United States of America

Mon

Jan

2015

There Is No Future in War: Youth Rise Up, a Manifesto

New translation available

A peace sign printed on the American Flag is raised during a protest against the Vietnam War in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Archive / History Channel)

Submitted by Gary

Statement written by Ben Norton, Tyra Walker, Anastasia Taylor, Alli McCracken, Colleen Moore, Jes Grobman, Ashley Lopez / Codepink -

Once again, US politicians and pundits are beating the drums of...

Tue

Sep

Children's rights groups urge Defense program to stop giving school cops military hardware

Submitted by hannah on Tue, 23/09/2014 - 10:48

Photo: The 2013 Caiman MRAP acquired by the San Diego Unified School District Police Department with decals rendered by an artist. San Diego Unified School District

Update, Sept. 18, 10:54 a.m.: Following complaints, the Los Angeles Unified School District Police Department announced Tuesday it will return three grenade launchers but keep an anti-mine armored vehicle and 61 M-16s it acquired through a Department of Defense program. The surplus automatic M-16 rifles were converted to semi-automatic, the department said.

Wed

Sep

Army Makes Case Against Enlisting

Submitted by hannah on Wed, 17/09/2014 - 10:08

Remarkably, the U.S. Army War College has published a report (PDF) that makes an overwhelming case against enlisting in the U.S. Army. The report, called "Civilian Organizational Inhibitors to U.S. Army Recruiting and the Road Ahead," identifies counter-recruitment organizations that effectively discourage young people from joining the military.

Army Makes Case Against Enlisting

Tue

Sep

Playing War: How the Military Uses Video Games

Submitted by hannah on Tue, 16/09/2014 - 12:27

Hamza Shaban, October 10 2013

A new book unfolds how the “military-entertainment complex” entices soldiers to war and treats them when they return.

Photo: A screenshot from America’s Army

Fri

Sep

They're students, not recruits

Submitted by hannah on Fri, 12/09/2014 - 15:42

Keep the military's base of operations out our education system

As the school year begins, parents and guardians across the [U.S.] are getting to know new teachers, bus routes, routines and worrying increasingly about violence and bullying as we send our children into the semi-unknown. It’s a busy, nervous time of year.

Parents of school-aged children in Syria and Iraq have other worries. An August 2014 United Nations Human Rights Council report states that both state and non-state armed groups in the region have been recruiting children for combat and non-combat support roles in violent conflict, [including] ISIS.

Sat

Sep

Immigration Reform and the Military

Submitted by Gary on Sat, 06/09/2014 - 18:55

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy

Jesus D. Mendez Carbajal, Project YANO Intern:

Under the Obama administration there have been more than two million deportations to date, an average of 1,100 people every day, which is a higher rate than that for any other president in the history of the United States. More than 100,000 of those have come from California. Deportations have been facilitated in California via the implementation of the Secure Communities policy in 2009, which established the sharing of the fingerprint database between local law enforcement and federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

The proposed immigration reform bill’s halt and continued deportations have sparked community organizers and activists nationwide to mobilize and stage several nonviolent civil disobedience actions calling for the stopping of all deportations and the shutdown of ICE.

Wed

Sep

How the Military Collects Data on Millions of High School Students

Submitted by hannah on Wed, 03/09/2014 - 14:45

By Charles Davis

April 27, 2014 | 1:45 pm

This article originally appeared on VICE.

The calls started when I was a junior in high school — always in the evening, always after The Simpsons and always with an older gentleman on the other end of the line.

“Charles, there's someone who wants to speak you,” my mother would yell from the kitchen.

She showed no concern as she handed me the phone, no alarm in her eyes over all the calls she was getting from strange middle-aged men looking to chat up her vulnerable teenage son.

That's because these creepers called themselves “colonels” and “sergeants,” which lent authority to their predation. These men were military recruiters — and the bed they wanted to get me in was housed in some barracks.

Tue

Sep

Subvertisers' gallery

In this gallery we're collecting examples of the military's messages being 'improved' / changed by those who want to undermine their attempts to make war sounds good!

Some people call this billboard improvement, some people call it graffiti, some call it subvertising. Whatever you call it - we think it's a good idea!

Also see this video of an action in Belgium to alter the army's messages on Valentine's day...http://antimili-youth.net/videos/2014/09/make-love-not-war

Mon

Sep

Leave My Child Alone

Leave My Child Alone is a project of Mainstreet Moms Organize or Bust

The coalition campaign against No Child Left Behind’s military recruitment requirement, with an emphasis on family privacy. Working with a network of 400 women legislators, we saw school policy change in at least 100 school districts.

Thu

Aug

In addition to recruiting visit, Marines volunteer to run P.E. classes at Gaston Jr/Sr High School

Submitted by hannah on Thu, 28/08/2014 - 17:44

Photo: Samantha Swindler/The Oregonian

Members of the U.S. Marine Corps have visited Gaston Jr/Sr High School three times this year, but only one of those visits was considered to be for recruiting.

For two separate days in May, Marines volunteered on a school cleanup day and to run P.E. classes for high school students. During the classes, of which some opted out of participating, students went around to stations and did typical P.E. activities such as running and hitting a ball. Students also did group exercises such as dragging a peer on the ground or carrying a classmate over their shoulder.

Those military style group exercises sparked concern from some community members.

Wed

Aug

Social media monitoring helps with military recruitment

Submitted by hannah on Wed, 27/08/2014 - 17:06

With so many people active on social media these days, the information obtained simply by listening to the conversations can be invaluable. Many organizations are finding innovative ways to use this data, such as the Army and Air National Guard divisions of the U.S. military.

According to InsuranceNewsNet, the National Guard used social media monitoring to bolster its recruiting efforts.

"We were able to combine traditional recruiting tactics with social media communications by developing a 'social listening' program," said Mike Schaffer, who served as social media director for iostudio, the company that helped craft the Guard's presence within the social media space. "When anyone asked on Twitter about joining the military, for example, we made sure the National Guard was the first branch to respond."

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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.