fighter planes, tanks, warships and missile systems in the NATO encirclement of Russia both in the Baltic and in the Black Sea. The government has recently decided to expand the utilization and use of American bases in Spain, and Sanchez was a solid supporter of Biden at the last NATO summit with the commitment.

All this without being presented, discussed or approved in Parliament. In the same way that the government has committed to double military defense spending and go from 1% to 2% of GDP, which will mean between now and 2029 to increase defense spending by 15 billion euros per year. It seems incredible that committing close to 100,000 million euros of public money in 6 years does not deserve any discussion or debate with light and stenographers and it is disturbing to suppose where this money will come from, from which social items they will want to cut or how the whole society will be held responsible if this expense means increasing the debt.

Our campaign is reaching hundreds of militants and union, political and social leaders, who participate in public events, thousands of people are signing in favor of an immediate ceasefire to the war.

We consider that, in spite of the information blockade, and the political blockade by which tacitly it seems that there is an agreement not to debate or criticize the war policy, the increase in defense spending and the involvement of Spain in the maneuvers and the NATO encirclement against Russia, in spite of everything, we consider that precisely the great economic powers and the great parties have to do this because they know that the immense majority of the working population in our country is against the war. Against the military war and also against the social war that is being waged here in the form of cuts, inflation and attacks suffered mainly by the workers.

Our campaign connects perfectly and is understood and accepted by broad layers of society. Our country stood up and mobilized 20 years ago against the sending of Spanish troops to Iraq by the Aznar government in support of the Bush and Blair governments. Our country has always fought against war and 36 years ago mobilized against the entry of Spain into NATO. The peoples have not yet said their last word. The social resistance and mobilization against the war we are sure that it will grow in our country and in all Europe, our coordinated activity in each country will be decisive for this to be so.

We are grateful to be able to participate in this anti-war conference and we encourage that we extend in all countries the initiatives and activities for the ceasefire, for the No to war, against the sending of arms to Ukraine, against the sending of troops, planes, tanks and ships to the encirclement of Russia and to demand to all our governments, regardless of their political color, that military expenditures should be allocated to social items and that we do not want to increase expenditures for war.

Pablo García Cano

Hello, good afternoon, I am Pablo García Cano from Madrid, I am going to speak on behalf of the coordinating team of the campaign that is being developed in the Spanish state in favor of an immediate ceasefire, a stop to the war in Ukraine.

I am a trade unionist of Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) Industry, member of its federal council and secretary of the works council of the John Deere agricultural machinery factory in Getafe, which has more than 1,100 workers.

In the Spanish state, around 20 events have been held so far in different cities of Madrid, Castilla la Mancha, Andalusia, Catalonia, the Basque Country and Valencia, with a total attendance of more than 1,500 attendees, mostly various activists, union leaders, politicians, or from different social entities with a great plurality. Thousands of signatures have also been collected in the call for an immediate ceasefire, a stop to the war in Ukraine. We started this campaign for a cease-fire to the war from the first moments of 2022.

First of all, I would like to tell you that in my factory on May 5 we had the opportunity to receive the visit of the president of the government, Pedro Sánchez, who came to see a dual training experience. Several members of the works council were able to welcome him and exchange a few words with him. We quickly put two things to him.

To support the possibility of maintaining and improving the partial retirement model with a relief contract in the manufacturing industry. This allows a worker with 33 years of contributions to retire at the age of 61 without losing purchasing power in his pension and that in exchange a full-time relief worker is incorporated under the same conditions. Instead of having to wait for the general retirement age, which this year is 66 years and 4 months. This is important for us, we included it in the agreement and now the company does not want to apply it.

Secondly, we told Pedro Sanchez that he should support and follow the orientation for peace that the president of Brazil Lula da Silva, a few days before, had said in Lisbon and in Madrid. We told the Spanish Prime Minister that our country should also listen to and defend these words of Lula for advocating an immediate ceasefire to the war in Ukraine, which is also affecting us so much throughout Europe on a social and economic level. Sanchez told us that indeed he values and appreciates very much the words and efforts of President Lula for peace and a ceasefire in Ukraine, but that he had also told Lula very clearly that we must also start from the fact that here there is a country that has been, that is being attacked and another country that is the aggressor, the one that has caused the invasion, millions of refugees and destruction.

Well, that is what Sánchez told us in a very brief interview. We wanted to take advantage of the occasion to bring up 2 concrete issues that concern us workers and that the occasion was not just a simple greeting, smiles and handshakes for photos.

At this moment, the Spanish political news is focused on the early call for general elections for July 23^rd by Pedro Sanchez after the electoral defeat in the regional and local elections of May 28th. Undoubtedly, the result will be very close and is not decided in advance. Although at the beginning the media and the polls predicted a clear victory of the right wing, there is now a certain recovery of the left wing. We will see what happens.

But if something strikes us is that in the pre-campaign and now in the election campaign it is really very difficult to follow a debate on concrete proposals. There is much insistence on talking about the possible pacts and electoral calculations of each bloc, rather than on a real exchange of proposals. Especially what we appreciate and what calls our attention the most is an absolute silence on the war in Ukraine and on everything related to the Spanish involvement in it.

No party speaks, inquires, questions or proposes anything about the war. No force explains, nor criticizes anything about the shipment that the Ministry of Defense is making of weapons and equipment to Ukraine, or about the Spanish deployment of 1500 soldiers, fighter planes, tanks, warships and missile systems in the NATO encirclement of Russia both in the Baltic and in the Black Sea. The government has recently decided to expand the utilization and use of American bases in Spain, and Sanchez was a solid supporter of Biden at the last NATO summit with the commitment.

All this without being presented, discussed or approved in Parliament. In the same way that the government has committed to double military defense spending and go from 1% to 2% of GDP, which will mean between now and 2029 to increase defense spending by 15 billion euros per year. It seems incredible that committing close to 100,000 million euros of public money in 6 years does not deserve any discussion or debate with light and stenographers and it is disturbing to suppose where this money will come from, from which social items they will want to cut or how the whole society will be held responsible if this expense means increasing the debt.

Our campaign is reaching hundreds of militants and union, political and social leaders, who participate in public events, thousands of people are signing in favor of an immediate ceasefire to the war.

We consider that, in spite of the information blockade, and the political blockade by which tacitly it seems that there is an agreement not to debate or criticize the war policy, the increase in defense spending and the involvement of Spain in the maneuvers and the NATO encirclement against Russia, in spite of everything, we consider that precisely the great economic powers and the great parties have to do this because they know that the immense majority of the working population in our country is against the war. Against the military war and also against the social war that is being waged here in the form of cuts, inflation and attacks suffered mainly by the workers.

Our campaign connects perfectly and is understood and accepted by broad layers of society. Our country stood up and mobilized 20 years ago against the sending of Spanish troops to Iraq by the Aznar government in support of the Bush and Blair governments. Our country has always fought against war and 36 years ago mobilized against the entry of Spain into NATO. The peoples have not yet said their last word. The social resistance and mobilization against the war we are sure that it will grow in our country and in all Europe, our coordinated activity in each country will be decisive for this to be so.

We are grateful to be able to participate in this anti-war conference and we encourage that we extend in all countries the initiatives and activities for the ceasefire, for the No to war, against the sending of arms to Ukraine, against the sending of troops, planes, tanks and ships to the encirclement of Russia and to demand to all our governments, regardless of their political color, that military expenditures should be allocated to social items and that we do not want to increase expenditures for war.