Dear Friends of Peace, Justice, and the Environment,
Our cities are languishing in debt; our communities cannot afford to provide essential services and maintain infrastructure; and our states and municipalities are cutting services, raising taxes and demanding give-backs from public workers. Working families are less and less able to earn enough to cover their expenses and racism scours the land with deep, seemingly intractable violence.
At the same time, Congress lavishes a treasure year after year on the Military Industrial Complex. Practically every member of Congress votes to increase this huge giveaway, expecting a portion of it will return to his/her state or Congressional District, thus further militarizing the state and local economies. The whole system is sinking due to the weight of the military budget.
The obvious contradiction between the shiploads of gold the government pours into the wars and killing machines and the country’s inability to maintain its decaying infrastructure is being systematically hushed by Congress and the Executive, abetted by the mainstream media. They rarely, if ever, talk about the military budget and the enormity of its destructive impact on our people and our society.
The present disastrous situation calls for an urgent response by the people. To this end, dozens of peace and justice activists from various states — including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, North Carolina, Illinois, Kentucky, Colorado, and California — are collectively launching a Move the Money to Human Needs! campaign to help generate the necessary mass mobilization against the present misplaced budgetary priorities.
The purpose of Move the Money to Human Needs! campaign is to bring into the public discourse the destructive impact of the military budget on the lives of the American citizens and the civilian economy, and to mobilize a nationwide grassroots movement to reallocate funds away from the military budget and to basic human needs of the population — education, housing, health care, transportation, physical infrastructure. In light of the failures of the federal, state and local governments in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, the urgency of cutting the military budget and using the funds for social services has become more obvious than ever.
We acknowledge the efforts made by several peace groups and local peace, social justice, and environmental justice coalitions in the past and currently, and stress that our work is not a substitute but the continuation of the same work at a broader level. This is a broad campaign operating under name of Move the Money to Human Needs!, in which all participating organizations are equal partners. Our goal is to bring forces together to create the broadest and most effective campaign against wasteful military expenditures, not to compete with others.
As the first step in this campaign, we are organizing a nationwide collective effort to pass city council resolutions in every city across the country, demanding that the military budget be cut and the funds be reallocated to human needs.
We recognize that state and city governments have no say in allocation of funds to the military. But we are also aware that the state and local governments are most impacted by lack of funds for healthcare, education, jobs, infrastructure and all other human and community services. We need to mobilize our local elected officials to raise their voices against the wasteful runaway military budget and demand that the federal funds be redirected to serving the human needs.
We invite all supporters of peace, social justice, the environment, and human rights to join us in the collective effort by endorsing this campaign, creating local Move the Money to Human Needs! campaigns with the participation of all interested activists in their area, and demand that their city councils pass resolutions calling on the U.S. Congress to reallocate funds from military to human needs.
Your can join this broad campaign by taking the following steps:
- Endorsing the Money for Human Needs! campaign, individually or organizationally.
- Joining the campaign and helping organize a local grassroots campaign to pass city council resolutions in your area.
- Making a much needed financial contribution to help with the operation of the campaign.
- We have created a web site (https://MoneyForHumanNeeds.org) which will serve as an organizing and educational tool as well as information clearing house for this campaign. We invite you to send us reports of your activities and efforts in support of the move the money campaign so we can publicize them. We also ask you to send us any relevant informational and educational material that you come across on the internet, or write about your experiences so other activists can benefit from them.
Thank you for your support.
Coordinating Committee of
Move the Money to Human Needs!
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Move the Money to Human Needs!
• MoneyForHumanNeeds.org • admin@MoneyForHumanNeeds.org
