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...
Submitted by antimili-youth on Sat, 08/10/2016 - 09:59
In this public lecture at the University of Westminster (London), world renowned feminist scholar Professor Cynthia Enloe explores the militarisation of our everyday lives and how this socio-political process is gendered.
Cynthia Enloe is Research Professor in the Department of International Development, Community, and Environment at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Video: 'How Can you Tell If You're Becoming Militarized? Doing a Feminist Audit' By Professor Cynthia Enloe
Submitted by antimili-youth on Sat, 27/08/2016 - 12:22
War Resisters' International is organising the third International Week of Action Against the Militarisation of Youth this year. The week is going to take place between November 14-20 with the participation of groups and individuals from different countries. See our call out here.
Alongside events and actions, this year we are also planning to share examples of youth militarisation, and resistance to it, from different countries via a series of articles. The articles will be published on our website www.antimili-youth.net. If you'd like to write to us about your country and/or community please contact us via cmoy@wri-irg.org.
What’s the difference between education and obedience? If you see very little, you probably have no problem with the militarization of the American school system — or rather, the militarization of the impoverished schools . . . the ones that can’t afford new textbooks or functional plumbing, much less art supplies or band equipment.
The Pentagon has been eyeing these schools — broken and gang-ridden — for a decade now, and seeing its future there. It comes in like a cammy-clad Santa, bringing money and discipline. In return it gets young minds to shape, to (I fear) possess: to turn into the next generation of soldiers, available for the coming wars.
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.
Lawrence Wittner - In 1915, a mother's protest against funneling children into war provided the theme of a new American song, "I Didn't Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier." Although the ballad attained great popularity, not everyone liked it. Theodore Roosevelt, a leading militarist of the era, retorted that the proper place for such women was "in a harem―and not in the United States."
If Roosevelt were still around today, a century later, he would be happy to learn that preparing children for war continues unabated.
STERLING, Va. — Imam Mohamed Magid tries to stay in regular contact with the teenager who came to him a few months ago, at his family’s urging, to discuss how he was being wooed by online recruiters working for the Islamic State, the extremist group in Syria and Iraq.
The military in the United States portrays itself as endowed with the highest virtues—honor, duty, self-sacrifice, courage and patriotism. Politicians, entertainers, sports stars, the media, clerics and academics slavishly bow before the military machine, ignoring its colossal pillaging of state resources, the egregious war crimes it has normalized across the globe, its abject service not to democracy or freedom but corporate profit, and the blind, mind-numbing obedience it inculcates among its members. A lone soldier or Marine who rises up inside the system to denounce the hypermasculinity that glorifies violence and war, who exposes the false morality of the military, who refuses to kill in the service of imperial power, unmasks the military for what it is. And he or she, as Chelsea Manning has learned, swiftly pays a very, very heavy price.
Although not exclusively affecting young people, since many young people will be out on the weekends, in reality this everyday display of militarisation will affect young people disproportionately. It's another example of portraying the military as guadrians of order and control. Note the horrendous example of sexism in the last paragraph...
'The Boys in Blue have teamed up with the Red Caps to keep clubbers safe in Birmingham city centre!
Soldiers from the Royal Military Police - aka the Red Caps - can now be seen patrolling shoulder-to-shoulder with West Midlands Police in the nightlife hotspots of Broad Street and Hurst Street.
Such joint patrols are common in Garrison Towns across the UK, like Aldershot and Bulford, but with service personnel regularly heading to Birmingham for nights out the Royal Military Police investigators were keen to gain experience of policing a thriving city centre.
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.