Dear GCOMS partners,
The Global Campaign on Military Spending (GCOMS) is an international campaign founded in December 2014 and promoted by the International Peace Bureau. The main aim is to reduce the global military spending thanks to the cooperative works made by the organisations of civil society. Nowadays, more the 100 organizations from 35 different nations have joined the campaign.
GCOMS is run by a steering group of activists from all over world, and is now coordinated by the Center of Peace Studies J.M.Delàs in Barcelona as a decentralized office of IPB. A list of GCOMS activities in 2017 and the Final Report on this year’s Global Days is available here: http://demilitarize.org/gdams-2017/
The main GCOMS campaign up to now has been the Global Day(s) of Action on Military Spending (GDAMS) in April, in a period that coincides with the release of the annual world military expenditure figures by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), and it is also tied in with the Tax Day in the U.S., when Americans pay their taxes and debate their use.
In addition, GCOMS has now launched the Cut Milex campaign, with the aim of introducing the military spending debate in Parliaments during national budget discussions in each country. The Cut Milex campaign includes with several main messages like introducing criteria for addressing military spending in national budgets in a comprehensive and rigorous way, reducing military spending while redirecting its funds to social needs and cooperation, increasing transparency to opacity in official data on exports and military and defense industry, and ensuring that arms programs are audited and controlled by the nation’s Parliament. Please visit the Cut Milex webpage for more details: http://demilitarize.org/cut-milex/ . You will find the main goals of the campaign, a first set of campaign material, and information on several on-going Cut Milex events and actions.
We would like to ask you to confirm your participation in this Cut Milex campaign and to inform us, as soon as possible, about your planned actions for this year. Cut Milex has a global perspective, asking for a reduction and redirection of military expenses in the maximum number of countries. But it has also a local perspective, as annual budget debates in different countries have specific aspects which make them distinct. Activists in each country must therefore craft their own approach, including how to organize debates with Parliamentarians and how to shape the messages and proposals for them. The idea is to generate powerful messages, in order to impact politicians and decision-makers, and to attract strong media coverage.
It is to not only to raise awareness about military spending, but also encourage politicians in Parliaments to take actions against it and to redirect part of the Milex budget to human needs.
Feel free to forward this invitation to all your colleagues and friends who can be interested into this GCOMS Cut Milex campaign.
Thanks a lot, good luck with your planning!
With our best wishes,
Jordi, Nina, Pere and Zoe
Center of Peace Studies Delàs
IPB coordination of GCOMS