By Joanne Sheehan
At the recent National Assembly, United For Peace and Justice (UFPJ) made a decision to organize a campaign that will bring together its determination to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and its commitment to address the economic crisis the entire nation is dealing with. Beyond War, a New Economy Is Possible: Yes We Can was launched on January 19 with the celebration of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This campaign calls for a new set of national priorities rooted in the vision and values of Dr. King: A world without racism, poverty, or war.
On April 4, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his “Beyond Vietnam” speech in which he warned,
"We must rapidly begin the shift from a ‘thing-oriented’ society to a ‘person-oriented’ society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."
Coretta Scott King, just a few weeks after her husband’s death, said, “The bombs we drop on the people of Vietnam continue to explode at home with all of their devastating potential.” How true these words still are today, as people's homes (particularly those of people of color) are taken from them while bombs drop on others, as the materialism of corporations robs people of their jobs and their savings.
The Beyond War campaign links the urgent call to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the call to help solve the current economic crisis by dramatically cutting military spending and instead investing in our communities. To some this link is clear, but to others it must be made more visible.
James Carroll, in an article comparing the $700 billion bailout to the $700 billion Pentagon budget, put it this way:
Here is the question that no one is asking about America's grave financial crisis: By fueling corporate profits, jobs, and private-sector growth for two generations with massive over-investment in the military, has the United States gutted the real worth of its economy?
One needn't be an economist to know that spending money on war planes, missiles, and exotic weapons systems, not to mention combat operations, creates far less social capital than spending on education, bridges, mass transit, new forms of energy?even the arts.
UFPJ has a commitment to working across race, class, and gender lines to build a massive people's movement with the power to help make sure the Obama administration and the U.S. Congress are aligned with the will of the people.
Building this kind of power and movement starts from the bottom up with local organizing and building relationships and alliances that are rooted in respect and real solidarity. UFPJ is assembling resources to support local efforts.
Other resources that address these issues are WRL’s “Where Your Income Tax Money Really Goes” pie chart and its focus on the war profiteers who have promoted wars and reaped the profits through Bite the Bullet: War Profiteering Education and Action Network. WRI's Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns describes some of the advantages of nonviolence in action and gives examples of how it works. As the economy worsens and military recruiters enlist more young people, WRL's counter-recruitment resources like DMZ: A Guide to Taking Your School Back from the Military will be needed even more.
King ended his “Beyond Vietnam” speech, “We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation. We must move past indecision to action.”
Joanne Sheehan is a WRL’s New England Regional Office staff person. She is working on the UFPJ campaign.
