conscription

Mon

Apr

2016

Statement in solidarity with the conscientious objectors of Bolivia for ANOOC, Colombia

New translation available

Submitted by hannah

This year on the 22nd of March, the Bolivian Plurinational Constitutional Tribunal (PCT) rejected the right of conscientious objection as an alternative to its obligatory military service. This has occurred in spite of the generally agreed-upon...

Wed

Apr

Cossack Youth Join In On ‘Breeding For War’

Submitted by nnomy on Wed, 16/04/2025 - 19:19

Russian observers have increasingly touched on Moscow’s renewed efforts to militarize youth and prepare (or “breed”) them for war (PONARS Eurasia, December 20, 2023; see EDM, February 13). Cossack education has become a cornerstone of the Kremlin’s efforts in this regard. Russian youth are being prepared to engage in the second “Great Cossack Circle [meeting]” (see EDM, February 14). The deputy Ataman for the youth of the “All-Russian Cossack Society” (VsKO), Igor Kochubeev, confirmed the “participation of youth in the work of the Second Great Circle of Russian Cossackdom.” The Kremlin continues to use its war against Ukraine to try to unite the Cossack movement under its control.

Sun

Jan

Moscow Activist Detained, Taken to Military Enlistment Office During Police Raid

Submitted by Gary on Sun, 26/01/2025 - 17:40

Russian activist Gleb Babich said Monday afternoon that he was detained by police in Moscow and taken to a military enlistment office.

Babich, an environmentalist who mounted a failed bid to get on the ballot for the 2024 Moscow City Duma elections, said the incident occurred while he was filming police raids against undocumented migrants outside the Teply Stan metro station.

Sat

Dec

“You Can’t Buy Paradise with Blood”

Submitted by Gary on Sat, 07/12/2024 - 00:52

Sofia Orr was the second person to refuse military service since October 7, 2024. (Oren Ziv / +972 Magazine)

An interview with Sofia Orr - Nineteen-year-old Sofia Orr was jailed for refusing to enlist in the Israeli military. In an interview with Jacobin, she explains the disturbing authoritarianism of an Israeli society that has rallied behind the massacre in Gaza.

Mon

Jul

U.S. Senate joins House in proposal for "automatic" draft registration

Submitted by Gary on Mon, 15/07/2024 - 18:57

Senate version of NDAA to require automatic draft registration for all citizens

Edward Hasbrouck / Antiwar.Blog - Contrary to earlier reports, the U.S. Senate has joined the House of Representatives in moving toward a foolhardy attempt to ‘automatically’ register all draft-eligible U.S. citizens and residents for a possible military draft, by extracting and aggregating information obtained from other Federal agencies.

Sun

Apr

Veterans Push Back Against Military Recruitment in Schools

Submitted by Gary on Sun, 16/04/2023 - 01:35

The branches of the U.S. military have long seen high schools as optimal recruiting grounds. Some veterans are beginning to fight the propaganda and tell students the truth about military service.

Fri

Sep

1-2-3-4; We Don’t Want Your F—Ing War!

Submitted by nnomy on Fri, 30/09/2022 - 23:18

Russian men carry their luggage after crossing the border at Verkhny Lars between Georgia and Russia, September 27, 2022, in Georgia.,Zurab Tsertsvadze/AP Photo // The American Prospect

September 29, 2022 / Harold Meyerson / The American Prospect - It’s been less than a week since Vladimir Putin announced he was calling up 300,000 fellow Russians to fight his war in Ukraine, but on Monday, just five days after his speech, the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, citing government sources, reported that 261,000 Russian men had fled the country. Today’s New York Times reports that the line of cars at Russia’s border with Georgia stretches 12.5 miles.

Credit where credit is due: Putin has accomplished in less than a week what it took years for Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon to do—drive young men across the border (in that case, Canadian) rather than fight an immoral and failing war.

Sat

Jul

Congress is again considering proposals to end, or to expand, Selective Service

Submitted by nnomy on Sat, 30/07/2022 - 06:31

Once again in 2022, sooner than we expected, Congress is considering proposals either to finally end the widely disregarded, unenforced, and unenforceable requirement for men ages 18-26 to register and report changes of address to the Selective Service System for use in a future military draft — or to try to expand draft registration to young women as well as young men

Sunday, 10 July 2022 / Edward Hasbrouck / Edward Hasbrouck's blog - Once again in 2022, sooner than we expected, Congress is considering proposals either to finally end the widely disregarded, unenforced, and unenforceable requirement for men ages 18-26 to register and report changes of address to the Selective Service System for use in a future military draft — or to try to expand draft registration to young women as well as young men.

Thu

Apr

Daraa youth refuse to join compulsory 'murderous' Syrian regime military service, fear for uncertain future

Submitted by Gary on Thu, 07/04/2022 - 23:38

Young men in Syria fear being conscripted into the regime's army

Many young men in Syria's southern Daraa province are refusing to join the Assad regime's military forces and now fear for their fate as a conscription deadline approaches.

Young men refusing to enrol in compulsory military service with the Syrian regime feel under threat of arrest as the deadline for the postponement of their conscription expires, The New Arab's Arabic language service Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported.
The regime in April 2021 granted men aged between 18 and 36, who are wanted for military service in the southern Daraa province, a period of one year in which they were free to travel before enrolling in the army.
During this period, thousands of young men left the area.

Thu

Mar

Fearing front-line deployment, some Russians resist conscription

Submitted by Gary on Thu, 24/03/2022 - 02:41

Several young Russians have fled the country, fearing that they would be sent to the front line as conscripts [File: Dmitry Kostyukov/AFP]

As rumours of martial law spread across Russia in early March, some young men abruptly left their homeland, fearing they would be conscripted and sent to the battlefield in Ukraine.
They are among thousands of people who have fled Russia since February 24, as a crackdown grows on anti-war sentiment.

Ivan*, 17, flew to Turkey on Monday from Russia.

“I don’t think it’s normal that in the 21st century, a person can be taken against their will to serve in the army for an entire year. Right now conscripts are being sent to the front line, and I am categorically against the ‘military operation’ carried out by my country,” he told Al Jazeera, ironically using the state-approved terminology for the war.

After initially insisting that only professional soldiers were fighting in Ukraine, Russia’s defence ministry has since admitted conscripts have been deployed, with some captured or killed.

Sat

Mar

Military Conscription Is a Crime Against Humanity

Submitted by nnomy on Sat, 12/03/2022 - 05:37

A young Russian conscript receives a military uniform ahead of departing for service in November 2021. (Kirill Kukhmar / TASS

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a reminder that military conscription remains foundational to modern warfare. It is a reckless, self-defeating, and criminal practice that makes us all less safe — and it should have been abolished long ago.

Jonah Walters | Jacobin | The shocking and massively destructive Russian assault on Ukraine, still ongoing at the time of this writing, is conducted by a military that includes an estimated 260,000 conscripted soldiers in its ranks.

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Countering Military Recruitment

WRI's new booklet, Countering Military Recruitment: Learning the lessons of counter-recruitment campaigns internationally, is out now. The booklet includes examples of campaigning against youth militarisation across different countries with the contribution of grassroot activists.

You can order a paperback version here.