Veterans & Labor for Sensible Priorities

The campaign to generate veteran and labor support for the “People Over Pentagon Act” that was H.R. 1134, sponsored by Congressmembers Barbara Lee, Mark Pocan and 18 others, is underway to move $100 billion from the military budget to funding social programs and dealing with climate change. Our list of supporters among labor groups, veterans groups, and individuals continues to grow.

Our sign-on statement (please share: bit.ly/VL4SP-signon) has over 473 union member and veteran signatories.

VFP members and other veterans: please sign-on if you haven’t yet. Help us build this campaign by sending it to your contacts. Want more background on this campaign? Here are details.

As of 1/6/25, 40 labor organizations and 20 Veterans For Peace Chapters have endorsed the People Over Pentagon campaign.

LABOR ORGANIZATIONS SUPPORTING PEOPLE OVER PENTAGON

National Unions:

American Postal Workers Union (APWU)
National Union of Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America (UE)

National Labor Constituency Groups:

National Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW)

State-wide Union Organizations:

American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Massachusetts
American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Vermont
American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Washington
American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Wisconsin
California Federation of Teachers
New Jersey Industrial Union Council

Regional Labor Organizations:

Am Federation of State, County, & Municipal Employees (AFSCME) DC 47 (Philadelphia)

Local Unions:

American Federation of Teachers locals: Guild Local 1931 (San Diego and Grossmont);Local 2026 (Philadelphia); Local 2121 (San Francisco); Local 2190 (United University Professionals, NY); Local 2334 Professional Staff Congress CUNY (NY); Local 3220 (Madison, WI); Local 3544 (OR); Local 4531 (Philadelphia); Local 4848 (WI); Local 6290 (Philadelphia); Local 6352 (Glendora, CA)
American Postal Workers Union (APWU) Local 89 (Philadelphia)
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1953 (CT)
UNITE-HERE Local 634 (Philadelphia)

Labor Retiree Organizations:

AFL-CIO Philadelphia Labor Council Retirees; APWU Local 89 Retirees (Philadelphia); AFSCME DC 47 Retirees (Philadelphia); AFT Guild Local 1931R (San Diego and Grossmont); AFT Local 2026R (Philadelphia) Retirees; AFT Local 2121R Retirees (San Francisco)

Regional and Local Labor Constituency Groups:

A. Philip Randolph Institute, Philadelphia Chapter
Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter
Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) Chapters: New York City, Philadelphia, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Diego, Southwestern Pennsylvania
Dorothy Day Labor Forum (Spokane)
Labor/Community Alliance of South Florida

For more information contact John Braxton (jwbraxton@gmail.com; 215/796-4933) or use this link: https://bit.ly/VL4SP-covermsg

VETERAN ORGANIZATIONS SUPPORTING PEOPLE OVER PENTAGON

National Organizations:

Veterans For Peace

Veterans for Peace Chapters:

Chapter 1 – Maine
Chapter 7 – Los Angeles, CA
Chapter 14 – Gainesville, FL
Chapter 27 – Twin Cities, MN
Chapter 31 – Philadelphia, PA
Chapter 34 - New York, NY
Chapter 55 – Santa Fe, NM
Chapter 63 – Albuquerque, NM
Chapter 69 – San Francisco, CA
Chapter 74 – Detroit, MI
Chapter 80 – Duluth, MN
Chapter 91 – San Diego, CA
Chapter 101 – South Bay/Peninsula, CA
Chapter 102 – Milwaukee, WI
Chapter 106 – Dallas/North TX
Chapter 109 - Olympia, WA
Chapter 112 – Ventura, CA
Chapter 132 – Corvallis-Albany, OR
Chapter 157 – North Carolina Triangle
Chapter 178 – No. Colorado
Chapter 180 – Fresno, CA

Check out the 4” x 6” card https://tinyurl.com/VL4SP-palmcard that VL4SP has passed out by the hundreds at labor gatherings.

Model Resolution. Please read the model resolution for organizations, and work to get your union, VFP Chapter or other organization to adopt it. Revise it as necessary to meet the needs of your organization and let us know when it is adopted by emailing labor@veteransforpeace.org.

From APWU national President: Mark Dimondstein, President of the American Postal Workers Union wrote in an article for the union newspaper:

“It is in the interests of postal workers and all working people at home and abroad to stop the madness of the bloated military budget and domination by the military industrial complex. As called for by APWU and AFL-CIO convention resolutions, let’s bring the war dollars home, insist that our tax dollars are used to improve our day-to-day lives and collective societal needs, such as health care, education, public transportation, affordable housing, childcare, food, clean water, addressing the climate crisis, and safe, good paying union jobs, including for veterans.”

Flyer. Check out and share our flyer that shows a list of social programs that a $100 billion reduction in Pentagon spending could pay for:

https://bit.ly/100billion-tradeoff-flyer

We welcome your questions, comments, participation, notification of VFP Chapter endorsements, and requests for speakers. Email: labor@veteransforpeace.org.

Photo Credit: David Bacon

Armistice Day, 2024 – Anti-War march joins Workers’ Strike: 400-500 people in an interfaith, immigrant rights, labor and veterans’ coalition marched to the San Francisco offices of our two Senators, to pressure them to vote to block the $20 billion in weapons the US is sending Israel. The march swung by the Palace Hotel to support the strikers of UNITE-HERE Local 2. Local 2 has endorsed a Ceasefire in Gaza Resolution.

The Palace Hotel, formerly the Sheraton Palace, is the site of the largest civil rights campaign in San Francisco history. In March 1964, 1,500 people sat in the lobby, leading to 167 arrests. The next day, the 35 major hotels agreed to end discrimination in hiring.

Just Transition

Veterans For Peace’s Climate Crisis and Militarism Project supports Just Transition. The issues of climate crisis, workers and labor, environmental justice, and militarism must all be addressed. Not only the fossil fuel industry, but also the military-industrial complex must be reduced.

Workers in unions, because of their position in the economy, have the potential power to stop climate disaster, in a way that other groups do not. Members of the armed forces (who are also workers) should be included in Just Transition plans.

Just Transition applies to both workers and communities impacted by a transition to a demilitarized, sustainable energy economy. Just Transition requires that society create an economic and social safety net so that neither these workers nor these communities bear the lion’s share of the cost of making that transition. Creating good union jobs will provide continued employment for workers currently in fossil fuel corporations and the military-industrial complex. Just Transition includes facilitating justice to communities damaged by corporate pollution, including monetary reparations and shutdowns of toxic industrial sites. Just Transition requires protecting communities presently reliant on tax revenues generated by the presence of fossil fuel and military-industrial operations.

Militarism’s relationship to the global environmental/climate crisis is of grave importance. War itself is an environmental and ecological nightmare whose effects endure for decades after combat ends. War and preparation for war produce immense amounts of climate-warming greenhouse gasses and toxins. The Pentagon is responsible for 5% of global greenhouse gasses (GHG) emitted every year. It is the largest institutional GHG emitter on the planet. A large percentage of Superfund sites are located on military bases. The US military acts as the enforcer of last resort to ensure the United States and allies have unrestricted access to oil and gas resources throughout the world.

Resources

To go deeper into these issues, please check out these excellent resources:

Growing the Labor Climate Movement from the Roots Up by Labor Rise - Climate Jobs Action Group

From a Militarized to a Decarbonized Economy: A Case For Conversion by Costs of War Project, Brown University

Excerpt: Looking at two case studies, HybriDrive and CALSTART, the paper illustrates how the military can redirect its weapons and technological production capacity towards civilian uses and decarbonize the U.S. economy.

Six Stops on the National Security Tour: Warfare Economies by Miriam Pemberton

Excerpt: The U.S. military economy incorporates hundreds of American communities. This is the first book to connect our national security apparatus to the local level via deeply reported portraits of six carefully selected locations, including military Meccas and out-of-the-way places. They are woven into the warfare economy by bases, nuclear weapons labs, and production sites.

Taylor Barnes has written articles that relate to working in the War Industries, attitudes toward war among these workers and the possibilities of conversion:

Union Strength Dwindles at Top Defense Contractors

Boeing labor leader on Gaza bombardment: “We have a special responsibility to speak out”

From arms to renewables: How workers in this Southern military industrial hub are converting the economy

Bill Hartung focuses on the arms industry and US military budget. He is the author of Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex and And Weapons for All, a critique of US arms sales policies from the Nixon through Clinton administrations.

Just Transition and Defense Workers’ Views in the US and UK

Christian Sorenson has also written about the War Industry in A People’s Guide to the War Industry

Part 1 Part 2

Sorenson shows a map of the war industry’s locations in the US, what they produce now, and how they could convert production to useful civilian applications and products. https://thebusinessofwar.substack.com/p/mapping-the-business-of-war

The National Priorities Project studies the economic impact of militarism and the military budget.

From Victims to Actors of Just Transition: Lessons from the Lucas Aerospace Workers' Plan

'The Story of the Lucas Aerospace Shop Stewards Alternative Corporate Plan'

For more information: https://tinyurl.com/about-VL4SP