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Peace Pays

Alex Smith | 28.12.2010 18:49 | Anti-militarism | Ecology | Sheffield

When cities cannot afford services, when schools suffer, unemployment & welfare are gone - military spending still gets more than half of all. Why not build America instead? Bruce Gagnon is coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. We overcome objections, find local activism, search for Peace - & then hear the same calls for military conversion in Great Britain, from Stuart Parkinson.

Peace Pays Ecoshock 101224 - mp3 14M


If the U.S. closed it's 800 military bases around the world, what would happen? How could that money be spent to help Americans?

Why doesn't the mainstream media even talk about this option? Major media corporations, like General Electric, are also invested in arms making.

How many U.S. States and cities depend on the military-industrial complex? How would withdrawal impact client military states like Germany & Japan?

The Pentagon says war and weapons are now America's main export product. War is America's business. That means the U.S. demands domination of space. Lonely Planet Earth is being encircled with killer satellites and drones.

Much of that is to protect oil. We also talk about conversion of military spending to sustainable energy.

Why is the U.S. encircling China with missile destroyers? China imports at least 75% of it's oil by sea tankers. The last time America strangled oil to an Asian nation, the result was World War II in the Pacific....

A deep a disturbing look at America in the last days of empire, as the manufacturing economy collapses.

Bruce Gagnon is an international Peace activist, with local roots in Maine. We hear about the new film "Pax Americana" and a spreading movement called "Bring Our War $$$ Back Home". Ideas for activism.

We also discuss the U.S. Military as a major source of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

The interview is followed by brief clips from similar thinking in the UK, with Stuart Parkinson, Executive Director of Scientists for Global Responsibility. Why is Britain still spending on arms for empire, while chopping off heat to seniors, and affordable University fees?

Find a link to that full speech by Parkinson, courtesy of Sheffield IndyMedia, in the Radio Ecoshock show blog at ecoshock.info.

End music credit: "Peace Train" by Cat Stevens.

Alex Smith
- Homepage: http://www.ecoshock.org

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