Join CODEPINK Congress as we learn about the hidden ways the U.S. is arming the world. Most arms sales have been conducted through the State Department until recent years – now, “small” arms sales have been moved to the Department of Commerce. The two departments have different rules for how to conduct sales, and the shift has led to less transparency in the U.S. arms trade. Our guests will focus on how the U.S. sells weapons, and how the shift to the Department of Commerce has made it easier for military contractors to profit from global weapons sales.

Featuring

John Lindsay-Poland coordinates the Stop U.S. Arms to Mexico Project of Global Exchange, and works for police demilitarization with the California Healing Justice Program of the American Friends Service Committee in Oakland, California. He is the author of Emperors in the Jungle: The Hidden History of the U.S. in Panama and Plan Colombia: U.S. Ally Atrocities and Community Activism.

Danaka Katovich is the Middle East and Peace Collective coordinator for CODEPINK. Since 2018, she has been working towards ending US participation in the war in Yemen. At CODEPINK she works on youth outreach as a facilitator of the Peace Collective, CODEPINK’s youth cohort that focuses on anti-imperialist education and divestment.

Special hosts:

Rushi Sen is a third year student at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She lives in Minneapolis and is in CODEPINK’s Peace Collective.

Aidan Cross is an Americas correspondent for The London Globalist and a member of the CODEPINK Peace Collective. He is an undergraduate studying International Relations and Chinese.