Ending Militarism with the Poor People's Campaign by Shawna Foster

Over 370,000 people have died due to direct war violence, and at least 800,000 more indirectly due to the endless wars of the United States since 9/11. The US federal price tag for the post 9/11 wars is about $5.6 trillion dollars, with the US conducting counterterror activities in 76 countries. Because much of that money is borrowed, that amount will continue to balloon alongside increased spending. These wars have displaced 10.1 million people, and has been accompanied by violations of human rights and civil liberties in the US and abroad.1 The United States is transforming into a mercenary society. Since the Reagan era, vocal

advocates for the privatization of federal and state services like education, housing, and 2

healthcare are winning. In the past 20 years, the trend towards privatization of US governmental functions reshaped the form and operations of the US military. Taxpayer dollars have shifted away from funding a public military force, largely comprised of enlisted troops from middle- to 3

lower-class backgrounds, towards privately contracted mercenary forces. Private defense corporations benefit from this trend at a great cost to the public. For example, in 2015 alone, Lockheed Martin gained $36.2 billion dollars from US defense contracts accounting for over 4

60% of its total revenue. This war profiteering is growing by private defense contractors, growing mercenary troop numbers, the use of proxy armies, and while resources allocated for veterans dwindle. Increasingly the promises of human rights like life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is only kept to the wealthy. This is a future foreshadowed in the current militarization of local police and border patrols, the automation of weaponry, and illegal monitoring of US citizens. The solutions to these issues are found in the vision of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who called for a complete moral revolution of values in American society. This dream includes the redistribution of military expenditures for programs of social uplift and the demilitarization of American society. King’s last campaign was the Poor People’s Campaign, which called the poor of the world to unite against the forces of racism and militarism that creates so much unnecessary global poverty. We are proud to support the new Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival led by Bishop William Barber II and Rev. Liz Theoharris. Together, we can stop the root causes of poverty and provide a better life for people at home and abroad. 1

Brown University. Costs of War. http://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/ Karaim, R. (2017, December 8). Privatizing government services. CQ researcher, 27, 1017-1040. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/ 3 Stinchfield, Brian http://www.newsweek.com/creeping-privatization-americas-forces-616347 4 Mehta, Aaron https://www.defensenews.com/industry/2016/05/09/lockheed-martin-biggest-us-government-contractor-in-2015/ 2

Week 1 (May 13-19) - Somebody's Hurting Our People: Child poverty, Womxn, LGBTQIA community, and People with Disabilities

○ War is the greatest creator of poverty at home and abroad. The majority of people killed by war are women, children, and disabled civilians.5 ○ The Department of Defense will spend over $700 billion in 2018, representing more than half of the federal discretionary budget. But that discretionary figure does not include overseas contingency operations or war-related efforts funded through other agencies like the CIA.6 The entire U.S. national security budget tops out at over a trillion dollars for 2018 alone. There is mandatory spending to stop terrorism, for things like Operation Eagle which props up a regime in the Philippines committing genocide with US dollars and guns. ○ Public spending on war starves the economy. Money spent virtually anywhere else--clean energy, education, infrastructure, healthcare--creates more jobs than military spending.7 For example, one million dollars spent on war has a job factor of 6.9 jobs while spending it on healthcare creates 14.3 jobs - double the job creation. When that same million is spent on elementary & secondary teachers it creates 19.2 jobs - that’s triple the jobs created by the military.

International Red Cross, http://www.redcross.int/EN/mag/magazine2003_3/4-9.html

6 “Proposed National Security Discretionary Spending 2018.” Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University, Apr. 2017,

watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/figures/2017/proposed-militarynational-security-discretionary-spending-2018. 7

Garrett-Peltier, Heidi. “Job Opportunity Cost of War.” Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University , 24 May 2017, watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/files/cow/imce/papers/2017/Job Opportunity Cost of War - HGP - FINAL.pdf.

○ Women who enlist in the military have a 1 in 3 chance of being raped. The rates of sexual assault and harassment for LGBTQAI troops is even higher8. Male sexual assault often goes unreported. ○ The current administration is discriminating against transgender troops by attempting to prevent them from serving and denying their healthcare. Week Two (May 20-26) – Linking Systemic Racism and Poverty: Voting Rights, Ending Mass Incarceration, treatment of indigenous people and Justice for Immigrants

○ The Mexican-American border is being increasingly militarized, and another area of profit for private contractors. ○ 700 California National Guard Troops were deployed to the border. Historically, military deployment to the border has had tragic consequences. For example, in 1997 when the military deployed to the Mexican-American border, a marine shot and killed an 18 year old US citizen who had been herding goats. 9

Kurta, A. M. “Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military Fiscal Year 2016.” Sexual Assault and Prevention Response Office, Department of Defense, 1 May 2017, sapr.mil/public/docs/reports/FY16_Annual/FY16_SAPRO_Annual_Report.pdf. 9 “Border Militarization Policy.” National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, www.nnirr.org/drupal/border-militarization.

○ Racist policing practices and mass incarceration against African-Americans and communities of color bear great resemblance of US military occupations abroad. ○ American taxpayers purchase weapons to use against poor, majority black and brown people overseas, and with the 1033 program, sells or gives those weapons to police here in America. The weapons we used on the streets of Baghdad are literally the same weapons used on the streets of Ferguson. The same weapons we use to target ISIS fighters in Syria are the same weapons we use to target water protectors at Standing Rock. 10 ○ Racist propaganda is used to justify wars; in today’s wars that racism looks like Islamaphobia. ○ U.S. foreign policy in Central and South America has undermined and sponsored coups of legitimate governments causes tens of thousands of refugees through

Radil, S.M., Dezzani, R.J. and McAden, L.D., 2017. Geographies of US Police Militarization and the Role of the 1033 Program. The Professional Geographer, 69(2), pp.203-213.

military intervention and support. When they flee to the US migrants are called are called “illegal” while the cause of their migration remains unexamined.11 Week Three (May 27-June 2) - The War Economy: Militarism, Veterans and the Proliferation of Gun Violence

○ The US spends more on defense than the next eight countries combined.12

○ The DoD is the largest government sponsor of contracts, spending $280+ billion in 2015 on private contracts alone.13 ○ Veterans are glorified and are used to support a culture that worships guns and violence at home and abroad. ○ Over 370,000 people have died due to direct war violence in Iraq and Afghanistan and at least 800,000 more indirectly.14

○ Undocumented servicemembers are not instantly granted citizenship after their service and are deported often. ○ VA Hospitals are underfunded so that privatization looks like a solution. This undermining contributes to the deaths of 20 veterans everyday. ○ The United States is the largest weapons exporter in the world.15 This is the US is exporting the violence that plagues our nation to countries around the world. 11

Foreign Policy In Focus, If we want to support refugees we need to end the wars that create them https://fpif.org/want-support-refugees-need-end-wars-create/ 12 (Peter G. Peterson Foundation) 13 Congressional Research Service, Defense Acquisitions: How and Where DOD Spends and Reports Its Contracting Dollars https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R44010.pdf 14 Brown University The Costs Of War, United Nations Refugee Agency http://www.unhcr.org/576408cd7 15

http://www.businessinsider.com/top-countries-exporting-weapons-arms-sales-2018-3#6-united-kingdom-5

○ The State Department is understaffed and underfunded. Without diplomatic solutions to global conflicts, war will increase. Week Four (June 3-9) - Ecological Devastation and Health - Clean Air, Clean Water, and Healthcare for All

○ The military is used to protect the oil industry all around the world - the US military spends 300 billion dollars a year so that our military can protect oil shipping lanes.16 The military was deployed to Standing Rock tribal lands when natives living there tried to stop a pipeline from being built on their treaty lands. 17 ○ The US military is on of the world’s biggest polluters including the use of depleted uranium and the now-banned practice of burn pits.1819 The US military is aware impending ecological collapse and is forming plans to protect property, and not people, against “climate refugees”.202122 ○ Many military bases are “superfund” sites, meaning they are deeply polluted. Military families are constantly exposed to environmental pollution.

Film, The Burden, http://www.theburdenfilm.com “The Souls of Poor Folk.” Edited by Saurav Sarkar et al., The Poor People's Campaign, Institute for Policy Studies, Apr. 2018, www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/PPC-Audit-Full-410835a.pdf. 18 Toxic Remnents of War: Sources http://www.trwn.org/trw-sources/ 19 Newsweek, THE US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE IS ONE OF THE WORLD'S BIGGEST POLLUTERS http://www.newsweek.com/2014/07/25/us-department-defence-one-worlds-biggest-polluters-259456.html 17

The Guardian, Climate Change Threatens Half of US Bases Worldwide https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jan/31/climate-change-threatens-us-military-bases-pentagon 21 United Nations Climate Change, Climate Change Threatens National Security Says Pentagon https://unfccc.int/news/climate-change-threatens-national-security-says-pentagon 22 The Guardian. The Age Of Climate Warfare has begun. The Military Industrial Complex is ready. Are you? https://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2014/may/30/climate-change-war-conflict-military-industrial-complex-syria-egypt-uprisi ng 20

○ The VA should not be privatized. Rather, everyone in the US should have healthcare. Week Five (June 10-16) – Everybody’s Got a Right to Live: Jobs, Income, the Right to Organize, Education and Housing

○ In communities with high concentrations of people of color, schools have few sports teams, arts, social services or college counseling. Instead, there are huge JROTC chapters, and the military is often offered as the only viable job available to the poor. ○ Enlisted personnel watch their benefits cut while contractors get paid more to do the same job. Meanwhile, military personnel and their families require public assistance through programs like food stamps because the military doesn’t pay them enough. ○ Spouses and families of wounded veterans end up having to leave their jobs to become unpaid care takers. ○ The United States was able to completely alter its economy and societal structure to mobilize everyone for World War II. This means that society can completely shift towards its shared goals. The way the US has taken care of veterans through public healthcare proves that model of healthcare works and saves on costs when properly funded.

○ The DOD requested $575 million dollars for advertising related to recruiting new service members in 2017, most of the recruiting is focused on the poor.23 ○ The United States has a moral imperative to make amends to nations it has destabilized through war. War funding should not only shift to fund programs of social uplift in the US; money must be spent on diplomacy and reparations. Week Six (June 17-22) – A New and Unsettling Force - A Fusion Movement Rising Up

○ We demand an end to unjust wars fought in the name of the American people, and amends be made for the destruction caused. ○ We demand an end to war profiteering and military contractors. ○ We demand the demilitarization of the border. ○ We demand an overhaul of the military that stops sexual harassment and assault and the cultural attitudes that protect abusers. ○ We demand the end of recruiting in high schools and that the enlistment age be raised to the legal drinking age - 21. ○ We demand that the VA healthcare system remain public and fully-funded. ○ We demand a reduction in total spending for the Department of Defense. ○ We demand the closing of Guantanamo Bay. ○ We demand the DOD follow through with the scheduled public audit. ○ We demand the end to automated warfare perpetuated by drones. ○ We demand that all military bases be cleaned up so it is safe for the military, their families, and communities that have military installations. ○ We demand the end of the use of depleted uranium and multiple deployments that harm members of the military. ○ We demand a halt to the 1033 program’s redistribution of weapons of war to the police. ○ We demand that these private weapons funds be funneled towards a just transition for a green infrastructure, healthcare for all, education system, forgiveness of student debt, and programs of social uplift.

Who’s Joining the US Military? Poor, Women And Minorities Targeted https://www.mintpressnews.com/whos-joining-the-us-military-poor-women-and-minorities-targeted/43418/

The Moral Revolution Against Militarism according to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr: I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive good will proclaim the rule of the land.24 --I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic, destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such. Perhaps a more tragic recognition of reality took place when it became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor at home. It was sending their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and to die in extraordinarily high proportions relative to the rest of the population...I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor. The only change came from America as we increased our troop commitments in support of governments which were singularly corrupt, inept, and without popular support. …minimal social needs are rarely met. They know they must move on or be destroyed by our bombs. ...I am as deeply concerned about our own troops there as anything else. We are adding cynicism to the process of death, for they must know after a short period there that none of the things we claim to be fighting for are really involved. ...the more sophisticated (troops) surely realize that we are on the side of the wealthy, and the secure, while we create a hell for the poor. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as one who loves America, to the leaders of our own nation: The great initiative in this war is ours; the initiative to stop it must be ours. Then we must make what reparations we can for the damage we have done. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, “This is not just.” A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, “This way of settling differences is not just.” This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling 24

Source: Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, 1964. https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-acceptance_en.html

our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. These are revolutionary times. All over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression, and out of the wounds of a frail world, new systems of justice and equality are being born. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. We in the West must support these revolutions.25

This document was created by About Face: Veterans Against the War in collaboration with Military Families Speak Out, Veterans For Peace, and the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival. Edited by Shawna Foster (shawna@ivaw.org) and supported by Jason Hurd of J. Hurd & Associates. Contact the editor for further additions or corrections.

Source: “Beyond Vietnam” 1967 Speech, https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/beyond-vietnam MLKEC, INP, Martin Luther King, Jr. Estate Collection, In Private Hands, NYC-7A & 7B