counter-recruitment

Thu

May

2015

Call for Articles for the New Militarisation of Youth Bulletin

New translation available

Submitted by antimili-youth

Countering the Militarisation of Youth Programme (CMoY) at WRI is launching the first issue of its new periodical which will specifically focus on the issues surrounding youth militarisation. In the CMoY bulletin, you'll find articles addressing...

Fri

Apr

This Ex–Army Ranger Goes on Missions to High Schools—but Not to Recruit

Submitted by Gary on Fri, 08/04/2016 - 19:50

By Rory Fanning

For a decade, Afghanistan vet Rory Fanning has been battling the desire to inflict pain on himself. Instead, he visits schools.

Early each New Year’s Day I head for Lake Michigan with a handful of friends. We look for a quiet stretch of what, only six months earlier, was warm Chicago beach. Then we trudge through knee-deep snow in bathing suits and boots, fighting wind gusts and hangovers. Sooner or later, we arrive where the snowpack meets the shore and boot through a thick crust of lake ice, yelling and swearing as we dive into near-freezing water.

Mon

Mar

Education not militarization

'We, the Chicago Chapter of Veterans for Peace, are pursuing a many-pronged campaign to bring Peace at Home, Peace Abroad by focusing on youth and the demilitarization of public education.'

Fri

Feb

Why Is My Kindergartner Being Groomed for the Military at School?

Submitted by Gary on Fri, 05/02/2016 - 13:23

Military recruitment efforts, whether societal or sponsored directly by the US military, reach children as young as preschool, priming them to think of war and soldiering as cool and exciting, without any discussion of the trauma and death they bring. (Image: Jared Rodriguez / Truthout)

By Sarah Grey, Truthout

When he got home from Iraq, Hart Viges began sorting through his boyhood toys, looking for some he could pass on to his new baby nephew. He found a stash of G.I. Joes - his old favorites - and the memories came flooding back.

Wed

Jan

When did you get the gun?

Submitted by antimili-youth on Wed, 20/01/2016 - 18:05

Highschool studants waving israeli flags in Treblinka extermination camp as part of the Holocast remembrance trip to Poland

By Or Segal, Israel Social TV

Hello to you, little girl with a gun. You, who were dressed in a uniform, who was placed second row on the side, between your fellow pre-schoolers. You who marched to the beat and saluted to the sound of parents clapping in the Independence Day party. You wanted to make the largest Purim food package1 in class, you wrapped all the sweets in colourful paper. One older kid passed between the classroom and asked for an “educational shekel”2. You didn't even know what that was, but you gave three shekels anyway.

Sat

Dec

AFSC & Bay Peace Presents Youth Manifesto

Submitted by Gary on Sat, 12/12/2015 - 17:22

American Friends Service Committee and its San Francisco Wage Peace Program staff in partnership with BAY-Peace of Oakland California, have been supporting Oakland Youth in taking a bold step to demilitarize their schools.

The San Francisco Wage Peace program challenges the militarization of U.S. society, changing the narrative of military efficacy by:

AFSC & Bay Peace Presents Youth Manifesto

Mon

Nov

Education as Enforcement:Militarization and Corporatization of Schools

Submitted by Gary on Mon, 02/11/2015 - 16:25

The Chicago Memorial Day parade is Saturday, May 23, 2015, had 80 percent of the parade was hundreds and hundreds of children, in military uniforms, proudly marching behind military banners.

Kenneth J. Saltman - Public schools in the United States have increasingly come to resemble the military and prison systems with their hiring of military generals as school administrators and heavy investment in security apparatus—metal detectors, high-tech dog tag IDs, chainlink fences, and real-time Internet-based or hidden mobile surveillance cameras—plus, their school uniforms, security consultants, surprise searches, and the presence of police on campuses.1 But it would be a mistake to understand the preoccupation with security as merely a mass media-driven hysteria in the wake of Virginia Tech and other high-profile shootings, and myopic to ignore the history of public school militarization prior to September 11.

Sat

Oct

Do Military Recruiters Belong in Schools?

Submitted by Gary on Sat, 31/10/2015 - 02:46

David Cameron, who attended the Combined Cadet Force at Eton, has set a target of creating 100 new units in state schools by September in order to build “character, grit and determination” in teenagers, thereby improving their exam results.

By Seth Kershner & Scott Harding -

The United States stands alone among Western nations in allowing military recruiters to work inside its educational system. Section 9528 of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act requires that public high schools give the military as much access to campuses and student contact information as is given to any other recruiter. However, University of Kansas anthropologist Brian Lagotte finds that school officials do not fully understand this policy and often provide military recruiters unrestricted access to their campuses. Many schools allow military recruiters to coach sports, serve as substitute teachers, chaperone school dances, and engage in other activities. In some cases, recruiters are such a regular presence in high schools that students and staff regard them as school employees.

Fri

Oct

French school condemned after students try out unloaded assault rifles

Submitted by antimili-youth on Fri, 30/10/2015 - 07:41

Defence ministry promises disciplinary action after Flastroff school’s ‘meet-the-army’ workshop saw pupils aged 10 and under pose with Famas rifles

France’s defence ministry has said it will take disciplinary action over a primary school “meet-the-army” workshop at which pupils aged 10 and under took part in an exercise with unloaded assault rifles.

But educational authorities, while summoning teachers to explain the incident at a village school in Flastroff, in north-eastern France, suggested it had been more the result of a surfeit of enthusiasm than anything sinister.

The workshop might have gone unnoticed but for a photograph posted on social networks showing a dozen children lying flat out like soldiers, fingers on the triggers of Famas assault rifles.

Fri

Oct

Military Classrooms? Strategy wargames played out in German schools

Submitted by antimili-youth on Fri, 30/10/2015 - 07:08

Here is a short report by Peter Oliver from RT News about the recruitment operations of the German Armed Forces, Bundeswehr, and activists resisting against this increasing flow of war propaganda in Germany.

Military Classrooms? Strategy wargames played out in German schools

Tue

Sep

International Week of Action Against the Militarisation of Youth

Would you like to take action against the militarisation of youth? You can join War Resisters' International's week of action from 14-20 November (as an individual or as a group).

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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.