Listen: Fresh Calls to Cut $100B from the US War Machine
No nukes: anti-war activists are calling for a roughly 11 percent reduction in military spending. Photo by Bob Hennelly
By Bob Hennelly
Say what? We are in the midst of an unprecedented global climate crisis — so, how is it that U.S. military spending continues at an obscene rate with a wanton disregard of the consequences for the planet and every living thing on it?
On this week’s episode of the Stuck Nation Labor Radio Hour, we speak with John Braxton, a longtime Philadelphia-based labor and peace activist, who has launched Veterans and Labor for Sensible Priorities, a national grassroots movement campaign in support of HR 1134 — legislation sponsored by Representatives Barbara Lee and Mark Pocan to cut the Pentagon budget by $100 million, or roughly 11 percent. This commonsense measure would not impact military service members pay, nor the medical benefits upon which veterans depend.
John is joined by Newark social justice activist Lawrence Hamm, who has announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat now held by the recently indicted Senator Bob Menendez.
In the second half of the show, we get an update from United Steelworkers Nurses Local 4-200 President Judy Danella on her union's ongoing strike for safer staffing at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The prolonged three-month strike prompted Sen. Bernie Sanders, chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions to convene a standing-room-only field hearing on Oct. 27 in New Brunswick about the nation's nurse staffing crisis that was in evidence long before COVID. Judy is joined by Paula Rogovin, a New Jersey-based social and environmental activist with the Solidarity Singers.
The panel discusses the fact that nurses are twice as likely to commit suicide as the general population — and the links between inadequate nurse staffing to poor patient outcomes, increased workplace injuries, and nurse attrition and burnout.
We also hear from NJ AFL-CIO President Charlie Wowkanech about what started as a local strike for safer staffing at one hospital has helped to spark a national conversation.
Listen to the entire show below: