CONVOCATION 30 April 2023: CLIMATE CRISIS AND MILITARY EXPENDITURE


CLIMATE CRISIS AND MILITARY EXPENDITURE

We are in the period of income tax returns and it is the time to talk again about how our taxes are spent. We are told that the Spanish military budget must go up 2% because that is what NATO requires of us. That would amount to raising the military expenditures as much as all that was destined for protection of the environment in 2020.

The military budget has not ceased to rise since the 90’s, and no one has yet seen how this budget benefits the common good. Nevertheless, the climate crisis is more worrisome and its consequences more palpable: for example, it is predicted that with the rise in global temperature, the olive harvest could be reduced by 20%, and this year because of the drought almost all the harvest of grains will be lost.

The world population is increasingly sensitized to the degree of destruction our civilization is causing on the Planet. In addition, in the majority of armed conflicts there are underlying interests in resources and raw materials (water, oil, etc.). We denounce today the high degree of contamination and destruction of the environs that armies and wars are causing worldwide.

Facing this data, we believe that the real need is to destine the military budget to taking effective measures to mitigate the climate crisis and to guarantee a livable future for new generations.

We consider ourselves to be eco-feminists and we support all the civil society groups in the world that defend the environment versus the deadly action of armies and wars.

Women in Black of Madrid Against War demandthat our government:

Seek solutions to convert the Spanish armament factories into other industries beneficial for the people and the environment.

Gradually lower the defense budgets and reduce the Spanish troops until they are totally non-existent and invest this budget into measures to mitigate the climate crisis.

Take both immediate and long-range measures against the climate crisis.

Protect, cooperate and empower all the collectives that defend the environment, reject armies and wars, and defend peace.

Further, we demand that all governments guarantee the safety and health of the people and the Planet.

We invite the civil society to join the alternatives for responsible consumption, which create more just and ecological relationships, and to oppose the military expenditure by declaring your Fiscal Objection to Military Expenditures.

We defend life in the face of economic and military interests.

“You have the bullet… I have the word… The bullet dies when detonated… The word lives when spread”, Berta Cáceres

Translation: Trisha Novak, USA – Yolanda Rouiller, WiB Spain

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