[Marxism] Poverty and Militarism ? A Deadly Combo By Bonnie Weinstein

[Bonnie Weinstein <giobon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Poverty and Militarism?A Deadly Combo
By Bonnie Weinstein
Socialistviewpoint.org

Vote No on V
Voters in San Francisco this November will again be asked to vote NO on war.
Proposition V?to keep the Junior Reserve Officers¹ Training Corps (JROTC) in
our schools?has been put on the ballot because in 2006 the San Francisco
Board of Education voted to end the JROTC military recruitment program in
San Francisco schools. While it did extend the deadline for a phase-out of
the program from June 2008 to June 2009, the Board voted late this spring to
end Physical Education (PE) credits for the program.

Since many students enrolled in the program to avoid regular PE classes and
still earn PE credits, and, since at least 15.6 percent of students were
involuntarily enrolled because there were not enough PE courses to meet
their graduation requirements, the decision by the Board to end PE credits
for JROTC will significantly reduce the number of students who would have
enrolled in the military recruitment program in its final year.

This is what propelled supporters of JROTC to place the pro-military
recruitment Proposition V on the ballot.
San Francisco says no to war and military recruitment in the schools
But San Francisco is an antiwar city. In 2004, Proposition N (U.S. Out of
Iraq Now) passed with 63 percent of the vote. And in 2005, Proposition I
(College Not Combat?No Military in our Schools) passed with 60 percent of
the vote. 

These votes gave the antiwar members of the San Francisco Board of Education
the extra incentive they needed to vote to phase out the JROTC recruitment
program which is operated and controlled solely by the military and which
targets children as young as 14-years-old.

The outcome of this November¹s vote on the Pro-JROTC-Pro-recruitment
initiative, Proposition V, will have ramifications across the country and it
is crucial that the antiwar movement unite to defeat it.
Poverty leaves few choices for poor youth
Escalating poverty and military presence in our schools will certainly steer
students toward the military. In fact, the military now recruits 30 to 50
percent of the students that complete the JROTC program. And those who
enlist outside of JROTC are propelled to join the military because of the
lack of other opportunities available to them?in effect, creating an
³economic draft.² 

That youth today are facing severe economic hardship is undeniable.
According to a September 1, 2008 New York Times article entitled, ³Hard
Times Hitting Students and Schools,² by Sam Dillon,

³With mortgage foreclosures throwing hundreds of families out of their homes
here each month, dismayed school officials say they are feeling the
upheaval: record numbers of students turning up for classes this fall are
homeless or poor enough to qualify for free meals? As 50 million children
return to classes across the nation, crippling increases in the price of
fuel and food, coupled with the economic downturn, have left schools from
California to Florida to Maine cutting costs?. And as many districts are
forced to cut back, the number of poor and homeless students is rising?

³?The big national picture is that food and fuel costs are going up and
school revenues are not,¹ said Anne L. Bryant, executive director of the
National School Boards Association. ?We¹re in a recession, and it¹s having a
dramatic impact on schools.¹? Districts in Louisiana, Minnesota and
elsewhere have taken a more radical measure and adopted four-day school
weeks. Hundreds of districts, responding to higher food prices, are charging
more for cafeteria meals? foreclosure statistics from the Metropolitan
Housing Coalition in Louisville that about 10 families were evicted every
day here?.²

So, not only are working people suffering the loss of their jobs, benefits
and homes, but they and their children have to pay more through increased
taxes, pay cuts, higher school costs, higher fuel, food, housing
costs?higher living costs across the board!

And if you thought your child could rise above these overwhelming obstacles
through getting a college education, think again! Increased college tuition
costs?textbooks in excess of $100.00 each, the need for personal laptops and
scientific calculators not to speak of notebooks and other supplies,
combined with the fact that student loans are no longer available to
community college students who have the least money?makes the option of
college virtually unattainable to most poor youth today.

Add to this the reality that the majority of our youth have only second-tier
jobs and second-tier lives to look forward to. This is the first generation
to believe they will neither live as long as their parents nor earn as much
in their lifetimes. They see their parents struggling right now!

No wonder the slick military propaganda with its promises of high-paying
career opportunities, college scholarships and instant ³bonus money² appears
to be a better choice to some students!
Recruiters¹ lies deceive students
The proponents of Proposition V?to keep JROTC in S.F. schools?have been
circulating lies that JROTC is not a military recruitment program; that it¹s
a youth ³leadership² program; that it offers educational and job
opportunities; that it doesn¹t discriminate against gay youth; that it
doesn¹t cost the school district money; and that it steers students away
from gangs and drugs, and that¹s why students need this ³choice² available
to them at school. But nothing could be further from the truth.
JROTC is a military recruitment tool
According to the U.S. Army Recruiting Command (USAREC) School Recruiting
Program Handbook, point 1.1, with regard to all military presence in the
schools:

³?The purpose of this handbook is: ?to assist staff and recruiters in
building and maintaining an effective School Recruiting Program?and ensure
an Army presence in all secondary schools. School ownership is the goal.²

Further, according to a United States Army Cadet Command Policy Memorandum
from Fort Monroe, Virginia, dated March 20, 1999:

³6. JROTC SAI and AI will:

³a. Actively assist cadets who want to enlist in the military. Emphasize
service in the U.S. Army (all components).

³b. Facilitate recruiter access to cadets in JROTC program and to the entire
student body. 

³c. Encourage College bound cadets to enroll in SROTC.

³d. Work closely with high school guidance counselors to sell the Army
story. Encourage them to display RPIs and advertising material and make sure
they know how to obtain information on Army opportunities, including SROTC
scholarships. 

³7. The intent of these partnership initiatives is to promote a synergistic
effort of all Army assets, maximize recruiting efforts, exchange quality
referrals, and educate all on both recruiting and ROTC programs and
benefits. 
U.S. chiefs-of-staff testify to the success of JROTC as a recruitment tool
In February 2000, in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee,
the armed service chiefs-of-staff testified that 30­50 percent of graduating
JROTC cadets join the military:

³General James L. Jones, then Commandant of the Marine Corps, testified that
the value of the Marine JROTC program ?is beyond contest. Fully one-third of
our young men and women who join a Junior ROTC program wind up wearing the
uniform of a Marine.¹

³General Eric K. Shinseki, then Chief of Staff of the United States Army,
testified that ?Our indications are about 30 percent of those youngsters?we
don't recruit them, as you know. We are not permitted to do that. But by
virtue of the things that they like about that experience, about 30 percent
of them end up joining the Army, either enlisting or going on to ROTC and
then joining the officer population.¹

³General Michael E. Ryan, then Chief of Staff of the United States Air
Force, testified that ?almost 50 percent of the folks that go [...] out of
the Air Force Junior ROTC go into one of the Services by enlisting or going
to ROTC or going to one of the academies.¹

³Admiral Jay L. Johnson, then Chief of Naval Operations, testified that
?Even if the number is only 30 percent, that is a good number. But think
about what we get out of the other 70 percent. They have exposure to us.
They have exposure to the military. And the challenge of the education
mandate that we all share in principals and school counselors and school
districts that won't let us in, that is a powerful tool I think to educate
whether or not they end up in the service. So it is a long way around saying
it is well worth the investment for lots of different reasons.²

³General Colin Powell admitted in his 1995 autobiography that ?the armed
forces might get a youngster more inclined to enlist as a result of Junior
ROTC,¹ but added that ?Inner-city kids, many from broken homes, found
stability and role models in Junior ROTC.¹ U.S. Congress found in the
Recruiting, Retention, and Reservist Promotion Act of 2000 that JROTC and
similar programs ?provide significant benefits for the Armed Forces,
including significant public relations benefits.¹² (Source: Wikipedia.org,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JROTC <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JROTC> )

That JROTC is a school recruitment tool for the military is clearly shown by
the 2007 Department of Defense expenditure of $340 million for the program!
Learning to follow orders is not learning leadership skills
Pro-war recruiters claim that JROTC teaches leadership skills. But according
to the American Friends Service Committee¹s ³Review of the JROTC Curriculum²
on line at www.afsc.org:

³While it claims to provide leadership training with broad relevance, in
fact, the JROTC curriculum defines leadership as respect for constituted
authority and the chain of command, rather than as critical thinking and
democratic consensus-building, and it consistently conflates leadership and
follower-ship. Finally, the text encourages the reader to rely uncritically
on the military as a source of self-esteem and guidance.²
JROTC is not a road to college or job training
 And while they say that JROTC provides educational and job benefits, the
facts are that only 12 percent of male veterans and six percent of female
veterans use skills learned in the military in their current jobs.  Soldiers
must make a $1,200 non-refundable deposit to be eligible for G.I. Bill-money
starting the first year of service. And according to the Central Committee
for Conscientious Objectors, ³From 1986-93 the military took in $720 million
more from G.I.s in non-refundable deposits than it paid out in college
benefits.  Only 15 percent of those who pay into the G.I. Bill graduate with
four-year degrees.²(Source: Myths of Military Opportunity, ³Before You
Enlist,² Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors,
http://www.objector.org/before-you-enlist/myths.html)
JROTC is no freebee!
Another claim of JROTC proponents is that it does not cost the district
monies. But actually, JROTC costs the schools almost one million dollars per
year in S.F. taxpayers¹ monies. Taxpayers kick in another $750,000 each year
through the Department of Defense subsidy.  And this $1.75 million goes to a
handful of high schools with JROTC programs, causing a funding inequity in
the District. Funds spent on military programs deprive schools and other
social programs of the public funding they need.
JROTC is not the only military presence in our schools
In addition to JROTC, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act requires that, in
order for schools to receive Federal funds, the military must be allowed
access to students. And while parents, and students who are 17-years-of-age
and older may ³opt out² of military contact by disallowing the school from
releasing their names and contact information to the military, each school
receiving NCLB funds must allow two representatives from each branch of the
military to visit the schools on a regular basis.

This means military recruiters are allowed to dog students in school
counseling offices, cafeterias, in hallways and even in classrooms.

At ³Career Day² fairs at San Francisco high schools, according to NCLB
rules, ten military recruiters are allowed on school grounds at one time
(that¹s two recruiters each from the Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force and
Marines)?overwhelming ³Career Day² events and marginalizing the colleges and
universities who go there to offer students real higher education or
job-training opportunities.

Military recruiters, with their access to a virtually unlimited budget,
routinely send students home with shopping bags full of
military-emblem-bedecked whips-and-jingles, such as notebooks, key chains,
even video games, that are handed out free to attract students to them. They
also invite students to join them for free pizza at restaurants off-campus,
where the recruiters can collect names and contact information from those
who show up whether or not they have an ³opt out² form on record at their
school. 

They set up Humvee combat vehicles for students to climb on, target practice
booths, and rock walls in schoolyards to attract students?portraying
military life as an action-packed video game divorced from the real-life
blood and death of war.

They hand out slick brochures that promise students they can become anything
from an electrician to an electric guitar player by joining the military.
(Just check out goarmy.com to get the full impact of their propaganda.)
Schools, jobs, housing, healthcare! Not war!
The plunging of our educational system into poverty by robbing schools to
pay for wars and military recruitment programs work together to produce the
cannon fodder the U.S. needs to carry out their wars of aggression in Iraq
and Afghanistan. 

Their goal is to secure U.S. military hegemony in the world insuring access
to the world¹s most valuable resources for U.S. big business interests at
any cost.

The trillions of dollars spent on the U.S. wars and occupations and military
bases (over 750 of them worldwide, not counting the flying, floating and
submerged bases capable of delivering nuclear warheads anywhere in the
world) are taking a terrible toll on the things most important to ordinary
working people like schools, jobs, housing, healthcare, natural disaster
relief, roads, bridges, etc.

The costs of war effects every aspect of our social infrastructure as well
as the jobs, working conditions, pay rates and benefits for working people
here in this country and the world over; and it¹s causing huge hardships on
all the world¹s children.
No to war and militarization
None of the candidates of the two war parties are addressing the issues
consuming working people today?issues that doubly effect our youth who have
been relegated to second-tier pay scales and second-tier lives and the
militarization of their schools. The future looks anything but bright to a
great majority of our children.

Bringing an end to the militarization of our schools and the militarization
of our society is an imperative issue for the working class to unite around.

Of course, the main argument given to rationalize supporting the military is
that every country needs a standing army. But the U.S. standing army is not
of, by and for the people; it is a plundering, deadly, oppressive,
torturing, murdering and totally undemocratic military consuming our youth
and turning them into cannon fodder.

The JROTC program is designed to conceal this truth?to minimize the risks of
war and to falsify the ³benefits² of military experience as ³leadership and
character-building.²

That your military experience will more likely send you home in a coffin or
with catastrophic mental or physical injuries than with a college degree or
a good-paying career is kept hidden by military recruiters and the JROTC
program. Nothing is said about the horrifying effects that so much killing
and dying has on the consciences and lives of returning troops.
Only a peaceful world can offer hope to the future
The antiwar movement has a great responsibility to offer hope to our
children and to all working people by organizing independent opposition to
the war and championing the counter-recruitment and anti-JROTC movement and
by adopting slogans such as ³money for books not bombs,² ³college not
combat² and ³fund schools not war.² The movement needs to organize students
and their parents to demand that all children get the kind of education they
need and deserve to live happy, productive and peaceful lives!

Such a forward-looking antiwar campaign can reach out to the most powerful
forces for change?to the over 70 percent of working people who are opposed
to the wars, and in solidarity with those who have the greatest interest in
seeing them brought to an end, i.e., the troops themselves and the people
under their gun!
An injury to one is an injury to all!
To achieve this will take the unity and mass-struggle of workers throughout
the world in defense of their very lives and in defense of their common
human interests for peace and justice.

The power of this unity, in turn, will lead inevitably toward the victory of
the final conflict?toward the end of capitalism and its never-ending wars of
conquest?and the transformation of society into a world that puts human
needs before profit!

 


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