Urgent Need for People's Empowerment
Protest in Washington, DC, December 8, 2021
demands Pentagon budget be cut
The broad majority of people in the U.S. have
repeatedly shown in various ways that their
security lies in the fight for the right to health
care, housing, education, a livelihood, and safe
working and living conditions for all. This is
evident in several recent webinars against war, an
International Tribunal that found the U.S. guilty
of genocide, petitions, demonstrations and the
tens of thousands of workers who have gone on
strike across the country. The demand is for
increased funding to meet the human needs of the
people, affirm their rights and stop wars and war
funding, which the government refuses to do.
One example is the current debate in the U.S.
Congress over President Joe Biden's proposed
package, said to be for social programs and the
environment. It had been for $2.3 trillion and is
now for $1.75 trillion. Large portions of that are
for more pay-the-rich schemes. What also stands
out is that while funding for social programs is
considered "too expensive" and gets cut out of
these bills in the name of compromise, funding for
the Pentagon -- which largely goes to the war
oligopolies like Lockheed Martin, Boeing and
Raytheon -- routinely passes by large majorities.
The Pentagon has a yearly budget of about $1
trillion. This year it is estimated at $778
billion, which does not include funding for
nuclear weapons, estimated at more than $43
billion for 2022 and $634 billion for 2021 through
2030. This year's $778 billion is $37 billion more
than President Trump's last defence budget and $25
billion more than Biden requested. The Senate will
likely add a "competitiveness bill," which
includes $52 billion, with no strings attached,
for a handful of microchip monopolies and a $10
billion handout to Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos
for "space exploration."
While the majority of the U.S. people have made
clear through their demands that human rights are
to be upheld, they are not the decision-makers on
these matters. People are rejecting a system where
there are no mechanisms of accountability, and
there is no opportunity for the people themselves
to discuss and deliberate and have their solutions
implemented.
Instead, issues of budgets, and war and peace are
decided mainly by the executive, commonly using
their prerogative powers, which are exercised with
impunity. The rulers promote the notion that
security depends on them and on preserving these
dysfunctional institutions. Such a stand is being
rejected as people organize for increased funding
to affirm the rights of all, often taking
independent initiatives and relying on their own
efforts, not on Congress or the President.
This article was published in
Volume 51 Number 12 - December 12, 2021
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2021/Articles/M510126.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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