[Marxism] Re: Does anybody feel a draft? I don't

["David McDonald" <dbmcdonald@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Carlos:

>Yet, the practical inmediate question, which is how to the forefront the
oppossition to the draft should come, is better adressed by Joaquin's point.
The draft is not in the air, not even in the higher levels.

Well, I agree that the civilian leaders are still opposed to the draft, but
it seems to me that the various comments I mentioned in my past post, all
coming from senior military personnel, do point to a bit of an offensive on
their part for something. If the standdown was intended to convey something
to the recruiters themselves in the way of new information, changes in
procedures, or whatever, perhaps Carlos can point that out to us or cite the
changes urged in General Rochelle's press conference. I couldn't find them
myself. Army command guys don't just go around  spreading gloom and
predicting doom, in my experience, unless there is some reason.

But never mind that. The point I would like to emphasize is the actual
movement against recruiters in schools that is occurring today. It is quite
serious and it represents genuine molecular movement among the youth. Carlos
may choose to pooh-pooh their efforts and the efficacy thereof, but I do
not. This, not some speculative movement against he draft, is the actual
movement unfolding today. It is happening in the high schools and community
colleges around Seattle, and a casual google search shows it is happening
elsewhere.

Carlos may think this movement is ineffective, but it has electrified all
the campuses on which it has occurred locally. There is nothing like a
little victory to give you a head of steam, especially if you are fifteen,
sixteen or seventeen years old and haven't won too many rounds in your fight
against your school administrators. And, in my opinion, a shortfall of 6,600
recruits in the Army alone this year to date (the figure cited by Gen.
Rochelle) is significant, and the constant attention to the question of
driving rcruiters off campus can only be bad for military recruiters who
work best in the dark, where their lies are not exposed and their chicanery
goes unanswered. I would urge Marxmailers to pay attention to this wing of
the antiwar movement, which is not at all infected with either slavish
attempts to breathe life into the left wing of the DP a la UFPJ or the
absurb sectarianism of ANSWER. I look to these youthful forces to help break
the logjam in the antiwar movement.


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