Global Days of Action on Military Spending (GDAMS) – April 13- May 9, 2019

Money for People, Not for War!

Join us in organizing to move money from the Pentagon’s staggering budget – more than the world’s next eight greatest military spenders combined! – to fund essential human needs, including building a 21st century environmentally sustainable infrastructure.

GDAMS is part of a global campaign to push governments to increase investments for health, education, employment and climate change rather than the military. The campaign extends from the Saturday before Tax Day, April 13 through May 9, when the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute releases its annual report on global military spending. There will also be events before then, including two nationwide webinars, March 7 with Neta Crawford of the Cost of War Project and Mark Dunlea of the People’s Climate Movement and March 14 with Lindsay Koshgarian of the National Priorities Project and William Hartung of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy.

The oceans are rising. Extreme weather is the new norm, and we are told there’s no money for a Green New Deal.

Students and graduates are groaning under the weight of student loans, while in many other countries higher education is free.

44,000,000 U.S. people have no health insurance, while it is free in many other countries.

15,000,000 U.S. households struggle to survive with food insecurity. Half a million are homeless, while we waste hundreds of billions of dollars on weapons.

The Pentagon is demanding $750 billion to prepare for and fight wars Iran and Venezuela and across the Indo-Pacific, with $8 billion for a wall and $210 million for troops on the Mexican border.

Spending is on track for more than $1.2 trillion to upgrade the omnicidal nuclear arsenal and delivery systems.

Last year 45 GDAMS events were held across the country, helping to inform our neighbors, fellow and sister students, opinion makers and others about how massive and destructive U.S. military spending is, and how that money could be better used to provide real security for our neighbors, people across the country, and internationally.

Instead of devoting more than half of the government’s discretionary spending to finance the Hell of war, along with preparations for genocide and omnicide, we can take action — with Congressional visits and sit-ins, public forums, demonstrations, penny polls on street corners — to demand that our elected representatives redirect the money wasted on the Pentagon’s wars and waste, to preserve the peace, health and security of our people and nation.

Our goal is clear: cut the Pentagon budget and fund human needs. We also seek to reinforce the Congressional Progressive Caucus’ People’s Budget, the Pentagon Budget Campaign and other parallel campaigning. To prevail, we need to involve even more activists and organizations, including you, to join us.

As Noam Chomsky reminds us: Tax Day should be a day of celebration, not mourning. It should be a time to rejoice at funding our children’s schools, building the energy infrastructure to ensure economic opportunity, to sustain the environment, and ensure opportunity for all.

The Global Days of Action on Military Spending provides a unique opportunity to speak truth to power and demand a reordering of our national budget priorities. Together we can make the needed changes. For more information click here or write: JGerson@afsc.org

Participating organizations: American Friends Service Committee, Campaign for Peace Disarmament and Common Security, Grannies Peace Brigade, National Priorities Project, National War Tax Resistance, United for Peace and Justice, and World Beyond War.