global day of action on military spending 2011: full report

8/6/2019 Global Day of Action on Military Spending 2011: Full Report

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Institute for Policy Studies

International Peace Bureau

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2 GlobAl DAy of Action on MilitAry SpenDinG report

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On April 12, 2011 the International Peace Bureau (IPB) and the Insti-

tute for Policy Studies (IPS) co-organized the first-ever Global Day of

Action on Military Spending. We judge the Day to have been a great

success, both in terms of the number and geographical spread of the

activities undertaken, and the rich variety and inventiveness of the

actions. We felt we accomplished our major goal of making visible

the issue of military spending.

Our GDAMS events generated considerable media coverage with

stories in the Christian Science Monitor, Huffington Post, Russia

Today Television, Telesur, Voice of America, and many national and

local outlets. We also accomplished our secondary goal of creat-

ing a global network of organizations and individuals committed to

working on the reduction of military spending worldwide. Finally, we

forged an important partnership with the Stockholm International

Peace Research Institute that we plan to continue.

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There were GDAMS events at the international, national, and local levels.

Activists produced videos, constructed powerful public displays and

performances, held press conferences and seminars, and mobilized public

opinion in favor of reducing military spending.

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A diverse array of leading organizations -- from international institutions

to faith groups to peace groups and musicians -- lent their voices to the

chorus of support for cuts in military spending.

Sergio Duarte, the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs,

issued a statement declaring, At this Global Day of Action on Military

Spending, I call on governments to consider the full possibilities of creat-

ing security through non-military means. He concludes, The Global Dayof Action on Military Spending should serve as a catalyst for shifting

global and national priorities from massive military spending to creating

human security and safety for all.

Similarly, Dr. Mustafa Y. Ali, the secretary general for the African Council

of Religious Leaders, issued a statement of support on April 12. Calling

for further agitation on disarmament for development, he writes: We

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ask state, non-state actors and stake-holders to increase their efforts in

reducing the demand for, availability and supply of arms through advo-

cacy, public education and necessary Demobilization Disarmament and

Reintegration.

Likeminded statements were issued by the Womens International

League for Peace and Freedom, Pax Christi International, the AmericanFriends Service Committee, the All Wales Activist Network, and U.S. Rep.

Barbara Lee (D-CA). Dozens of other organizations issued their own local

and national statements to coincide with their events.

We also received endorsements from the Win Without War coalition,

the Fellowship of Reconciliation, United for Peace and Justice, the Global

Fund for Women, the National Priorities Project, and Rethink Afghani-

stan, among many other organizations and coalitions. The band Peach-

cake also dedicated a song, We Were Ever Really Right? to the day of

action.


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All told, our more than 100 endorsing organizations and individuals or-

ganized at least 90 events in more than 35 countries on every inhabited

continent.

From seminars to sit-ins, discussions to die-ins, and flier drops to photo

ops, volunteers organized in every conceivable way to drive home the

message that military spending must be cut.

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In Switzerland, the International Peace Bureau and its partners set up

a large display of boxes outside Genevas UN offices to demonstrate the

disparity between global military expenditures and the comparativelymodest costs of meeting the UNs Millennium Development Goals, all

under the banner of End War Fund Human Needs! Meanwhile in

Washington, the Institute for Policy Studies and its partners gathered


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outside the White House with representatives from unions, peace groups,

and human needs advocates to share flash facts about the trade-offs

between military spending and social priorities, emphasizing the effect

on the international, national, and local levels. A number of local poets

contributed powerful poems about war, social needs, and the military-

industrial complex.

Other groups played vigorously and creatively on this same theme. In Al-

lentown, Pennsylvania, activists marched through a hollowed-out down-

town and posed outside military recruitment offices, health facilities,

and other public institutions with signs calling for an end to Pentagon-

driven neglect of local communities. In Corvallis, Oregon, volunteers

sat outside a library whose hours had been restricted because of local

budget cuts to ask people to write on a white board, Instead of war, I

want my tax dollars to be spent on One man in full military fatigues

was photographed with a sign declaring HEALTH CARE.


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Not far away, in Eugene, organizers gave over 100 passersby pennies to

distribute in various jars according to their spending priorities. If Eugene

residents ran the government, they concluded, their tax dollars would

be funding social and environmental programs and not endless war.

Meanwhile, student groups at the American University and the University

of Maryland reconstructed our flag display, using small colored flags to

show the massive disparity between money spent on the military andmoney that could be spent instead on a plethora of development priori-

ties.

Many other groups took to the streets as well. Organizers with the

American Friends Service Committee, U.S. Labor Against the War, and

their partners organized an event with speakers and poets in Oakland,

California, and received a letter of support from U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee

(D-CA). They also organized small public displays and distributed leaflets

at metro stations in San Francisco. In Fairfield, California, a group heldsigns and banners outside Travis Air Force Base and distributed fliers

educating military personnel about the obscene economic and social

costs of excessive military spending. Many other U.S. groups organized


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leaflet drops, information tables, public letter-writing campaigns, and

questionnaires in Brooklyn, New York; Bryn Mawr and Glenside, Penn-

sylvania; Burlington and Montpelier, Vermont; Evanston, Illinois; eastern

Massachusetts, and Spokane, Washington. International organizers put

together similar campaigns in Medellin, Colombia; the Canary Islands

and Algeciras, Spain; Gothenburg, Sweden; Manchester, UK; Adelaide

and Brisbane, Australia; and Wellington, Auckland, and Motueka, NewZealand. In France, Mouvement de la Paix organized public discussions

and distributed thousands of fliers in Paris, Calvados, Givors, Rennes, and

Seine-Saint-Denis.

Other partners organized rallies and demonstrations at public squares

and busy thoroughfares all over the world. Activists in Kansas City,

Missouri staged a downtown vigil. In Lincoln, Nebraska, Nebraskans for

Peace held a rally with former state senator Ernie Chambers. Under

a banner that read Goin Broke: Paying for Pentagon Pork, Chambersdeclared, Little Orphan Annie has to count pennies. The military only

determines what it wants while other people have to beg. Similar U.S.

rallies occurred in New Haven, Connecticut; Vero Beach, Florida; India-


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napolis, Indiana; Akron, Ohio; and Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Organizers

in Halifax, Canada staged a similar event. In Athens, Greece, volunteers

with the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection organized an

eye-grabbing display on the steps of Parliament, luring passersby into

conversations about how else to spend public funds. Other protesters or-

ganized marches and die-ins on the steps of the UK Treasury in London

and on the streets of Florence in Italy. A group of activists in India helda three-hour vigil and drum circle at New Delhis India Gate, where they

distributed fliers and organized a memorandum on military spending

for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Parliament. In Daejeon, South

Korea, the Womens Association for Peace held a roadside rally and

engaged passersby in discussion, while their counterparts and partner

organizations in Seoul held a similar event. Elsewhere in Seoul, Peoples

Solidarity for Participatory Democracy organized excellent informational

displays and posed for photos with activists and parliamentarians. In

Bangkok, the Student Federation of Thailand staged a Chinese funeralrite outside the Ministry of Defense, where they burned effigies of guns,

tanks, and money, issuing a statement calling for cutbacks in military


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spending and military reform in Thailand. Other partner organizations

staged rallies outside the Department of Defense in Canberra, Australia,

at the university in Jaoa Pessoa, Brazil, and in Nairobi, Kenya.

Several of our partners sought to link events from other campaigns to

the Global Day of Action on Military Spending. Hundreds of demonstra-

tors gathered in Cleveland, Ohio and at the statehouse in Augusta, Maineas part of the Bring Our War Dollars Home campaign, which these and

other organizers linked to the Global Day. In Ventura, California, Citi-

zens for Peaceful Resolutions has for years presented a mock check to

the nuclear weapons industry on behalf of Ventura County taxpayers.

This year, they held their event on April 12 in observation of GDAMS. In

Henoko, Okinawa, where protestors have been camped out in tents for

years to protest the expansion of U.S. military facilities, the Okinawa Net-

work for the Global Day of Action on Military Spending held a special day

of events. We also received a photograph from Ottawa, Canada, wherea demonstrator crashed a rally in support of Prime Minister Stephen

Harper with a sign protesting the governments purchase of F-35 aircraft

from the United States.


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SeMinArS, conferenceS, AnD filM ScreeninGS

While demonstrators engaged the public directly all over the world,

organizers in several countries convened scholars, students, activists,

and concerned citizens to discuss the problem of military spending, the

need for more social investment, and practical steps that can be taken

moving forward. The Mouvement Chrtien pour la Paix was present inBrussels for the release of the SIPRI report to the European Parliament,

where they and others posed questions about its implications. The IPB

organized two meetings in Geneva on April 12th: a seminar on the theme

of military spending for diplomats, students, NGOs and others, includ-

ing a detailed presentation by a senior SIPRI researcher; and an evening

meeting on militarization in Burma featuring a film about the regimes

nuclear program.

In New York, the Office of the Chaplain and the Presbyterian Ministry atthe United Nations hosted 35 representatives from 25 different religious

NGOs working at the UN. Together they explored answers to the ques-


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tion, what is civil societys role at the UN, in the streets, and in places of

worship regarding militarism, militarization, and military expenditures?

At American University, students and faculty held a teach-in with profes-

sors, a former Department of Defense contractor in Iraq, an Iraq war vet-

eran, and other peace activists. They discussed the role of propaganda

in militarizing societies and steps that can be taken to realign govern-

ment spending with human needs. In Columbus, Ohio, peace groupsmet with freshman state legislators to discuss the impacts of military

spending on domestic budgets. In San Juan, Puerto Rico, the Citizens

Coalition against Militarism held a forum entitled $1.6 Trillion: For Peace

or for War? They used the opportunity to convene groups that will lobby

high school students and their parents to prevent school principals from

giving students personal information to military recruiters.

Groups in Toronto, Helsinki, Oslo, Budapest, Yorkshire, London, Berlin,

Istanbul, Nagoya, and Yaound all discussed the role of war and militar-ies in their own societies, as well as the roles civil society can play in

rolling it back and to put the needs of people first. Peace Movement

Aotearoa hosted comparable events in Wellington and other locations in

New Zealand.


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In Kota, India, the Rural Development and Youth Training Institute orga-

nized workshops, village rallies, and meetings to discuss Indias military

expenditures compared to its poverty alleviation measures. In Nagpur,

the Indian Institute for Peace, Disarmament, and Environmental hosted

politicians, bureaucrats, policymakers, activists, and NGO representa-

tives for a similar discussion. Comparable events took place in Dhaka,

Bangladesh, where parliamentary officials, journalists, and an ambas-sador joined students and scholars, and in Seoul, where activists and

sympathetic parliamentarians submitted a joint declaration on cutting

back military spending. In Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian SUARAM coalition

held a press conference and unveiled a memorandum to the countrys

government in front of red GDAMS banners. While organizers in Kampala,

Uganda had to postpone plans for a 2km march because of the coun-

trys political climate, they were nonetheless able to hold two meetings

on military spending at a revised upcountry location.


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Japans Peace Boat docked in Manila for a meeting with atomic bomb

survivors and the Mindanao-based NGO Initiatives for International Dia-

logue. Together they met with the members of the Philippines Office of

the Presidential Advisor to the Peace Process, where they discussed the

human costs of war and agreed that force alone cannot resolve conflicts.

Other groups used short films to spread information and start discus-sions. In Sydney, the Australian Anti-Base Campaign Coalition launched

a short film called Bite the Bullet, featuring many Australians talking

about the need for a reduced defense budget. Other partners in East

Lansing, Michigan and Fairbanks, Alaska held screenings of other films on

the subject, as did French groups in Paris, Venissieux, and other cities.


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While many partners organized letter-writing campaigns and issued

memoranda as part of their events, others coordinated virtual actions.

At the international level, Religions for Peace incorporated GDAMS into

their Arms Down! campaign, gathering thousands of signatures for

petitions to the permanent members of the UN Security Council asking

them to cut their military spending by 10% and invest the savings in

meeting the Millennium Development Goals.

At the national level, Britains Campaign Against the Arms Trade

launched a Twitter campaign, encouraging supporters to tweet sugges-

tions about how to invest UK taxpayers money to the Treasury depart-ment. The Ceasefire campaign in Canada gathered nearly 1000 letters

for Canadas major political parties, all demanding that Canada use

military spending for human needs. Similar initiatives were undertaken

by Swiss Women for Peace and the Okinawa Dugong Environmental


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Assessment Watch. After launching a powerful short video comparing

military expenditures to the costs of Millennium Development Goals,

Barcelonas Fundaci per la Pau released a joint manifesto on military

spending and coordinated a cyber action to send a letter to Spanish

Prime Minister Zapatero.

Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition launched this

excellent video on military spending on April 12.

Viewable at

demilitarize.org


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Plans are already under way for the 2012 edition of this global action.

Between now and then, organizers are planning face-to-face strategy

sessions to identify the tactics most likely to have political impact, areport on successful case studies of military spending reductions to

publish at the same time as the SIPRI annual findings, and a revised

organizers packet to help grassroots groups to continue pushing for cuts

in military spending leading up to GDAMS 2012.


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Materials about many of the above-mentioned events are available at the

GDAMS website: http://demilitarize.org/event-reports/ (organized

regionally). The documentation includes some striking photographs,

videos and weblinks, as well as narrative reports.

Washington/Geneva, May 16, 2011

Global Day of Action on Military Spending: demilitarize.orgInstitute for Policy Studies: www.ips-dc.org

International Peace Bureau: www.ipb.org


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Action Citizens for Nuclear Disarmament

AHU (Afrikai-Magyar Egyeslet)

Alianza Social Continental

American Friends Service Committee

APREDARMS DOWN! | Religions for Peace

Association Suisse Birmanie

Australian Peace Committee

Better World Links

Centre DeEstudis Per Au La Pau Jemdels

ChangeMaker

Chuch Center for the United Nations

DFG-VK

Food Not Bombs

FOR

Fundaci Per La Pau

GLOBAL EXCHANGE

Global Fund for Women

Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space

GUNS FREE SOUTH AFRICA

INSUMISSIA

International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsbility

IPPNW

JUST FOR FOREIGN POLICY

Just Peace


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National Campaign to End the Korean War

National Priorities Project

NDH - CAMEROUN

New Priorities NetworkNorges Fredsrad

Nuclear Peace Foundation

PANA__Peace and Neutrality Alliance

PAX Christi

Peace Action

Peace Majority Report

Peace Network

PEACEBUS

Peacegarden

Peoples Solidarity for Participatory Democracy

Rauhanliitto (Peace Union of Finland)

Red Antimilitarista Nonviolenta de Andaluca

RESIST AFRICOMRETHINK Afghanistan

Science for Peace

Scientists for Global Responsibility

Student Federation of Thailand

Suaram

UMOJA AS ONE

Veterans for Peace

War is a Crime

WILPF Australia

WIN WITHOUT WAR

Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice

Women for Peace

WASHINGTON,DC

InstituteforPo

licyStudies

GENEVA,SWITZERLANDInternationalPeaceBureau


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global day of action on military spending 2011: full report

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