|
Dear Supporter,
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, military contractors have contributed close to 15.5 million dollars to candidates this election cycle to date. How do we overcome the corrupting influence of money in politics? For Peace Action the answer is organizing local Peace Voter campaigns, training and mobilizing thousands of volunteers, using voter guides, earned and paid media to educate the voting public.
With the elections less than five months away, Peace Action chapters have collected candidate questionaires, conducted candidate briefings and have been bird-dogging candidates. We are making runaway military spending and endless war issues they must address at every campaign stop.
I want to share with you a report from a recent Peace Voter training, connect you to our Congressional Scorecard, an interactive educational tool voters can use to see how their Members of Congress voted on pivotal peace and justice issues last year, and two updates I hope will give you a solid overview of our work.
Humbly for Peace,
Kevin Martin
Executive Director
Peace Action
Report from the Field
--Jessica Camacho and Madelyn Hoffman, New Jersey Peace Action
On June 9th New Jersey Peace Action (NJPA) held a grassroots activist skills-building day to make peace the issue this election year. More than 50 people attended the event in Montclair, and it was a great kick-off for our Peace Voter 2012 campaign!
Read More
Back to Top
Congressional Scorecard: We have them on record
Peace Action’s Congressional Voting Record for last year’s session of Congress is not just a list of your member’s votes on the issues we care about; it is a call to action!
The Congressional Voting Record is a tool to educate voters and to use as background for putting the hard questions to candidates. And yes, holding Congressional representatives accountable for their votes.
You can use it to prepare for lobbying. Pass it on to friends and family. Post it on social media. Include the link in your newsletters, feature it on your website and in email alerts. Thank you for all your activism!
See the Scorecard
Back to Top
On the Ballot: jobs, public services, taxes & military spending
-- Cole Harrison, Massachusetts Peace Action
Massachusetts Peace Action is an important part of a coalition of Massachusetts community, labor, and peace organizations that are now working to put a non-binding referendum on the November ballot in districts across Massachusetts.
Read More
Back to Top
Nuclear weapons spending: Ripe for cuts
Last month, Gen. James E. Cartwright, former commander of the United States’ nuclear forces, said that US goals for nuclear deterrence could be guaranteed with a total arsenal of 900 warheads, with only half of them deployed at any one time. The New START Treaty with Russia sets the limit for deployed warheads at 1,550, more than three times what Gen. Cartwright asserts is required.
This week, the Chairman of the Senate Arms Service Committee, Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), called spending on nuclear overkill “ripe for cuts.” Sen. Levin is calling on the Pentagon to come up with an additional $100 billion in spending cuts over the next 10 years and singled out spending on the nuclear stockpile as a place to start looking for additional savings.
With these developments in mind, I wanted to share with you a great piece by Peace Action board member Larry Wittner debunking the myth of deterence, Do Nuclear Weapons Really Deter Aggression.
Back to Top
|
