25% UPDATES
January 2012 update: The Pentagon budget is on the table for cuts!
It’s 2012 and the Pentagon budget – now taking 60% of our federal discretionary budget - is on the table for cuts!
It will be an exciting year - and challenging. We need to cut enough from the Pentagon budget to fund what we so desperately need: jobs! social services! our communities! renewable energy! Over this winter and spring, Congress will be fighting a series of bruising budget battles. They all come down to one question: how will we pay for… unemployment insurance, human services, the whole domestic budget? What will get cut and what won’t? We have a lot to do and we can all join in the push to fund our communities, not war.
Some good news: We are now looking at the first real decrease in the Pentagon budget in inflation-adjusted terms, in recent history. The Pentagon cuts just released in the administration’s defense strategic guidance document are not deep; massive US military spending is kept largely intact, with the Pentagon budget taking a 4% hit, far smaller than many other agencies. But it is a beginning.
Our challenge: military contractors and leaders are gearing up to roll back the small cuts which have been made,
and will try to exempt the Pentagon from the automatic cuts dictated by the Budget Control Act sequester
(These cuts are scheduled to follow the so called ‘failure’ of the SuperCommittee). We are being treated to apocalyptic
warnings about disastrous impact cuts will have, and military hawks are spending millions of dollars in lobbying.
All our Congresspeople will be under intense pressure to stop military spending cuts.
At home:
Massachusetts communities are mired in the worse 2 year stretch in 30 years! http://www.mma.org/local-aid-and-finance/6113-mtf-report-municipalities-mired-in-worst-2-year-stretch-in-3-decades. As the Mass Municipal Association held its annual meeting in January, the federal budget issues were identified as a top concern:
With federal support considered key to a wide range of programs delivered at the local level, including public safety, infrastructure, education, and human services, local officials are anxiously watching the budget debates in Washington. Federal spending reductions could ultimately leave cities and towns scrambling to close budget gaps. http://www.mma.org/
What the 25% campaign is doing:
-Communities are organizing throughout Massachusetts – from New Bedford and Fall River to Boston and Springfield; from Arlington and Newton to Northampton and Amherst. We are building a larger base: networking with statewide coalitions; with Occupy; and with organizations in our communities facing budget cuts; with labor, environmentalists, faith-based organizations educators and school committee members, local elected officials, and others. We are writing op-eds and letters to the editor, holding forums and town hall meetings.
-We will be pushing all candidates for Congressional office to support cutting the Pentagon budget and bring the money home to our communities.
September 2011 Greetings!
Two of the items in this 25%Update! need your immediate attention.
Alert #1!
Barney Frank/Ron Paul Dear Colleague Letter: The deadline for legislative signers on to the “Dear Colleague” letter is September 22nd.
The struggle to cut Pentagon spending has reached an important juncture. Congressmen Barney Frank and Ron Paul are circulating a letter to members of Congress that calls for serious cuts in US military spending. Now is the time to get your Congressional delegation to support the Frank/Paul effort and co-sign their letter.
Addressed to the Deficit Reduction Commission (the one that will probably try to slash Medicare and Social Security), the letter says:
- we must scale back Washington's "vast range of global commitments on all continents and oceans."
... including "our nuclear umbrella and the troops stationed in our overseas military bases."
-"any deficit reduction package must contain significant cuts to the military budget."
Please call your Congressperson at 202-224-3121. Urge your Congressperson to sign on to Congressmen Frank’s and Paul’s Dear Colleague letter, telling the Deficit Reduction Commission that any report they release for Congressional consideration should include significant military spending cuts.
The list of signers as of this writing includes, US Representatives Mike Quigley, John Lewis, Michael Capuano, Sam Farr, Peter Welch, Barbara Lee, Lynn Woolsey, Raul Grijalva, Earl Blumenauer, Ed Markey, Jim McGovern, John Tierney, John Olver. (An updated list can be obtained at, www.25percentsolution.com , or by contacting Rep. Barney Frank's office at, http://www.house.gov/frank/.)
Let’s thank those who have signed on!
Alert #2!
October 2nd (10-2-10) One Nation Working Together March in DC.
1199SEIU, NAACP, United for Peace & Justice, a broad range and growing list of labor, social justice, peace, environmental, and youth activists are joining forces to demand jobs, peace, justice, funding for jobs not wars, bring our troops home, rebuild America, and attention to climate change. There are many dozens of organizations which have endorsed 10-2-10!
The following websites offer background on 10-2-10, a list of endorsers, fliers and posters, and schedules for the day's activities:
www.unitedforpeace.org/
www.onenationforpeace.org
www.onenationworkingtogether.org/pages/partner-organizations
www.majorityagendaproject.org/go/
www.dotpeace.org
The deadline for signing up to get on a bus is fast approaching. Buses are leaving from various towns across Mass. on the evening of Friday, Oct. 1st, and will return to Mass. the morning of Oct. 3rd.
Sign up here: https://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4023/event/massbus <file://localhost/o/4023/event/massbus> , then click on Jobs with Justice. (In Mass. and elsewhere (your sign-up will be directed to your geographic area coordinator.)) or here:
http://www.majorityagendaproject.org/go/civicrm/event/register?id=11
For a guaranteed seat on one of the buses, sign up by the 23rd.
This is an amazing opportunity to spread the word on the Fund Our Communities/Reduce Military Spending 25% campaign and to build working relationships with allies!
See you in DC!
Workshops! Fund Our Communities/Reduce Military Spending 25%
“How can I get my town interested in a campaign to cut military spending and fund our needs?” One useful tool is a workshop. The 25% Campaign has created a one-hour workshop that highlights the incredible size of the military budget, the depth of our economic crisis, and the starting points for a local campaign. It’s lively, hard-hitting, involving, and effective. This workshop can be tailored to particular community needs and issues. It can be a potent catalyst for invigorating community action, and an opportunity to use and strengthen the contacts that are in place, and to build them in places and with folks beyond what you've imagined possible.
Call 617-491-3333 or email 25percentsolution@gmail.com to schedule a workshop.
Note: a workshop won’t do the job by itself. You have to talk to other people and organizations that are being hit hard by the jobs crisis and the budget crisis in your town. Find a few who want to work on this campaign. If you can go into a workshop with those commitments, other interested people can gather around those who are already involved. Talk with us about other organizing advice; we want to support you through the whole process.
We will be offering trainings to those interested in leading workshop for their group or in their community. If you are interested in setting up a training in your community, please let us know ASAP, as dates will be filling up quickly.
Move the Money: The National Campaign - An idea whose time has come!
“Fund our communities by cutting military spending.” The idea is catching fire. UFPJ, Peace Action, Grassroots Global Justice, US Action, the Friends Committee on National Legislation, and the Institute for Policy Studies are among the groups that want to work or already have campaigns to "move the money.” The wave is growing!
Working with them, we are turning this wave into on-the-ground organization. This summer, 25% activists led workshops at the US Social Forum with Peace Action, Grassroots Global Justice, and UFPJ. We took quick organizing trips and helped activists in New York City, metro Philadelphia, and northern Maryland pull together their own campaigns. On October 3 we will co-coordinate a meeting in DC for organizations that want to work on the campaign.
If this by-invitation meeting agrees on national coordination, 25% could join a broad alliance of campaigns to Move the Money from the Pentagon to our neighborhoods. US Labor Against the War is proposing a resolution campaign: get your city council, school board, congregation, union, and grassroots organization to pass resolutions, then take them to Congress next spring.
It’s all up for discussion in our new, rapidly spreading movement. Stay tuned!
Notes from Massachusetts community organizing:
Labor Day: In Boston, SEIU615 called a Labor Day rally and march. Fund Our Communities/Reduce Military Spending 25%, The Boston 25% Coalition, and CSJ/CAP participated, marching and distributing “Jobs Not Wars” stickers, and talking to many participants.
Mayors Letters: Mayor Joe O'Brien of Worcester, MA, and Mayor William Flanagan of Fall River, MA, are the latest signers!
Workshops: There are two workshops scheduled at the end of October in Framingham and Watertown, Mass.
Tabling, weekly, in Somerville, Mass. for 10-2-10 and Fund Our Communities.
Arlington (Mass.) Town Day, September 25th. Preparations for a booth and outreach, include: Readying handout materials, a petition, a penny poll, banner making, sticker pasting, and pizza munching (for energy!).
Continuing town-by-town discussions on '25%' Campaign.
Ongoing materials development for educators, school committees, and students on '25%' Campaign and school budget cuts.
“This is a campaign with its heart in our communities and the knowledge that it is a part of a larger national movement.”
Thank you for your work.
Fund Our Communities/Reduce Military Spending 25%
2161 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02140
617-491-3333
www.25percentsolution.com
25percentsolution@gmail.com
It’s 2012 and the Pentagon budget – now taking 60% of our federal discretionary budget - is on the table for cuts!
It will be an exciting year - and challenging. We need to cut enough from the Pentagon budget to fund what we so desperately need: jobs! social services! our communities! renewable energy! Over this winter and spring, Congress will be fighting a series of bruising budget battles. They all come down to one question: how will we pay for… unemployment insurance, human services, the whole domestic budget? What will get cut and what won’t? We have a lot to do and we can all join in the push to fund our communities, not war.
Some good news: We are now looking at the first real decrease in the Pentagon budget in inflation-adjusted terms, in recent history. The Pentagon cuts just released in the administration’s defense strategic guidance document are not deep; massive US military spending is kept largely intact, with the Pentagon budget taking a 4% hit, far smaller than many other agencies. But it is a beginning.
Our challenge: military contractors and leaders are gearing up to roll back the small cuts which have been made,
and will try to exempt the Pentagon from the automatic cuts dictated by the Budget Control Act sequester
(These cuts are scheduled to follow the so called ‘failure’ of the SuperCommittee). We are being treated to apocalyptic
warnings about disastrous impact cuts will have, and military hawks are spending millions of dollars in lobbying.
All our Congresspeople will be under intense pressure to stop military spending cuts.
At home:
Massachusetts communities are mired in the worse 2 year stretch in 30 years! http://www.mma.org/local-aid-and-finance/6113-mtf-report-municipalities-mired-in-worst-2-year-stretch-in-3-decades. As the Mass Municipal Association held its annual meeting in January, the federal budget issues were identified as a top concern:
With federal support considered key to a wide range of programs delivered at the local level, including public safety, infrastructure, education, and human services, local officials are anxiously watching the budget debates in Washington. Federal spending reductions could ultimately leave cities and towns scrambling to close budget gaps. http://www.mma.org/
What the 25% campaign is doing:
-Communities are organizing throughout Massachusetts – from New Bedford and Fall River to Boston and Springfield; from Arlington and Newton to Northampton and Amherst. We are building a larger base: networking with statewide coalitions; with Occupy; and with organizations in our communities facing budget cuts; with labor, environmentalists, faith-based organizations educators and school committee members, local elected officials, and others. We are writing op-eds and letters to the editor, holding forums and town hall meetings.
-We will be pushing all candidates for Congressional office to support cutting the Pentagon budget and bring the money home to our communities.
September 2011 Greetings!
Two of the items in this 25%Update! need your immediate attention.
Alert #1!
Barney Frank/Ron Paul Dear Colleague Letter: The deadline for legislative signers on to the “Dear Colleague” letter is September 22nd.
The struggle to cut Pentagon spending has reached an important juncture. Congressmen Barney Frank and Ron Paul are circulating a letter to members of Congress that calls for serious cuts in US military spending. Now is the time to get your Congressional delegation to support the Frank/Paul effort and co-sign their letter.
Addressed to the Deficit Reduction Commission (the one that will probably try to slash Medicare and Social Security), the letter says:
- we must scale back Washington's "vast range of global commitments on all continents and oceans."
... including "our nuclear umbrella and the troops stationed in our overseas military bases."
-"any deficit reduction package must contain significant cuts to the military budget."
Please call your Congressperson at 202-224-3121. Urge your Congressperson to sign on to Congressmen Frank’s and Paul’s Dear Colleague letter, telling the Deficit Reduction Commission that any report they release for Congressional consideration should include significant military spending cuts.
The list of signers as of this writing includes, US Representatives Mike Quigley, John Lewis, Michael Capuano, Sam Farr, Peter Welch, Barbara Lee, Lynn Woolsey, Raul Grijalva, Earl Blumenauer, Ed Markey, Jim McGovern, John Tierney, John Olver. (An updated list can be obtained at, www.25percentsolution.com , or by contacting Rep. Barney Frank's office at, http://www.house.gov/frank/.)
Let’s thank those who have signed on!
Alert #2!
October 2nd (10-2-10) One Nation Working Together March in DC.
1199SEIU, NAACP, United for Peace & Justice, a broad range and growing list of labor, social justice, peace, environmental, and youth activists are joining forces to demand jobs, peace, justice, funding for jobs not wars, bring our troops home, rebuild America, and attention to climate change. There are many dozens of organizations which have endorsed 10-2-10!
The following websites offer background on 10-2-10, a list of endorsers, fliers and posters, and schedules for the day's activities:
www.unitedforpeace.org/
www.onenationforpeace.org
www.onenationworkingtogether.org/pages/partner-organizations
www.majorityagendaproject.org/go/
www.dotpeace.org
The deadline for signing up to get on a bus is fast approaching. Buses are leaving from various towns across Mass. on the evening of Friday, Oct. 1st, and will return to Mass. the morning of Oct. 3rd.
Sign up here: https://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4023/event/massbus <file://localhost/o/4023/event/massbus> , then click on Jobs with Justice. (In Mass. and elsewhere (your sign-up will be directed to your geographic area coordinator.)) or here:
http://www.majorityagendaproject.org/go/civicrm/event/register?id=11
For a guaranteed seat on one of the buses, sign up by the 23rd.
This is an amazing opportunity to spread the word on the Fund Our Communities/Reduce Military Spending 25% campaign and to build working relationships with allies!
See you in DC!
Workshops! Fund Our Communities/Reduce Military Spending 25%
“How can I get my town interested in a campaign to cut military spending and fund our needs?” One useful tool is a workshop. The 25% Campaign has created a one-hour workshop that highlights the incredible size of the military budget, the depth of our economic crisis, and the starting points for a local campaign. It’s lively, hard-hitting, involving, and effective. This workshop can be tailored to particular community needs and issues. It can be a potent catalyst for invigorating community action, and an opportunity to use and strengthen the contacts that are in place, and to build them in places and with folks beyond what you've imagined possible.
Call 617-491-3333 or email 25percentsolution@gmail.com to schedule a workshop.
Note: a workshop won’t do the job by itself. You have to talk to other people and organizations that are being hit hard by the jobs crisis and the budget crisis in your town. Find a few who want to work on this campaign. If you can go into a workshop with those commitments, other interested people can gather around those who are already involved. Talk with us about other organizing advice; we want to support you through the whole process.
We will be offering trainings to those interested in leading workshop for their group or in their community. If you are interested in setting up a training in your community, please let us know ASAP, as dates will be filling up quickly.
Move the Money: The National Campaign - An idea whose time has come!
“Fund our communities by cutting military spending.” The idea is catching fire. UFPJ, Peace Action, Grassroots Global Justice, US Action, the Friends Committee on National Legislation, and the Institute for Policy Studies are among the groups that want to work or already have campaigns to "move the money.” The wave is growing!
Working with them, we are turning this wave into on-the-ground organization. This summer, 25% activists led workshops at the US Social Forum with Peace Action, Grassroots Global Justice, and UFPJ. We took quick organizing trips and helped activists in New York City, metro Philadelphia, and northern Maryland pull together their own campaigns. On October 3 we will co-coordinate a meeting in DC for organizations that want to work on the campaign.
If this by-invitation meeting agrees on national coordination, 25% could join a broad alliance of campaigns to Move the Money from the Pentagon to our neighborhoods. US Labor Against the War is proposing a resolution campaign: get your city council, school board, congregation, union, and grassroots organization to pass resolutions, then take them to Congress next spring.
It’s all up for discussion in our new, rapidly spreading movement. Stay tuned!
Notes from Massachusetts community organizing:
Labor Day: In Boston, SEIU615 called a Labor Day rally and march. Fund Our Communities/Reduce Military Spending 25%, The Boston 25% Coalition, and CSJ/CAP participated, marching and distributing “Jobs Not Wars” stickers, and talking to many participants.
Mayors Letters: Mayor Joe O'Brien of Worcester, MA, and Mayor William Flanagan of Fall River, MA, are the latest signers!
Workshops: There are two workshops scheduled at the end of October in Framingham and Watertown, Mass.
Tabling, weekly, in Somerville, Mass. for 10-2-10 and Fund Our Communities.
Arlington (Mass.) Town Day, September 25th. Preparations for a booth and outreach, include: Readying handout materials, a petition, a penny poll, banner making, sticker pasting, and pizza munching (for energy!).
Continuing town-by-town discussions on '25%' Campaign.
Ongoing materials development for educators, school committees, and students on '25%' Campaign and school budget cuts.
“This is a campaign with its heart in our communities and the knowledge that it is a part of a larger national movement.”
Thank you for your work.
Fund Our Communities/Reduce Military Spending 25%
2161 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02140
617-491-3333
www.25percentsolution.com
25percentsolution@gmail.com
