{"id":484,"date":"2014-06-11T13:42:25","date_gmt":"2014-06-11T12:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=484"},"modified":"2014-06-11T13:42:25","modified_gmt":"2014-06-11T12:42:25","slug":"open-letter-for-gdams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/open-letter-for-gdams\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Letter for GDAMS"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the Global Day of Action on Military Spending took place on 14 April 2014, tens of organisations in the UK set out their vision for a shift in priorities in this open letter. If you share its sentiment, why not adapt it and send it to your local paper too?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sir,<\/p>\n

The latest world military expenditure figures show that spending is an enormous $1.75 trillion. One of the nations continuing to spend the most is the UK, which plans to spend \u00a338 billion<\/a> in 2014\/15. This shows the backwards priorities of a government that is protecting its overblown military budget, at the same time as it is subjecting vital public services to drastic spending cuts.<\/p>\n

For too long we have lived with the myth that high military spending maintains peace, creates jobs and combats terrorism. This myth is promoted by governments and the multinational arms companies that benefit from the global arms trade politically and economically.<\/p>\n

The money and skills which are currently being wasted on needless and destructive weapons like the Trident nuclear weapons system would be far better spent on strengthening vital services and tackling the real challenges affecting our society; such as poverty, health inequality and environmental problems.<\/p>\n

Regards<\/p>\n

Nick Dearden, Director, World Development Movement<\/strong>
\nSarah-Jayne Clifton, Director, Jubilee Debt Campaign<\/strong>
\nAndrew Smith, Campaign Against Arms Trade<\/strong>
\nJohn Rees, Stop The War Coalition<\/strong>
\nJohn Hilary, Executive Director, War on Want<\/strong>
\nKate Hudson, General Secretary, CND<\/strong>
\nDave Webb, Chair, CND<\/strong>
\nBruce Kent, Movement for the Abolition of War<\/strong>
\nPat Gaffney, General Secretary, Pax Christi<\/strong>
\nStuart Parkinson, Executive Director, Scientists for Global Responsibility<\/strong>
\nDavid McCoy, Chair, Medact<\/strong>
\nChris Cole, Drone Wars UK<\/strong>
\nMillius Palayiwa, Director, Fellowship of Reconciliation<\/strong>
\nClaire Poyner, Network for Peace<\/strong>
\nJill Gough, National Secretary, CND Cymru<\/strong>
\nDr Paul Dorfman, Founder, Nuclear Consulting Group (NCG)<\/strong>
\nHannah Brock, Action AWE<\/strong>
\nRobin Bowles, Acting Co-ordinator, Northern Friends Peace Board<\/strong>
\nHelen Drewery, General Secretary, Quaker Peace & Social Witness<\/strong>
\nFr Peter Hughes, Coordinator, Columban JPIC (Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation)<\/strong>
\nAnne Scott, Secretary,<\/strong> Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Scottish Branch<\/strong>
\nBrian Larkin, Edinburgh Peace and Justice Centre and Trident Ploughshares<\/strong>
\nFrank Jackson, Vice-President, Uniting for Peace<\/strong>
\nTony Simpson, Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation<\/strong>
\nAnne Peacey, National Justice & Peace Network<\/strong>
\nJane Tallents, Trident Ploughshares<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the Global Day of Action on Military Spending took place on 14 April 2014, tens of organisations in the UK set out their vision for a shift in priorities in this open letter. If you share its sentiment, why not adapt it and send it to your local paper too? Sir, The latest world … <\/p>\n

Read moreOpen Letter for GDAMS<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}