UCU: Composite: Welfare not Warfare

Motion

Motion text: Congress notes:
1. Britain currently spends £54 billion a year on arms
2. Starmer’s 2.5% increase in arms spending will mean an extra £13.4bn a
year spent on weapons.
3. This could be spent on things we need, such as:
• 26,000 nurses (£1 billion) and 1000 new ambulances (£½ billion)
• 37,000 new council houses (£6 billion)
• Or increasing funding to Prison, Adult, Further, and Higher Education!
4. Last year’s TUC passed motions in support of the UK banning selling
weapons to Israel and days of action against the escalation of war in the
middle east.
Congress believes:
a. Additional spending on arms will not make the world a safer place
b. The government will increase arms spending by cutting the welfare state and
holding down public sector wages. It will be the working class in Britain who
will also be made to pay the price for the increase in arms spending.
c. It is a shocking indictment that a Labour Government is increasing arms
expenditure by cutting overseas aid. We did not elect a Labour government
for this.
Congress resolves:
i. To submit a motion to this year’s TUC conference condemning the
government’s increase in arms spending and calling for it to be reversed
ii. To support any and all campaigns at local, regional and national level,
against cuts to benefits and public services