GCOMS Workshop at the IPB World Peace Congress in Barcelona

October 16, 15:00 – 17:00 CET

Modality: Hybrid
Location: Blanquerna School of Communication and International Relations. Joan Coromines Square, Barcelona – Room 304

Registration for the congress: https://www.ipb2021.barcelona/
Youtube Livestream: https://youtu.be/iwOV11gByyg

Title: Defund the Military · Defend People and the Planet
Coordinators: Jordi Calvo Rufanges & Quique Sánchez
Language: English 

Speakers

• Sam Perlo-Freeman – Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) – Global military expenditure, trends and justifications

• Jürgen Grasslin – RüstungsInformationsBüro & Stoppt den Waffenhandel – Military spending and arms exports, with a focus on Germany

• Laetitia Sedou – European Network Against the Arms Trade (ENAAT) – Militarization of the EU

• Roisin Putti – Nonviolence Canada – Report presentation: ‘In Search of Enemies – The governments holding disarmament hostage’

• Emily Rubino – Peace Action NYS – The Pentagon Budget and U.S. campaigning to move the money.

• Pere Ortega – Centre Delàs of Peace Studies – Military and defence expenditure, with a focus on Spain

Modality: Hybrid
Languages: English 
Objectives:
– To raise awareness and change the discourse regarding military spending and security
– To promote major reallocations of military expenditure to human security-oriented sectors
– To exchange strategies and good practices among activists from different contexts and backgrounds, and strengthen their collaboration and synergies.

Description: The world spent $1.98 trillion on the military in 2020, the highest figure since the end of the Cold War. Our governments’ ever-growing military capacities, in the name of national security, have proved themselves completely useless to defend people from the COVID-19 pandemic, nor can they keep us safe in the face of other global emergencies such as climate change.
This workshop will draw attention to how current levels of military spending not only fail to provide true security, but they actually stand in the way of just and comprehensive solutions to the problems urgently demanding our attention. Panelists will make the case for major reductions of military expenditures across the world, especially in those countries accounting for the largest shares of the world’s total spending, a reset of our priorities as societies, and a new defense and security paradigm that puts human and environmental needs in the center of policies and budgets. Including the audience, this session will also open a conversation about where to reallocate the freed-up resources, i.e. confronting the coronavirus pandemic or the eco-social collapse we are now facing.
We need to defund the military if we are to defend people and the planet.