Defunding the Pentagon: What it Means to Invest in the People and Planet

Join CODEPINK for a conversation with Chris Smalls and Steven Donziger about Defunding the Pentagon: What it Means to Invest in the People and the Planet. The anti-war movement started calling for cuts to the massive pentagon budget decades ago, and now the budget topline is nearly one trillion dollars. Figures like Elon Musk, who’ve been nominated by the incoming Trump Administration to “end government waste” recently focused in on the Pentagon – drawing attention to its audit failures. But Elon Musk represents a very different viewpoint from organizers who have been calling for cuts to the outrageous military budget. The people want reinvestment into our communities. We don’t want budget cuts for the sake of budget cuts. That $1 trillion can be reallocated to fund housing, education, infrastructure, and green transitions. This discussion will highlight the differences in approach to Pentagon cuts between the movement and billionaires like Elon, discuss the pressing needs of the people, and reimagine a world where all those resources go to sustaining life instead of promoting death.

Featuring:
Chris Smalls is the founder and president of the Amazon Labor Union. Under his leadership, the ALU successfully unionized an Amazon warehouse: a historic victory for workers and a titanic defeat for the behemoth corporation. The epitome of an industry disruptor, he inspires students, workers, and communities to use their voices to envision and build a better future. He is also the founder of The Congress of Essential Workers.

Steven Donziger is a lawyer and climate activist who has been the target of an oil company revenge campaign for over 30 years. In 2013, Steven helped Amazon communities in Ecuador win the largest environmental judgment in history when a court ordered Chevron to pay $9.5 billion ($12 billion today) to restore ancestral lands despoiled by the dumping of billions of gallons of cancer-causing oil waste. In retaliation, Chevron used its political and financial capital to countersue Steven for contempt of court, strip him of his law license, and detain him at home and prison for close to three years. While Steven continues the battle against Chevron, he also advocates for other victims of corporate malfeasance and offers legal interpretations of human rights issues.