GCOMS at the World Social Forum

Next Sunday, January 24 at 17 hours (CET), our campaign will be hosting a webinar on military spending within the World Social Forum, as part of the activities scheduled during the “Peace and War” Day of this year’s edition. The main goal of our session will be to bring attention to military spending as a key issue for social movements around the world seeking environmental & social justice.

Our conference will get together experts and activists of GCOMS, who will discuss current levels of military spending globally from a critical perspective, arguing that ever-growing military power perpetuates and exacerbates conflicts and instability around the world. In line with IPB’s and GCOMS message, speakers will argue that military spending does not provide true security to people and prevents us from adequately dealing with the global challenges social movements present at this Forum are facing, such as climate change, increasing inequality, migrations, systemic racism or even the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moderator: Jordi Calvo – Moderator (Spain), GCOMS Coordinator, IPB Vice-President and Centre Delàs Coordinator.
Panelists:
– Colin Archer (UK), former IPB Secretary‐General and Sean MacBride Peace Prize Winner
– Chloé Meulewaeter (Belgium), GCOMS Consultant and Centre Delàs researcher
– Tori Bateman (USA), American Friends Service Committee
– Quique Sánchez (Spain), GCOMS Officer

After an introduction by Jordi Calvo, Colin Archer will cover the 10 years of GCOMS history and activism to reduce military spending; Chloé Meulewaeter will speak about the connections between military spending and conflict and about the Peace Dividend; Tori Bateman, for its part, will analyse military spending in the U.S., which amounts to 38% of the world’s total; After that, Quique Sánchez will discuss military spending from a human security perspective, giving context to military budgets around the world and trying to make evident what current levels of military spending entail for the struggles of other social movements.
After the Q&A, the hosts will close the session with a Call to Action for the Global Days of Action on Military Spending (GDAMS), this spring, and will bring attention to IPB’s World Peace Congress, which will take place in Barcelona from October 15 to 17, 2021.

Following your registration you will receive a link to our Zoom room where the webinar will take place.
If you prefer so, you could also follow the session on our YouTube Channel.
If you have any doubts or comments you can also send an email to: coordination.gcoms@ipb.org

The programme of the January 24 Thematic Space for “Peace and War” within the 2021 World Social Forum will cover geopolitics, militarization, refugees and migration, and has been put together by Leo Gabriel (Network Against Right Wing Extremism and Populism), Kristine Karch (No to War – No to NATO), Reiner Braun (IPB Director), and Eskil Grav (IPB Officer). See more details and the full program here.

You can register to the GCOMS session and receive the link to our Zoom room by filling in this form:
https://forms.gle/sDoNWpDiBeY9vy7Q7