FUND OUR COMMUNITIES!
                                REDUCE MILITARY SPENDING 25%!

Check this out:

On April 15, a NYC Counselor introduces City Council Resolution to cut the military budget!

And if that's not enough, try the slide show at the end of this message forwarded by Judith Leblanc of Peace Action, formerly UfPJ:

- Mike Prokosch

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Brooklyn residents filled the library at Brooklyn Tech High School last night to hear Jo Comerford, Executive Director of the National Priorities Project speak on budget cuts, the federal budget and war spending. Comerford, a nationally-known expert on budget matters and our country's tragically mis-directed national priorities, helped clarify the complicated subject of federal spending so that people could see where and how their tax dollars are being used (or mis-used). People were able to see clearly that the oversized Pentagon budget $737 billion next year!) and the two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ($1 trillion since 2001!) were draining resources so that solutions to urgent domestic problems are becoming difficult, if not impossible, to solve.

Comerford also visited high school students at two schools in the hours before the evening event. At Carroll Gardens' Brooklyn School for Collaborative Studies and later, at Brooklyn Tech High School, she addressed students who were asking why free transit Metro Cards are being threatened by the MTA and the city - both who are pleading poverty. She pointed out that just in Brooklyn alone, taxpayers have doled out $9 billion on the two wars - money which could solve the mass transit shortfall many times over.

The events were sponsored by Brooklyn For Peace. The Brooklyn Tech events were also sponsored by Progressive Student Awareness , a student club at that school

Here are photos from the day's activities. Please leave a comment if you'd like.

Matt

GALLERY or SLIDE SHOW (tip - hit your F11 key when the slide show begins - that will maximize your view).

Apr 16, 2010 - Budget Transfer Amendment - 1979, a post on United for Justice with Peace (UJP)
         The 1979 transfer amendment campaign, organized in Massachusetts by Mel King, Saundra Graham and Bill King, was a forerunner of today's 25% Solution campaign.

A new coalition was born in Dorchester on July 7. It aims to cut Washington’s military spending by 250 billion dollars a year and use all that money to fund community jobs and services.

Twenty community organizations gathered at the Vietnamese-American Community Center in Fields Corner and:
•    Identified the places where we can safely cut $250 billion from annual US military spending (one-quarter of the total).
•    Named things we would do with Boston’s $500 million share of that money.
•    Started developing a three-part action plan:
-Pressuring Congress and the President;
-Creating a dollar-by-dollar community budget that funds human needs; and
-Educating our organizations to build broad-based support for a multi-year campaign.

Dorchester is part of a national “cut military/fund community” campaign that includes Peace Action, Progressive Democrats of America, True Majority, United for Peace and Justice (UfPJ), and recent meetings in Chicago and Chico, CA. In eastern Massachusetts, Newton, Somerville, and other UJP affiliates are gathering signatures and taking the “25%” initiative to their city officials. While a peace group is doing most of the coordination in Dorchester, community organizations and leaders of color are shaping the campaign. The coalition thinks a community-driven campaign can build the breadth and commitment it’ll take to win a 25% cut in military spending. Applause erupted at the July 7 meeting when one speaker said, “The Pentagon has located military contracts in every state in the country. That gives them a built-in lobby for every member of Congress. We need a nationwide lobby for community needs.”

Groups that have joined the coalition so far are: Boston Workers’ Alliance, City Life/Vida Urbana, Codman Square Health Center, Community Change Inc, Dorchester People for Peace, Louis D. Brown Peace Institute, Office of City Councilor Chuck Turner, Project Care and Concern, South Boston Residents for Peace, and Teens Against Gang Violence. Groups that are considering joining include ACORN, the Association of Haitian Women, Bikes Not Bombs, the Chinese Progressive Association, and the District 7 Roundtable. For more information about the coalition and campaign, contact Dorchester People for Peace at 617-282-3783 or beckyp44@verizon.net.

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