2017 Global Days of Action on Military Spending

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The 2017 Global Days of Action on Military Spending (GDAMS) are approaching. This year, multiple World-wide actions will be organized between April 18 and April 28.

All over the world governments are pushing for an increase in military spending. In the U.S., Donald Trump has proposed an increase of $54 billion – 10% of the annual allocation, to be paid for by cutting diplomacy and foreign aid. All European governments in NATO agreed twice in Wales and Warsaw to spend 2% of their GDP on defense while in parallel creating new funding systems for military research and development. For its part, China has declared it will increase its military budget by 7% in 2017. Among other top military spending countries, Saudi Arabia and Japan are also planning to increase their military expenditure. Moreover, Trump and the U.S. administration are pushing in this direction, although this is not a new phenomenon. With this scenario there are plenty of new reasons to renew our call for a cut on military spending (based upon SIPRI data) and to get close to the human security approach that many would prefer to see. Read more on the GCOMS 2017 Statement.

The Global Campaign on Military Spending (GCOMS) is an international campaign founded in December 2014 and promoted by the International Peace Bureau. The aim of the campaign is to push governments to invest money in the sectors of health, education, employment and climate change rather than military. The GCOMS also incorporates the Global Days of Action on Military Spending (GDAMS) between April 18 and April 28. Multiple World-wide actions will be organized during these days, see our events webpage. We have now more than 60 planned actions in 14 countries!. But more people and more organizations should be involved, also opening a global debate on the counterproductive effects of the current military spending.

Publicize this message and the GDAMS campaign. You can do a “selfie” by saying which way you would like to spend the money we could recover if military spending was reduced. Participate in Thunderclap and GDAMS activities. Propose new activities by writing to coordination.gcoms@ipb.org