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Apr 28, 2026 / Move the Money Campaign / Women's International League for Peace & Freedom WILPF / NNOMY - We live in a country where young people are told there is “no money” for affordable housing, no money for mental‑health services, no money for climate resilience, no money for education, and no money for the basic social supports that allow communities to thrive. Yet somehow, year after year, there is always money for war.
In 2024, global military spending reached an astonishing $2.7 trillion, the highest in human history. The United States alone accounted for nearly half of that total. While families struggle to pay rent and schools crumble from disinvestment, the military budget continues to swell without meaningful public debate. These are not natural forces. These are political choices.
The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) has named this crisis with clarity: it is time to Move the Money — away from weapons and toward the social, economic, and ecological foundations of real security. Their campaign exposes a truth that policymakers rarely admit: militarization does not make us safer. It drains the resources that actually keep societies stable and resilient.
At the National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY), we see the consequences of these choices every day. When public budgets prioritize war, young people pay the price. Underfunded schools become recruitment grounds. Economic precarity becomes a pipeline into the military. Communities of color, immigrant youth, and low‑income students are targeted most aggressively, not because the military offers opportunity, but because our society has systematically denied them alternatives.
Militarization is not just a budget line — it is a worldview. It tells young people that violence is inevitable, that conflict is solved through force, and that their futures are expendable. It tells communities that they must accept austerity while the Pentagon receives a blank check. It tells the world that the United States will continue to invest in war‑making rather than peace‑building.
WILPF’s Move the Money campaign offers a different vision. It insists that public budgets should reflect public needs: education, healthcare, climate action, gender justice, housing, and community well‑being. It calls for transparency, accountability, and a feminist political economy that centers care rather than domination. It reminds us that every dollar spent on weapons is a dollar stolen from the future.
NNOMY stands firmly with this vision. We know that demilitarization is not an abstract ideal — it is a practical necessity for the well‑being of young people. When we invest in education instead of recruitment, youth gain real choices. When we invest in mental‑health services instead of military propaganda, youth gain real support. When we invest in climate resilience instead of endless war, youth gain a livable planet.
The United States does not suffer from a lack of resources. It suffers from a lack of political courage. The money exists — trillions of dollars of it. The question is whether we will continue to funnel it into weapons systems that deepen global insecurity, or whether we will redirect it toward the human needs that create lasting peace.
WILPF is right: it is time to move the money. And NNOMY is committed to ensuring that young people are not sacrificed to a militarized economy that has long outlived any claim to moral legitimacy. Our future depends on shifting our priorities — not someday, not eventually, but now.
If we want a world where young people can thrive, we must stop funding war and start funding life.
Source: https://www.wilpf.org/move-the-money/#act-now
Resources
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and our work to demilitarize our schools and youth by sending a check to our fiscal sponsor "in our name" at the
Alliance for Global Justice.
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Updated on 05/23/2026- GDG
