Buckets and buttons were used for voting on how our money should be spent during the Global Day of Action on Military Spending (GDAMS) on 13 April. Photo: Trish Carn.
Quakers challenge military spending
Friends joined the Global Day of Action on Military Spending (GDAMS) on Monday 13 April
Friends joined the Global Day of Action on Military Spending (GDAMS) on Monday 13 April.
Quaker Peace and Social Witness (QPSW) activists were among those taking part in the annual event.
GDAMS was launched in 2011, and is timed to coincide with the release of the annual world military expenditure figures by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). World military expenditure totalled $1.8 trillion in 2014, a fall of 0.4 per cent in real terms since 2013, SIPRI announced on 13 April.
Pax Christi also took part in GDAMS. They had a ‘Give peace a budget’ stall opposite Friends House for part of the day, inviting passers-by to vote for their priorities for making the world a safer place.
Participants were given four buttons each and asked to imagine that they represented, collectively, the UK’s £38 billion military spend for 2014/2015. They then distributed the buttons between four buckets, marked ‘education and health’, ‘international cooperation’, ‘tackling climate change’ and ‘use of arms and military intervention’. Pat Gaffney, general secretary of Pax Christi, told the Friend: ‘We are hoping to make people think about what could make the world a safer place, and to look at options beyond the police and the military.
‘We want them to think about community – and nation-building projects that look at people’s felt needs. The debate is not being held elsewhere, so it’s up to groups like the Quakers and Pax Christi to hold it.’
QPSW created an online ‘people’s ballot’. Individuals could vote online, and activists manning stalls could add ‘their’ results to the running total. Education and healthcare accounted for thirty-seven per cent of the vote, with climate change, international cooperation and military intervention taking thirty-three, twenty-five and five per cent of the vote, respectively.
Sam Walton, QPSW peace and disarmament programme manager, said: ‘In the UK, despite recent cuts to social welfare budgets, military spending is still far higher than in a number of much bigger countries, such as Brazil or India. It also represents a far higher percentage of national GDP than any other European country, and almost all NATO members.’
QPSW and Pax Christi are just two of almost fifty UK groups backing GDAMS. Among the others are Campaign Against Arms Trade, War on Want, and another Quaker organisation, the Northern Friends Peace Board.
The Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA) marked GDAMS by issuing a statement condemning European military spending as grossly excessive and as contributing to insecurity for many people around the world. It was supported by a number of other European organisations.
Correction (21 April 2015): The UK’s military spend in 2014/15 was corrected to read £38 billion, rather than £38 million.
