3 - Only demilitarization solves neoliberalism - continued weapon production and sales link back and re-affirm capitalist militarization
Kirk ‘2k [Gwyn and Margo Okazawa-Rey; author and scholar-activist concerned with gender, racial and environmental justice, American professor emerita, educator, writer, social justice activist, and a founding member of the Combahee River Collective; Neoliberalism, Militarism, and Armed Conflict, “Goals of This Special Issue,” p. 14] SPark
The analyses in this special issue show the need for understanding connections between neoliberalism and militarism and for addressing this linkage through activist efforts. This means opposing Plan Columbia, for example, as a neoliberal strategy as well as a military intervention into the FARC's struggle for self determination. It means exposing the fraud of the War on Drugs in the United States, Latin America, and elsewhere, and articulating genuine solutions to the problem of poverty and lack of economic opportunity for small drug producers and users.
Opposing neoliberalism also means seeking effective strategies toward de-militarization, dismantling the permanent war economy, and working for economic justice in a world of limited resources. It means opening up public discourse on the economic reasons for war, the profitability of arms sales, and the costs of militarism in human, environmental, and economic terms. Steps toward demilitarization include:
Decommissioning weapons of mass destruction and opposing the militarization of space.
Reducing weapons production and sales, and promoting initiatives for conversion of military-based industries to provide for civilian needs.
Developing nonmilitary forms of strength to counter military threats, and expanding and disseminating current knowledge and experience of peaceful resolution to conflicts.
Developing renewable sources of energy.
Stopping the glorification of war and warriors, supporting initiatives like the Hague Appeal for Peace and UNESCO's culture of peace, and defining adventure and heroism in nonmilitary terms.
Broadening notions of conventional masculinity and femininity and delinking masculinity and militarism.
Developing genuinely democratic processes and structures for political and economic decision-making at community, national, and transnational levels.
Redirecting public spending to meet human and environmental needs and opposing assaults on locally
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