10/03/2017 |

Days of Action April 2018

Take Action for GCOMS 2018 16 – 22 April (In UK)

New postcard for 2018

Go to the 2018 on-line survey 

GCOMS stall, Kings Cross Station, London

Create a table-top stall in your local library, school , town centre… Give Peace a Budget and Bucket templates

  • Let GDAMS UK know what you plan so we can share your event with others email us here 
  • Let people know that this is a national event and that results will be shared nationally as well as locally.  Invite local press to come along, write letters to local papers about what you are doing…spread the word in any way you can. Register the results of your poll  here  .  These will then be collated and used in press work / to write to the Government…….

Basic resources needed.  (You can be much more creative!!)

  • Table with clear signs and labels
  • Jars or buckets as the ‘pots’ with labels (templates here)
  • Buttons, coins, marbles as voting ‘tokens’
  • The GCOMS postcard for 2018 
  • Info on the  2016-17 Budget here if people should ask.
  • Peace flag / bright, colourful banner of some kind to attract attention.
  • Way of recording how many people ‘vote’ and what they vote for.
  • Camera /phone to take pictures to share with others

Why:  The idea is to replicate this activity all over the country and to gather the responses at the end of the day.    You will need to keep a good record of the number of people who vote and then at the end of the day count how many votes have been given to each ‘pot’.  

SPREADING THE WORD

  • Use Twitter. Between 16 – 22 April help a create a Twitter storm by tweeting what you would spend £48 billion on to @hmtreasury with #GCOMS  #RethinkSecurity e.g. @hmtreasury “If I had £48 billion a year I would prefer to spend it on  #NHS. I prefer. #GCOMS #RethinkSecurity”
  • Look out for news stories of national and local cuts to health/education/overseas aid/community development/climate change and sustainable development – stories may provide useful opportunities for letters to editors, or messages to use in articles, letters or banners.
  • These are  ‘Global’ days so emphasise the links and solidarity with others around the world taking action of the same day.

More ideas on planning an action:

Meetings and discussions

  • Organise a meeting to engage the local community and make links with local needs/local agencies working on poverty/environment/social programmes. Use this as a chance for publicity: local radio/TV and press are always looking for stories!
  • You could show one of the DVDs listed. They may also give you ideas for events/visual presentations.
  • You could invite your local MP to come to discuss how budget priorities are set. Invite representatives from local social or environmental projects that are facing cuts so that they can put their case.

This is a simple way of attracting attention and making a point. It does not have to be sophisticated… something short and witty is what you want! You can repeat it again and again as new people pass by.

CAAT, CND and Pax Christi members dramatized a ‘game show’ outside the House of Commons to show the lack of continuity between the government’s priorities and that of the people. A student needing tuition fees received instead military hardware. An injured man received an aircraft carrier instead of medical treatment. An engineer seeking funding for a renewable energy project was left disappointed when she got given money for military projects instead.

Or you could take inspiration from these activists who built a visual display to highlight how military spending vastly outweighs what would be needed to tackle world hunger, provide universal primary education and clean water.ShareShareTweet0Pin0Share