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Global Campaign on Military Spending

Demilitarize! Invest in People's Needs

GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION ON MILITARY SPENDING, 2016 edition: April 5-18 – Important information

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18 January 2016: Times change, and with them, our reactions to events. Here is the latest news about the Global Campaign on Military Spending :

1. The dates: This year’s Global Day/GDAMS will not in fact be a day but a fortnight! For diverse reasons it will be held from April 5th- 18th. On the 5th, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) will publish the global military expenditure figures for 2015, together with its analysis of the trends. The 18th is Tax Day in the USA, a traditional moment in the calendar for civil society to challenge the uses put to public money. This new style ‘Global Day’ offers our participants more scope to choose a suitable moment to organise events that fit local or national contexts. As usual, IPB will publish all events that are notified to us as being within the GDAMS framework.

World Congress on Military Spending, Berlin: ONE YEAR TO GO !

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Exactly 365 days from today will see the opening of the IPB’s world congress in Berlin: Disarm! For a climate of peace: creating an action agenda.

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Our aim with this congress and the related events is to make the issue of public spending on the military more visible in the media and in political debates. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals have just been agreed by the General Assembly. In December the world expects a bold agreement on climate change to be signed in Paris. Meanwhile the tide of refugees arriving in Europe shows no sign of slackening. All three issues require major commitments of public money. Where better to find these resources than from the military, which time after time shows it is incapable of solving international tensions and conflicts? Every year $1700 billion are spent on a system whose actions seem only to make crises worse.
MORE INFORMATION HERE!

 

Pope Denounces Arms Trade – Historic Speech to Congress

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Pope Francis arrives to address the joint session of Congress on September 24, 2014 in Washington, DC. The Pope is the first leader of the Roman Catholic Church to address a joint meeting of Congress, including more than 500 lawmakers, Supreme Court justices and top administration officials including Vice President Joe Biden. AFP PHOTO/PAUL J. RICHARDS

“Being at the service of dialogue and peace,” he said, “also means being truly determined to minimize and, in the long term, to end the many armed conflicts throughout our world. Here we have to ask ourselves: Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society? Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money: money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood. In the face of this shameful and culpable silence, it is our duty to confront the problem and to stop the arms trade.”

For David Swanson’s article click here.

For Pope’s full speech to click here.

 

 

Berlin Conference 2016 on Military Spending: New Flyer, Web Pages, and Videos!

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ipb-pic-300x240I hope you share our pleasure that plans for our big GCOMS conference next year are taking shape: now in the form of a FLYER and a new section on our website CONGRESS 2016. 

There are also two VIDEO clips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHyH_rfYlRE, and another at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDwpk4OFt0s

Right now the most important thing is to get the message out — so please use these tools to engage and excite your own communities.

Ruth Leger Sivard, Economist Who Scrutinized Military Spending, Dies at 99

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“…there is no global security. Governing authorities who expect to achieve it through military power and the suppression of protest have lost touch with reality and their own sense of humanity.”

“We are all involved. The money comes out of our pockets, and it may kill us.”

                              – Ruth Sivard

Ruth Leger Sivard, Dies at 99

Among the most important inspirations for the Global Campaign on Military Spending is Ruth Sivard’s annual report World Military and Social Expenditures, the first publicly available comparison of military and social spending by governments. Mrs. Sivard had been a high-ranking economist for the US State Department and the Arms Control and Disarmament Administration, though later resigned. She was able to find reliable sources for the detailed statistical information she published. Her work was internationally recognized by scholars and activists alike. In 2013 IPB Secretary-General Colin Archer wrote a letter to Ms Sivard to thank her for her pioneering work. See obituaries in Washington Post , New York Times, and Ms.Sivard’s website www.ruthsivard.com.

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