MIC at 50 - A National Conference in Charlottesville, Va.
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A Conference on Moving Money from the Military to Human Needs -- http://MIC50.org
Reserve your spot to attend this conference now! The fees increase after September 1st: Register.
Graphic by Barbara Stanley, Skipper Graphics.
Our current wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, and Somalia, and our smaller military operations in over 100 other countries are part of what President Eisenhower warned of 50 years ago in speaking of the Military Industrial Complex. We spend over half our federal budget on the military. We could cut it by 85% and still have the world's largest. No nation has tried anything like this before, and it's not clear we can survive it. We're shortchanging everything else to fund wars and overseas bases that make us less safe. There's a crisis in our towns, but in the midst of a phony budget crisis in Washington, the House passed the largest military budget ever. It's time for us to rein in the military insustrial complex after 50 years.
Over 20 speakers will lead the discussion, planning, and organizing. Speakers will include former procurement executive and chief contracting officer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Bunnatine (Bunny) H. Greenhouse, retired Army Colonel Ann Wright, author Bruce Levine, retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel and former Pentagon desk officer Karen Kwiatkowski, author Robert Jensen, international affairs analyst Helena Cobban, retired CIA officer Ray McGovern, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in SpaceBruce Gagnon, executive director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee Shahid Buttar, author and West Point graduate Paul Chappell, and many more.
See additional speakers and agenda.
In Charlottesville, as around the country, increasingly the best place to look for a job is in the military-weapons-logistics-spying-reconstruction industry. There were 161 military contractors in Charlottesville taking in $919,914,918 through 2,737 contracts from the federal government between 2000 to 2010. And the trend is ever upward, the budget "crisis" notwithstanding.
This flood of money creates jobs less efficiently than investment in most other industries or even tax cuts. We are putting over half of every dollar of federal income tax and borrowing into the military. We could cut this by 85% and still be the top-spending nation in the world militarily. Meanwhile we are failing to invest in infrastructure, green energy, education, housing, jobs, and care for our young, old, and ill. The current trend will ruin us economically, as well as in terms of civil liberties, representative government, environmental destruction, social cohesion, hostile blowback, and weapons proliferation. Reining in the MIC has become a matter of survival.
We can and must turn this around!
Reserve your spot to attend this conference now! The fees increase after September 1st: Register.
The low registration fees (just $30 or $15 for students, OR WHAT YOU CAN AFFORD, or free for PVCC students) are made possible by sponsorships and donations from those who are able.
Sponsor this conference as an organization or an individual! Or simply donate:
Volunteer to help before or during the conference.
Offer a guestroom in your Charlottesville home for one of our speakers or another participant from out of town.
Coming from out of town?
WHEN: September 16-18, 2011
WHERE:
- Friday, September 16, 2011, at the Haven, 112 W Market Street, Charlottesville, Va. Map.
- Saturday and Sunday, September 17 and 18, 2011, at The Dickinson Fine and Performing Arts Center atPiedmont Virginia Community College, 501 County Road 338, Charlottesville, Va. 22902-7589. Map.
Flyers are in the column on the right. Print em out and make copies!
Here are additional resources for learning about the MIC.
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