Take action to MOVE THAT MONEY!

WILPF US Continues Our Call for Peace Campaign

Our Call for Peace Campaign, described in the March 2021 eNews, has two demands: to the United Nations Security Council, to extend the current global ceasefire, and to the US Congress, to cut all military spending by 50% and move the money to fund human needs.

We have prepared four resource guides on why we must reduce the US’s bloated military budget and where that saved money could be used to benefit human needs; they provide you with background information and actions that you can take from your home.

Image Credit: From Global Campaign on Military Spending GCOMS. Image used under Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Guide #5: “Your Tax Dollars at Work in the Middle East”

This is a guide to US military expenditures in the Middle East and North Africa region. You will be astounded by how many billions of your tax dollars go to supply expensive weapons to countries such as Morocco and Saudi Arabia. Learn what these dollars could accomplish if redirected toward constructive rather than destructive purposes and how you can work to accomplish this goal of moving the money. Read Guide #5 here.

Guide #8: “National Military Spending and Your Town”

This guide explains how to find out the dollar amount collected from your community’s taxpayers that is going into the US military and what it could have been otherwise spent on that benefits your town. This guide also shows you how to visibly share this information in your town. Read Guide #8 here.

Guide #9: “Moving money out of the military budget into programs to benefit poor people”

This guide uses the Moral Budget of the Poor People’s Campaign and their Jubilee Policy Platform to show how to move $350 billion from the military budget into programs benefitting the poor. Read Guide #9 here.

Guide #12: “Letters to Leaders and Resolutions about Treaties and Reducing the Military Budget”

This guide features examples of letters to be completed by WILPF members on these topics: asking for reductions in military spending; support for pertinent federal bills, and adherence to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). There are sample letters to be sent to the US President, all members of our US Congress, state and city legislators. It also includes sample resolutions for city councils to pass calling for support of the TPNW and reductions in the so-called defense budget. Read Guide #12 here.

Watch for additional resource guides, coming out soon. The members of the team producing these guides for your informed activism include Dianne Blais, Deetje Boler, Vicki Elson, Odile Hugonot-Haber, Michael Ippolito, Robin Lloyd, Linda Cataldo Modica, Margaret Pecoraro, Barbara Taft, Ellen Thomas,  Marge Van Cleef, and the writers of this item, Cherrill Spencer, Coordinator of Resource Preparation Team for the Call for Peace Campaign, and Nancy Price.