Re: [Marxism] Counter-recruiter

[Bert <itsbert@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Louis, has Chris heard of Veterans for Peace.  It sounds like he is a prime 
candidate for membership.  To find his most local chapter he can go to 
<www.veteransforpeace.org>.   I am secretary of the Green Mountain Veterans 
for Peace <www.greenmtvetsforpeace.org> in northern Vermont and will Miller 
is our President and webmaster.

Sincerely,
At 09:33 AM 1/26/2005, Louis Proyect wrote:
> Village Voice, January 24th, 2005
> Generation Debt: The New Economics of Being Young
> Feeling a Draft?
> Poor kids of color fight the Pentagon
> by Anya Kamenetz
>
> Chris Dugan, 27, signed up for his future hitch in the marines while still 
> in high school. "I wanted to be hard and serve my country," he says. "My 
> grandfather was a marine." Dugan was lucky enough to serve in peacetime, 
> from 1995 to 1999. Included was a short stint as a recruiter for high 
> schoolers like himself, patriotic working-class kids without a lot of 
> options to pay for college, get job training, or find work. "These 
> recruiters psychoanalyze you and pitch you a story," he says. "They have a 
> quota, and if that quota isn't met, it's their ass. They'll do whatever 
> they can to get you in."
>
> But now Chris is out?far out. He's a master's student at Hunter College 
> and a member of the International Socialist Organization and the Campus 
> Antiwar Network. And he's a counter-recruiter, part of a growing 
> grassroots national movement to keep kids like him out of Iraq.
>
> The No Child Left Behind Act, passed in 2002, included a little-seen 
> provision stipulating that all public high schools provide a list of 
> students' names, addresses, and other personal information to military 
> recruiters. Douglas Smith, a spokesperson for the Army Reserve Command, 
> says this provision is simply a matter of convenience. "It saves the 
> recruiters a lot of research time figuring out how to get in contact with 
> the students."
>
> But by the accounts of teachers, students, and parents, the officers in 
> the pressed uniforms and shiny shoes are using those data to get more 
> aggressive, particularly at poor and largely minority schools. At schools 
> like Bronx Community College, they set up tables three or four days a 
> week; at many high schools, they far outnumber college or other job 
> recruiters. They call kids at home, show up at their front doors, and even 
> threaten them, anything to get the kids to boot camp.
>
> Activists report that one kid who signed up for delayed entry was told 
> that backing out, which is legally allowed, would be desertion in a time 
> of war, meaning he could be hunted down and shot. (Smith, the army 
> spokesperson, said a recruit could be considered AWOL?less serious than 
> desertion?only after going through all physicals and other screenings, and 
> then failing to show up for basic training.)
>
> On January 15 and 16, a coalition of local peace and student groups met in 
> Manhattan to brainstorm ways to reach kids with the facts, starting with 
> their right not to give up their personal info. "Schools are obligated to 
> inform both parents and students of their right to opt out," said Amy of 
> Youth Activists-Youth Allies (Ya-Ya), which helped organize the weekend 
> counter-recruitment workshop. "Different schools and districts are doing a 
> different quality of job with that"?ranging from letters sent home to each 
> student to a small classified ad in the local paper.
>
> Ya-Ya has been meeting with high school officials, convincing them that 
> giving recruiters "equal access" does not mean giving them free access to 
> roam the halls and pull kids out of class. The group's teenage members 
> hand out flyers at area public schools about the dangers of signing up for 
> an eight-year hitch. One of them is headlined "What Recruiters Don't Want 
> You to Know." Others talk about institutional racism, sexism, and 
> homophobia in the military, and false economic promises.
>
> The army brags that it recently raised its top G.I. Bill award for college 
> to $70,000. What the service doesn't tell you is that 43 percent of 
> veterans see none of this money. You must contribute $100 of your own 
> paycheck each month for the first year in order to qualify. Speaking of 
> checks, for an army PFC in 2005, the pay is $14,822 a year. Combat pay, 
> for those in Iraq, is another $225 a month, more if you have kids at home.
>
> Many of the counter-recruiters, not just the socialists, see their issue 
> as one of economic justice. "Who does the military target?" asks Peter, a 
> 17-year-old student at the specialized Urban Academy Laboratory public 
> high school and a member of Ya-Ya. "Young men of color like me. People 
> from the ghetto with no way out except the military. For me personally, 
> this is about raising social awareness."
>
> With the pressure of Iraq, Afghanistan, and who knows what other looming 
> commitments, the army is adding 1,000 recruiters to its staff this year, 
> and the National Guard, which missed its fiscal year 2004 goal of 56,000 
> new enlistees by nearly 10 percent, is adding 700 more. The question on 
> everyone's mind is what will happen when shiny Hummers, free T-shirts, 
> cajoling, and bullying aren't enough. A Quaker woman at the workshop 
> offered a how-to on conscientious objection?no church affiliation required.
>
> "Students at Hunter have a vested interest in this issue," Chris Dugan 
> says. "We start out by asking them, 'Are you under 27? If there's a draft, 
> you could go.' "
>
> --
>
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Bert Thompson
P. O. Box 508
Johnson, Vermont  05656

802 635.7023

itsbert@xxxxxxxxxx



                 


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