Challenging the Military Industrial Complex for over 30 years
The Peace Economy Project is a 501(c)3 non profit organization that researches military spending, educates about the hazards of an unchecked military-industrial complex and advocates for conversion from a military to a more stable peace-based economy. We focus our attention on local weapons manufacturing and its connection to global militarization. We collaborate with other organizations to raise consciousness of where our tax dollars are invested and to encourage others to reinvest in their communities.
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The Revolt of the Guinea Pigs
Mike Prokosch pictured here with Miriam Miranda at UMSL as apart of the PEP Fall Program
A giant experiment is about to begin in St. Louis.
Over the next decade, the federal government will repeatedly cut Head Start, education, environmental programs, Community Development Block Grants, fuel assistance, and much more. Working class families and communities of color will take the biggest hits, but everyone will hurt.
How will the experimental subjects react? Will St. Louis residents quietly accept ten more years of cuts in practically every city service? Will parents compete with senior citizens and library lovers to protect some programs at others’ expense? Might they come together and push back against all the cuts?
It’s up to the experimental subjects – the guinea pigs. That's us.
Peace activists in other cities, where the same experiment is underway, are forming coalitions with unions and community groups. We are mobilizing on “other people’s issues” – home foreclosures, layoffs, social service cuts. For many peace organizations, that's a big change, but most are thriving on the new energy, new connections, and new power we are building.
By showing up for other people's work, we are earning their support. In city after city we are agreeing on a four-point platform: create jobs, save services, tax the rich and corporations, and cut the Pentagon. Together we’re starting to build power that we don’t have alone.
We'll need that power next year and we can use it to:
Unite the many. Give all the separate fights against budget cuts a common focus: tax the 1% and cut military spending.
Push our demands up to Washington. “Bird-dog” candidates for Congress in 2012 and ask if they will support those solutions.
Enlist local elected officials. Urge the many city and county governing bodies in metro St. Louis to send “fund us – cut military spending” resolutions to Congress.
Mike Prokosch, organizer for New Priorities Network
Visions of the War Economy, Inklings of a Peace Economy
Clearly, the war economy is not working--- for tax-paying citizens, school children, or people abroad. However, it is working for local industries like Sabriner Corporation, Boeing, Belleville Shoe, Korte Compnay, and LMI Aerospace Inc. Boeing, in particular, runs a very profitable business—even with military cuts and 9,300 layoffs last year, the company's midyear portfolio for 2011 weighs in heftily at 4.5 billion dollars. Impeccable in its public relations, Boeing is a top corporate giver in St. Louis. Challenge yourself to find a major festival or public event not sponsored by Boeing. Good luck. It's a frustrating reminder of just how deeply the war machine has its fingers in the social fabric of St. Louis. This photo essay further explores the war economy’s hold over the city.
Q: How close is Democrat Claire McCaskill to Boeing?
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Congressional Appeal 2011
Peace Economy Project Executive Director Tila Neguse and PEP Inter-Campus Coordinator Justin Stein pictured with Senator Claire McCaskill at her office in Washington DC during the PEP Congressional Appeal visit
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