The new one was presented last Wednesday in Rome in a Press Conference at the Chamber of Deputies «collective campaign for the reduction of military spending and the shifting of the resources thus saved towards more useful investments in favor of health, education, environment, solidarity and peace».
The initiative, promoted by PerugiAssisi Foundation for the Culture of Peace, Greenpeace Italy, Italian Peace and Disarmament Network and Sbilanciamoci!, intends to put «the disproportionate expenditure on military structures and armaments in our country back at the center of the attention of Italian public opinion. We want to reveal to Italian citizens – with analyzes and information tools – the enormous figures of this “theft of the future”, with its negative impacts and highlighting how much could be achieved with this money in terms of social spending, peace and development of the country”, it was underlined.
«The Campaign’s proposals start from the analyses, insights and actions already carried out in recent years by the promoting organizations: reducing military spending at a national and global level, with the creation of new disarmament paths; use the resources freed from military spending for social and environmental expenditure and for the strengthening of peace instruments; tax the extra profits of the military industry; reduce funds allocated to military missions abroad; increase controls on undue influence of the military industry on the military budget and exports».
«The militarization of thought, language and policies underway in recent years is leading to a crazy and dangerous increase in military spending (in particular for new weapons systems): we have been certifying this for some time and have been asking for a reversal of course for some time », the alarm raised by Francesco Vignarca, Campaign Coordinator of Italian Peace Disarmament Network, «these armed investment choices do not bring greater security but only more business for the military-industrial-financial complex. With this campaign we not only want to make the position of the majority of public opinion clear, but we ask politicians to take responsibility: the interests of those who really want to act? We want a reduction in Italian military spending just as we ask, in the context of various international campaigns, for the reduction of global spending and the convening of a new UN Conference for Disarmament.”
For Sofia BassoResearch Campaigner Peace and Disarmament of Greenpeace Italy «increasing military spending is the wrong answer: more guns does not mean more security. Indeed, the arms race is dragging the world into a spiral of out-of-control wars. We ask for a clear cut in military spending which is taking resources away from the country’s true priorities and a tax on the extra profits of the arms industry, because while the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East continue to cause massacres of civilians, while in Italy and in the world inequalities and the effects of the climate crisis are increasing, the arms sector is making record profits. It is unacceptable that we continue to finance war while the world burns and millions of people fight for survival.”
«Care, not bombs. This is what we need”, the comment by Flavio Lotti, president of the PerugiAssisi Foundation, «in the face of wars and the very serious global crises that loom, every parliamentarian is called to choose whether to invest in the arms race or in the safety of people who are suffering a continuous worsening of living conditions. Everyone takes on the responsibility of making peace, that is: helping those who cannot cope, helping those in difficulty, protecting those who are threatened, feeding those who are hungry and thirsty, treating those who are sick, supporting those who are fragile, reducing inequalities, preserve common goods, save our humanity and our planet”, he says in turn.
«As many as 4 million Italians no longer receive treatment due to lack of money, around nine thousand schools are at risk of collapse, Emilia Romagna is under water after yet another flood: these are the priorities where resources should be put, not weapons from war”, he explained Giulio Marcon, spokesperson for Sbilanciamoci!