Inspiration for resistance!
This page is a celebration of things that have gone well for those campaigning against the militarisation of youth!
It's a place to find inspiration for your own actions.
Anything you'd like adding to this page, please submit it at http://antimili-youth.net/node/add, or email hannah@wri-irg.org with the title 'CMOY website Inspirations'.
Pot-banging protests set the background music to a military parade
El Ciudadano -
Despite the widespread police forces deployed during the military parade in the Parque O’Higgins, hundreds of people protested by banging pots near the traditional military exhibition. That same morning a counter military parade took place. Students have announced a protest for this Thursday and call for flags to be hoisted in support of their requests.
Resisting the militarisation of education
In Germany, hardly a week goes by without coming across ‘Germany's heroes’ in uniform. They grin from billboards, television screens, student magazines, and booklets on trains, advertising a ‘career with a future’.
Quotes from WRI's Countering the Militarisation of Youth conference: Resistance
When military recruiters have been at job fairs we’ve done different kinds of action: just standing outside handing out our own leaflets, or coming there as the Clown Army and trying to be recruited as clowns, or trying to recruit to the Clown Army. And also because the target group for the military is 15 to 25-year olds we go to high schools and talk about war and militarism and militarisation and the military...Of course it’s up to everyone to decide what they want to do with their life, but we give people information about what the military really is doing. And in one of the classes we gave a workshop to, in the evaluation one person said “My thought was to join the military when I finish school, and now I've changed my mind”. - Cattis Laska, Sweden quoe
Just say No: Organizing Against Militarism in Public Schools
In an effort to counteract the growing militarization of schools, military counter-recruitment (CR) has emerged as an effective grassroots movement across the United States. Led by a small number of local activists, CR utilizes community organizing methods to confront the structures supporting military enlistment as a viable career option. Despite operating with limited resources, counter-recruitment has secured key legal and policy victories that challenge the dominant social narrative about military service. Three examples of counter- recruitment are profiled to illustrate the different tactics and strategies used for successful organizing within a culture of militarism.