Across Europe governments have launched a continent-wide rearmament programme and the UK is taking a leading role. The social priorities of Europe are being reordered. In this country arms spending is set to increase to 5% of GDP while education spending languishes at 3.5%. There is no doubt as to where the money for the rearmament programme is coming from.
In response, European anti-war campaigners are congregating in Paris on 4-5 October. The conference is organised by French MPs from Le France Insoumise (LFI) and is being supported by the Stop the War Coalition as well as MPs and trade unionists from across the continent.
On Tuesday 23 September a press conference was held by the Foreign Press Association in London with Jérôme Legavre, LFI MP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, President of StW Brian Eno and StW officer John Rees. A transcript of Jérôme Legavre’s speech is below.
John Rees said: “The European governments’ have made their choice but many millions of people across Europe are making a different one. The Trade Union Congress voted to mount a wages not weapons campaign … in the last weeks there has been general strike action in France over issues which include foreign policy, and on Monday a widely observed general strike in Italy over the question of Palestine.
“The scene is set for a very profound political battle between the citizens of Europe and their governments over the question of rearmament. To that end we have collaborated across the continent calling an anti-war conference in Paris. Many thousands have signed up to attend and we are committed to hold a sister conference in London in 2026. Our aim is to cooperate with like-minded trade unionists and activists across the continent to give people the hope and prospect of an alternative economic order.”
Speech of LFI MP Jérôme Legavre at the press conference 23 September 2025 London
First of all, I would like to commend the initiative for this press conference and thank the organizer and participants, with whom we launched a broad appeal against the war a few months ago, along with several members of parliament from France, Great Britain, Spain, Belgium, Ireland, Greece and Sweden, as well as trade unionists and artists, including Annie Ernaux, Nobel Prize in Literature. Together, we are preparing an international conference against the war and the genocide of the Palestinian people, which will bring together delegations from about 18 countries, and a large anti-war rally that will take place in Paris on October 5th.
It is impossible to begin without mentioning the situation in Gaza and Palestine. I will not list all the atrocities that the state of Israel commits daily in Gaza and the West Bank. We can see it clearly: Netanyahu’s true goal in this war is the systematic eradication and expulsion of an entire population. It is about putting an end to the Palestinian people once and for all.
This is happening and is only possible with the complicity of the different governments. I am of course referring to the US government, the British government, but also the French government, which boasts of having recognized the Palestinian state, and yet continues to sell weapons to Israel.
Ammunition, military equipment, everything that passes through their ports and airports, kills children, women, and men in Gaza and the West Bank every day.
I want to commend the tens of thousands of people in Italy who decided yesterday to strike and demonstrate en masse against the genocide, against the complicity of the Meloni government.
I have a special thought for the dockworkers of Genoa and their union, whose spokesperson signed our call and is now on board the flotilla for Gaza, who declared: “If we lose contact with our ships, with our comrades, even for just twenty minutes, we will paralyze all of Europe.” They have our full support: they are showing us the way forward. I want to salute all the activists, including my colleagues and fellow MPs from LFI, who are currently sailing with the flotilla to break the blockade of Gaza.
All these initiatives are linked to the ongoing and relentless mobilization of the people. I am thinking in particular of the powerful demonstrations that have been taking place here in Great Britain.
The fight against genocide is the fight against our governments.
If I emphasize so strongly the horror of what is happening in Palestine, it is because the crushing of an entire people is the future, the face that this system and its governments promise to all of humanity.
That is why in France, LFI supports and claims sanctions, immediate embargo on arms shipments, and suspension of all commercial, academic, scientific and cultural agreements with Israel.
As you know, the French government has recently collapsed. Which, in itself and from my point of view, is excellent news.
But President Macron, who absolutely refuses to abandon his policies, has appointed his Minister of Defense, his Minister of War, as Prime Minister.
What a symbol: the current Prime Minister is the one who guarantees the arms deliveries to Israel, which amounted to 22 million euros in 2024.
He is the one who, in 2023, while the war in Ukraine had already claimed hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian and Russian lives said: “We must recognize that the war in Ukraine is an opportunity for the French arms industry.”
France is currently the second largest arms exporter in the world. And the new Prime Minister is tasked with passing a budget that will cut tens of billion euros from schools, hospitals, public services and social security and benefits.
All budgets are being cut in a country with 10 million people living in poverty. All budgets except those for the repressive forces and the military, which are increasing.
The current Prime Minister is one of those who approved Macron’s decision to obey Donald Trump’s orders, which demand that the military spending of each NATO member state be increased to 5% of GDP. The reality is that they are marching towards war. Destroying and plundering welfare, public services and social budgets is no longer enough for them; they want more. And they are preparing for it.
At the same time, in the USA, Trump has launched a real witch hunt against immigrants and is trying to impose a McCarthyist climate, intimidating and attacking anyone who resists.
The French government, and it is not alone, with its policies of racist stigmatization and discrimination against some parts of the population, is fueling the worst tendencies and fuelling the far right.
But looking at the situation, I am firmly convinced that there is a very deep aspiration among the people, among the workers: things must change radically.
On September ten, in my country, without waiting for any call from the national trade unions, half a million people took to the streets with one demand: “shut everything down, Macron must go!”
And on September eighteen, more than a million people demonstrated with their unions.
I saw the motion that was passed here, at the trade union congress’s convention, against increasing military spending. That is a tremendous point of leverage, not only in UK, but all across Europe.
The reality is that now is not the time for compromise or making deals with this system, with its leaders who profit from the destruction and chaos they create—a system that leads to barbarism. Now is the time to unite the activists, the forces that are fighting and taking action to break decisively with this system. And they will be meeting, in particular, in Paris on October fourth and fith.
Thank you for your attention.
There are a few tickets left. You can register here for the conference.