Support our Swiss comrades against the proposal for “civilian service” to be voted on November 30!
In Switzerland, on November 30, 2025, a new proposal for compulsory military service will be put to a vote, under the guise of feminism.
While in France the Chief of Staff has addressed mayors to enlist them in a war effort in the face of an alleged imminent conflict on the country’s doorstep, we stand in solidarity with our Swiss comrades who are campaigning against the accelerated militarization of society. Here and there, the aim is to prepare the population to accept the war economy, against a backdrop of overt support for the genocide in Palestine—normalizing mass killings.
The NO to Citizen Service Committee, bringing together several left-wing organizations, has been formed to campaign against this initiative to strengthen the Swiss army. We are relaying and amplifying their arguments here.
Swiss citizens will vote on the popular initiative “For a committed Switzerland,” or initiative for “civilian service.”
The goal is to extend compulsory service (military and civil defense), which currently applies to Swiss men and women on a voluntary basis, to the entire population. This would double the current size of the Swiss army. This measure also infringes on the rights of foreign nationals, as they too could be enlisted without compensation, voting rights, or a guarantee of naturalization. Finally, if the yes vote wins, such a measure would likely abolish the civil service that has been in place since 1992, which is the only alternative to military service for conscientious objectors. Not only would the possibility of not serving in the army no longer exist, but the text also introduces a “guarantee of emergency personnel” to be maintained in Switzerland in the event of a “crisis.” This deliberately vague notion is left to the discretion of the political authorities in a context of rising militarism.
An anti-feminist initiative under the guise of equal opportunities and gender equality
The initiative in favor of universal “citizen service” is led in particular by Noémie Roten, a former soldier, who insists that this service would correct the injustice whereby only men are required to perform military service (although women can still volunteer) and would provide better access to employment and social protection. But beneath this rosy veneer, this initiative exploits the rights of women and gender minorities to justify its sole policy of integration into the army. The aim is to boost recruitment numbers, but also to strengthen national cohesion. Added to this is the failure to take into account the unpaid reproductive work of women and workers in the personal care, early childhood, and broader care sectors, which is mainly carried out by racialized people. The reality remains that it is the working classes who will die on the front lines and carry out the reproductive work behind them.
How can we not draw a parallel between Emmanuel Macron calling for France to rearm itself through birth rates on the one hand, and attempts to impose femonationalist groups during feminist demonstrations on the other? (1). A demographic effort that targets white women, while undocumented women are suddenly deemed useful to be enlisted.
Suppressing dissent, disciplining populations, militarizing women
All of this contributes to reinforcing the patriarchal model of society and rigidifying gender norms in order to prepare men for combat and women for their traditional roles as docile and devoted mothers. It is no coincidence that half of the funding for the “citizen service” initiative comes from Leopold Brügger, a Zurich pharmacist known for his anti-abortion views. Urging women to participate in the war effort or combat to enhance the image of martial institutions is a tired argument. It cannot hide the reality: the army is designed by and for men and continues to organize violence, both in its actions and within its ranks. Victims of sexual and sexist violence suffer a double punishment, dismissed for desertion or medical reasons.
In Switzerland, a report published in 2024 by the Confederation reveals that more than 90% of women or queer people surveyed had experienced sexual violence during their service and in recruit schools. The French army, one of the most feminized in the world, will always prioritize the cohesion of the brotherhood of arms, “the guarantor of its operational effectiveness,” rather than questioning its own impunity.
Money for wages, not the military!
Militarization also goes hand in hand with a whole range of austerity measures—such as the destruction of the healthcare system and cuts to the education budget—of which women are the first victims. In Switzerland, the army budget increased by €4 billion in 2024. In France, the military programming law allocates €413 billion to the “defense” budget, which will exceed that of education for the first time in 2026. The French government is working to bring young people into line instead of offering them jobs. The Universal National Service, created in 2019 for 15-17 year olds, before being abandoned, aimed to “transmit a republican foundation” and “support social and professional integration.” Internal school brochures glorifying the uniform, particularly for the grim November 11 holiday, are distributed in some of the 958 “defense classes” in mainland France and the 100 classes in the so-called overseas territories, reflecting the close relationship between the ministries of education and the armed forces. Worldwide, military budgets reached $2.72 trillion in 2024, to the detriment of infrastructure essential to the subsistence and social reproduction of communities.
Money for salaries, not for genocide!
France and Switzerland have never declared an embargo on arms and components sold to Israel. Switzerland has managed to become competitive in the market by specializing in components that are essential to the proper functioning of these arms (3). The weapons tested on Palestinians are sold in Europe to monitor borders, uprisings in working-class neighborhoods, and demonstrations (4). War crimes, white phosphorus, widespread use of AI, and counterinsurgency methods are envied.
Israel is sold as a model society: a militarized society, in kindergarten, at work, and in the family. And while Palestinian children are locked up and female resistance fighters are tortured (5), weapons are everywhere in public and private Zionist spaces, femicides have been on the rise since 2023, children dress up as soldiers for carnival, and schools teach that you have to kill to survive. And although 50% of conscripts do not serve or do not complete their service(6), refusing to serve is presented as treason, and no real public anti-militarist movement has been able to emerge.
The march to war: capitalism in crisis
In a global context of Western powers arming massacres in Palestine, normalizing genocidal discourse here encourages a widespread offensive by the far right and the bourgeoisie. Against our rights to escape exploitation, to move freely, to live in good health, to have control over our bodies, and to form families differently—our vision of the world, more desirable but hardly profitable.
The capitalist system is in crisis: it needs conflicts to ensure its material existence, to seize resources, territories, and common goods. This violence is sponsored by states whose industrial flagships have benefited from colonization, such as the chocolate and banking sectors in Switzerland.
The wars waged in our name not only worsen the living conditions of women* and peoples in the countries attacked, but also our own living conditions at the heart of colonial states. They always inevitably go hand in hand with sexist and sexual violence, rape as a weapon of war, but also a sharp increase (7) in domestic violence.
In a European context of strengthening identity, the daily struggle from the heart of empires is our absolute responsibility.
In the footsteps of the anti-militarist revolt of November 21, 1995, in Geneva, we, feminists:
- support the NO to Citizen Service Committee and call for a NO vote throughout Switzerland on November 30
- call for mobilization on November 29 for Palestine
- support all strikes against austerity
- Against the march to war and its economy, the arms race, and against any complicity with the genocide in Palestine
War on war!
Footnotes
(1) The same police tactic: Nemesis, Nous Vivrons, six of one, half a dozen of the other? Léane Alestra
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(2)
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(3)
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(4)
Collaboration entre Frontex et ELBIT system pour la surveillance de la mediterrannée b. Elbit System DRONE hermes900 achetés par l’armee suisse c. Entreprise suisse Knight Shield Sarl, fournit une protection balistique pour l’administration penitentiaire israelienne, enquete de RTS
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(5)
Khalida Jarrar and the Dismantle Damon campaign https://www.humanite.fr/monde/homme-ou-femme-du-jour/khalida-jarrar-deputee-palestinienne-en-retention
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(6)
Feminist network to demilitarize Israeli society and support refusal to serve in the army
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(7)
Since the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, domestic and intra-family violence in Ukraine has increased by more than 50% (La Déferlante)
Communiqué à l’initiative de
- MARAD juif decolonial (suisse)
- Coalition Guerre à la Guerre (France)
Signatures :
- CLAF! collectif en lutte pour l’autodétermination féministe (France)
- Boussole Féministe (France/Suisse)
- Révolution féministe Versailles (France)
- La Relève Feministe (France)
- Zora Paris (France)
- Mouvement Des Mères Isolées (France)
- collectif ISONOMIA (France)
- Cases Rebelles (France)
- Féministes Révolutionnaires Paris (France)
- KESSEM juifves féministes décoloniale (France)
- Young Struggle France
- Young Struggle Suisse
- Stop Arming Israël France
- UJFP (Union Juive Française pour la Paix)
- Jewish Peace Union
- Tsedek! Juif decolonial (France)
