Then they have the choice of completing voluntary military service after another 11 months of military training or being taken over by the professional army.
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Those who still hesitate are lured with the statement that “you can quit at any time.”Īfter an extremely shortened basic training of 28 days, for which they receive a full soldier’s salary of 4,400 zloty (€925), the recruits are sworn in and admitted into the reserve. A full scholarship entices a commitment to a five-year service, and there is also supposed to be priority treatment when applying for jobs in public administration. It relies on financial incentives to integrate young people into the murderous machinery of militarism. The new system is clearly designed to exploit the abject poverty of large sections of the Polish working class, especially the youth. The massive expansion of the military and paramilitary units goes hand in hand with the strengthening of Poland’s longstanding state-sponsored radical right-wing forces. Since then, NATO’s nominally eighth-largest army has had problems finding enough personnel. Poland had abolished its general conscription in 2010. The militarisation of society and strengthening of extreme right-wing forcesĪ central component of Poland’s rearmament plans is the introduction of a one-year voluntary basic military service. As far as there is criticism of the PiS, this is merely a matter of tactical differences. The approval of all opposition parties makes clear that the war policy is supported both internally and externally by all sections of the ruling class. Prior to that, it had been adopted almost unanimously and without objection by both chambers of the Polish parliament (Sejm and Senate). The Defence of the Fatherland Act came into force on April 23. According to the government, the support fund will be worth 20 billion zloty (€4.2 billion) this year and around 50 billion zloty (€10.5 billion) next year. Since the government had a problem issuing government bonds due to economic reasons and high inflation, it rushed an amendment to the law through the Sejm (lower house of parliament) allowing for separate defence bonds. Its financing is fed from various channels-from government bonds and bonds issued by the national development bank BGK, from the state budget and the profits of the National Bank of Poland. It escapes parliamentary control and also circumvents the legal obligations (comparable to Germany’s debt ceiling) to consolidate the budget. The special fund is a centrepiece of the new law to ensure the financing of rearmament.
In addition, there will be billions more from a special fund to support the armed forces. Instead of 2.5 percent, the budget is now to increase to 3 percent of the GDP, and not in 2026, as was said, but in the coming year. By 2035, some $115 billion was to be invested in the army and its strength was to grow from 110,000 to 250,000 troops.Ī few months after the start of the war, the pace of rearmament was then increased again significantly. The defence budget was to be increased from 2.2 percent (about $13 billion) to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2030. While large parts of the already impoverished Polish population are being thrust into penury by the rapidly rising inflation and the consequences of the pandemic, Warsaw is using the war in Ukraine to push ahead and expand long-cherished rearmament plans.Īt the end of last year, PiS leader and then Minister of National Security Jaroslaw Kaczynski presented the “ Plan for the Defence of the Fatherland.” This revised the modernisation plan for the armed forces adopted in 2017. It acts as a provocative and aggressive ally of US imperialism in the region.Īfter the US and UK, Poland has promised Ukraine the third largest sum in arms deliveries, $1.8 billion, although its gross domestic product is only a fraction that of the major imperialist powers. The ultra-right Polish government of the Law and Justice Party (PiS) is playing a central role in NATO’s proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.