Państwo polskie, zmagające się z coraz częstszymi kryzysami środowiskowymi oraz potencjalnym zagrożeniem militarnym ze strony Rosji i Białorusi, musi pogodzić się z potrzebą obowiązkowego zaangażowania wszystkich zakwalifikowanych obywateli w działania na rzecz budowania szeroko rozumianej odporności społeczeństwa.
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To most political elites, the current flooding devastating southwestern Poland is part of the political narrative. For the ruling coalition, it is a moment to demonstrate the efficiency of state bodies, for the opposition - an ideal opportunity to point out the inefficiency of the government.
https://krytykapolityczna.pl/kraj/feminizm-wojsko-pobor-cwiczenia/
Despite the impressive involvement of the uniformed services in countering the effects of the flood, the response to the natural disaster resembles more of a hasty move than a systemic preparation of Polish society to respond to external threats. Left Together is, in fact, the only party in parliament that has published a specific position on state defense in 2023. However, the grouping led by Adrian Zandberg and Magdalena Biejat falls into the same liberal trap as other parties, categorically rejecting discussion of the return to the institution of basic military or civilian service.
No defense without responsibility
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Politicians and politicians of the Left Together often emphasize the key role of civic duties in the state defense system. The establishment of branches of the Civil Protection Service, reporting to governors in peacetime, is a concrete proposal, though unfortunately insufficient. The Polish state, grappling with increasingly frequent environmental crises and the potential military threat from the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus, must come to terms with the need for mandatory involvement of all qualified citizens in efforts to build the broader resilience of society.
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We can learn responsibility for collective security from our European allies. The countries of Scandinavia, the Baltic, Austria or Switzerland present ready-made solutions to the problem of citizen involvement in conscription service. Leaving aside the Baltic states, where compulsory military service stems from a real threat of armed confrontation with a much stronger neighbor, in Scandinavia or Austria it stems from a social democratic understanding of citizens' duties to the state. In these countries, the obligation to perform military or civilian service is linked to the belief in the important role of conscription in building social solidarity, national consciousness, or active participation of citizens in the activities of public institutions. In Sweden or Denmark, compulsory service contributes to the integration of people with diametrically opposed political views, levels of education or class backgrounds. It is worth noting that sociological studies conducted in Sweden show that conscripts not only do not oppose compulsory service (the percentage of objectors does not exceed 4%), expressing sincere support for the institution of conscription.
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What's more, Denmark has become the third country after Sweden, Norway and Israel to include women in conscription. This breaks the historical exclusion of women from the male-dominated national defense. Surveys show that women in military service declare support for this duty. Scandinavian conscripts emphasize gender equality, as well as the equality of all male and female citizens in the effort for the common good.
It takes men to go to war
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Left Together seems to have objections to the planned size of the Polish Armed Forces, provisionally set at 300,000 soldiers. However, Poland is currently in the midst of a hybrid war waged by Belarus, and depending on the outcome of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, could find itself under direct military threat from a neighbor that has an army of one million more soldiers than ours. It would therefore be appropriate to show some maturity and think about who will defend Poland in the event of a conflict. The scale-impressive modernization of the Polish Armed Forces must go hand in hand with building up the size of the army.
https://krytykapolityczna.pl/kraj/wojsko-cwiczenia-rezerwa-pobor/
In this context, the example of Ukraine is closest to us. The introduction of basic military service after the 2014 invasion of Donbas allowed the Ukrainian Armed Forces to adequately mobilize, rotate and replenish line units. What's more, basic military service enables the formation of local resistance foci and the organization of the civilian population. While it's hard to imagine non-professional soldiers operating Patriots or Abrams, it's already possible to train to operate Thunderbirds or Javelins.
However, it is impossible to wage war today without adequate human capital. This statement follows directly from the war doctrine of the Russian Federation, which now and in the future will conduct hybrid and asymmetric conflicts. In Ukraine, Russia is waging a war in which the strategic goal is to exhaust the human, material or morale resources of the opposing side. In order to build real resilience in Polish society, it is not enough to look back with satisfaction at the sums spent on modern military equipment, for it is only one of the elements that constitute effective resistance to a potential attack.
No need to "chase with a rifle"
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European and even global models of essential (non)military service make it clear that citizens' responsibilities for state resilience do not have to focus on military service. Israel provides a great example of a country where IDF conscientious objectors feed into Sherut Leumi, the alternative public service. Most of the 20,000 people a year who feed into the public service work in state education, although Israeli conscripts can be found in administration, hospitals or social welfare institutions.
https://krytykapolityczna.pl/kraj/armia-w-ruinie-pikniki-dozynki-i-kursy-zbierania-wisni-rozmowa/
European countries with alternatives to military conscription are doing very well. Austria's Zivildienst, a compulsory 9-month civilian service, incorporates conscripts into health care, social welfare organizations and even the prison service. In 2023, more than 45 percent of qualified conscripts (15,000 recruits) refused to serve in the Austrian Armed Forces, supporting the activities of the public administration and other public sectors.
In Sweden, where conscription was reinstated in 2023, the Emergency Situations Agency was tasked with training Swedish objectors in civil defense, including emergency medical work. Swiss ones serve in the fire department or police, while Danish service includes volunteering for other countries. Countries with compulsory military service thus offer their citizens a range of opportunities in working for the functioning and safety of their communities.
Contrary to appearances, conscription does not have to mean "chasing with a rifle." It can assist often undervalued public sectors, such as education or health. Such a model could be of particular interest to MEPs Joanna Wicha and Paulina Matysiak, as European conscripts often work in nursing or public transportation, public sectors perennially struggling with staff shortages.
Let's put an end to the neoliberal mentality
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The suspension of Poland's essential military service in 2010 should be placed in a broader, global context. The origins of the global wave of professionalization of the army took place in the United States in the 1970s. Milton Friedman, the charlatan of neoliberalism, pointed to the withdrawal of conscription in the US as his greatest achievement in a recent interview. Using economic analysis, Friedman argued that conscription is extremely unproductive, as citizens are deprived of the opportunity to contribute to the development of the economy, and the effectiveness of reluctant conscripts is incomparably less than that of professional soldiers (although Friedman's arguments are refuted on a daily basis by Ukrainian conscripts operating drones or US HIMARS launchers and M777 howitzers), who, motivated by economic motives, will defend the homeland much more effectively.
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However, under the cloak of objective economic arguments is contained a clearly defined political ideology of neoliberalism. A philosopher with an ethic similar to Friedman's, libertarian Ayn Rand, called conscription the worst of "statist violations of individual rights." Under the guise of economic science, moral arguments about the limits of state interference in a citizen's life were hidden. In 1973, two cultural movements triumphed. On the one hand, the global fuel crisis ushered in the displacement of Keynesian policies in favor of belt-tightening policies made famous by the later governments of Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and Leszek Balcerowicz. On the other hand, the apogee of protests against the Vietnam War led to the withdrawal of conscription in the United States. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the ideology of neoliberalism, which dominates our culture to this day, came to the rebuilding Third Republic. Much has been written about the influence of institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank on Poland's political transformation, but rarely mentioned is the fact that the requirements to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization required the Polish Armed Forces to make budget cuts and mass layoffs of personnel, a mirror image of Balcerowicz's shock therapy. In order to qualify for NATO, Poland had to meet a series of technical modernization requirements, and the purchase of modern military equipment was made at the expense of professional soldiers, retirees or the overhaul of infrastructure, then in deplorable condition.
Left on conscription
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The modern left, however, can draw on a number of philosophical arguments in favor of conscription. Michael Walzer, a noted American political scientist and communitarian, argued that national defense is a common good for which all citizens are responsible, and that the burden of defense should be shared by society as a whole, not just by those who are paid to do it. The vision of equal distribution of civic responsibilities was echoed by the most prominent political philosophers of the likes of John Rawls, Jurgen Habermas and Charles Taylor. A similar view was held by Jean-Paul Sartre, who argued during the Algerian War that fighting for freedom, self-determination, or resistance to oppression constitutes a moral obligation.
However, the state cannot take away the right to determine the life and health of its male and female citizens. Hence modern conscription systems place so much emphasis on the civil service alternative. Those who, for political, ethical or religious reasons, do not wish to join the military, should have the right to serve the common good in other ways.
https://krytykapolityczna.pl/kultura/czytaj-dalej/kobiety-wojsko-armia-grzegorz-kaliciak/
For conscription to fulfill its primary role in equalizing civic obligations, it must not replicate social inequalities that exist outside the institution. In the ill-conceived institution of conscription, those with higher education or financial status are given more secure positions than less well-placed citizens, becoming "cannon meat." In some ways, this problem is difficult to solve - it's hard to send a surgeon to the front line, only to prove that everyone is equal.
However, there are conscription systems where social inequality is eliminated as much as possible. In Israel, every conscript undergoes a series of physical, psychological tests, and interviews under the Tsav Rishon system. Such a system allows the conscript's civilian socioeconomic status to be excluded. In order to get into an officer's course, conscripts must receive a given number of points from psychometric tests assessing, among other things, decision-making or logical thinking ability (unlike in Poland, where only having a master's degree entitles one to an officer's course). Although far from ideal, such a system allows for the equalization of class differences among recruits, minimizing the influence of background on position in the military hierarchy.
For now, it's enough to break the ice
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It's hard to imagine what threats Poland might face if it were not in NATO, especially watching Russia's invasion of Ukraine. However, it is worth at least leaning into the thesis that the withdrawal of conscription was (and is) part of a global ideology that the "real" left should fight against.
For the Left, the discussion of basic military or civilian service may prove to be a non-obvious but defining programmatic demand. On the institution of modern conscription can be built social solidarity, national consciousness or integration of different class backgrounds. Most importantly, the Left could manifest political maturity by accepting that caring for the common good requires not only ambitious state policies, but also commitment on the part of citizens.
https://krytykapolityczna.pl/kraj/chleba-i-czolgow-czyli-po-co-lewicy-wojsko/
A potential declaration to reinstate conscription would have a disastrous effect on the support of the permanent electorate of the "cafeteria left," whose pro-statehood is all too often in an asymptotic form. Setting aside the environmental aversion to the military, the revulsion against any compulsory service to the state is a disappointing example of the liberal identity of left-wing voters. However, the call for conscription could be persuasive to voters outside the leftist bubble, if only to those who were outraged by the dismantling of the CPK construction project. The conscription declaration could represent an ambitious commitment by the left to construct a coherent vision of civil society from the left side of the political spectrum.
To paraphrase Beata Szydło: Dare, Left!.
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Matthew Kacperski - a history graduate from Oxford, where he defended his bachelor's thesis on the ideology of neoliberalism in the Polish Army after the political transformation. He works in the arms sector, where he represents foreign companies in the process of technical modernization of the Polish Armed Forces. He recently completed Voluntary Basic Military Service.
