Bring Our War Dollars Home-Hartford, CT

A citywide resolution to Bring Our War Dollars Home Now!

Unemployment, housing, access to education and health care are all issues that deeply affect the city of Hartford.

2010 census data shows that Hartford has the highest poverty rating in Connecticut at 31.9%. Nationally, the poverty rating is 14.3% and is based on a 2 parent, 2 child household with an income of $21,756.

While the income gap grows the federal government continues to take hundreds of millions of our tax dollars from the City of Hartford to be used for the wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

War spending has had a devastating impact on the city. Communities of color in Hartford have been hardest hit. Our city has a population that is 41% Latino and 38% African American/West Indian population. Unemployment for people of color is over 40% and when employed make only 60 cents for every dollar made by white workers.

Since 2001, well over 1 trillion dollars has been spent nationally on the wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Connecticut nearly 28 billion dollars has gone to war spending and at least $453 million has been taken from the city of Hartford to fund the wars and occupations. This dollar amount is just the tip of the iceberg. This figure does not include “soldiers' regular pay...Potential future costs, such as future medical care for soldiers and veterans wounded in the war, are not included. These numbers do not account for the wars being deficit-financed or that taxpayers will need to make additional interest payments on the national debt due to these deficits.” (Costofwar.com)

Our city can not sustain this economic drain. Why should millions of our tax dollars be spent destroying the cities and lives of workers and students in foreign countries? Why should our tax dollars be spent supporting repressive regimes in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world. We need to bring the war dollars home now to rebuild the infrastructure of Hartford.

We need money for jobs, education, housing and health care.

The Bring Our War Dollars Home campaign originated in Maine and has since found success in other areas of New England. The campaign would involve our community coming together to introduce a resolution to the City Council of Hartford. The basic idea of the resolution would be for the city council to call on the US government and the President to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, to bring our tax dollars and troops home. We also call upon the City Council to support the call for a the national bi-coastal march for peace in New York City planned for April 9.

On Thursday, January 27th, 2011 at 6:30pm, Hartford city hall, city council chambers, a meeting will be called to begin constructing such a resolution to bring before the city council of Hartford. We invite you and your organization to join us at this meeting and add your name to this letter.

Luis Cotto, City Councilor of Hartford, June Pinkin, Hartford Federation of Teachers - Retiree Chapter President,
Mongi Dhaouadi, Council on Islamic American Relations, Desiree Milner-Mckay, Cambridge College student, Hartford resident, Veterans for Peace, Chapter 42, Community Party, CT United for Peace, Hope Out Loud, Greater Hartford Coalition on Cuba, People of Faith, Stop the Raids! Trinity College, Queer Liberation Front, Socialist Action, Queers With Out Borders, Socialist Party

For More Information Contact: 860-680-6314
or email: Christopher.Hutch@gmail.com