We are excited about the success of the Jobs Not Wars petition in bringing together the voices of tens of thousands of people to ensure Congress and the President heard our call for a redirection of our nation’s resources from war and Pentagon spending to fund job creation and the health and well-being of communities. To see the full petition click here.
However, there is more work to do as Washington is not moving in the right direction. Today we have Federal budget sequester cuts hitting communities that have already faced years of local budget reductions. Yet the war in Afghanistan continues and Congress gives the Pentagon so much money that it votes to fund weapon systems and projects the generals do not even want! (Read story here.) How ludicrous is that? Unfortunately, with corporations spending millions on lobbyists and donations to push their influence on Capitol Hill, it makes complete sense.
The Jobs-Not-Wars campaign is organizing local actions or events from Friday, June 21st to Wednesday, July 3rd that highlight the disparities between runaway military spending and cuts to social spending in the federal budget, as these play out in our communities. We will place a spotlight on the priorities and needs of the majority of people. The aims of this initiative are:
To make visible the sites and corporations where military contracts enrich a few, or serve immoral and useless wars, and the places and people hurt by federal budget cuts to social programs;
To put forward the vision and prospect of converting military spending to projects that both generate jobs and serve desperately needed and socially constructive ends;
To help create coalitions of local people, especially involving communities, organizations, agencies and individuals who have not worked together before; and to reach folks that previous actions have not reached.
Join a scheduled event or plan one yourself: Take action. It’s going to take pressure from us, the people to move the nation in the right direction. Let’s empower and motivate each other to speak out. Help plan an event or action. You be the start of an event by planning one yourself. Have you been affected by budget cuts? Do you or someone you know have a story to tell? Contact us to help you connect to a local group and to tell you story.
As events are planned, the Jobs-Not-Wars campaign will post information on its website www.job-not-wars.org Check there often to find events near you. You can download this toolkit to help you organize. If you are involved in planning an event, be sure to send us information so that we can list it (info@jobs-not-wars.org)
Please donate to UFPJ to help us with this effort.
We will keep you updated.
