From Draft NOtices, October-December 2018
— Edward Hasbrouck 
The National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service came to Southern California during September 19-21. It was the only visit west of the Rockies on a national tour of public events, private site visits, and closed-door meetings preparatory to making recommendations to Congress and the President in 2020. The Commission’s recommendations are supposed to address the future of the Selective Service System, draft registration, and a possible special-skills draft or other compulsory service program.
The Commission’s itinerary included a brief public "listening session" at California State University Los Angeles, a visit to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, and other undisclosed meetings.
The only public event of the Commission’s three-day SoCal visit was at CSULA. The first hour was devoted to a "service fair" with information tables and recruiters for voluntary service organizations. No counter-recruitment organizations were invited or allowed to participate. The second hour was a panel discussion with four young veterans of the military, the Peace Corps, City Year, and the LA Conservation Corps.
The focus of the panel was on voluntary service. Most of the panelists and participants in the "service fair" hadn't been told that the Commission is tasked by Congress with studying the draft and compulsory service. Several indicated privately that they felt used by the Commission. The agenda and speaker list appeared to have been planned to create a stage-managed and fake appearance of a "consensus" in favor of requiring military or civilian "national service" from all young people.
Despite claims that, "The Commission seeks to learn more about why people serve and why people may choose not to serve,” all of the invited witnesses at all of the Commission's public events throughout the country have been invited as promoters of voluntary service. No one has been invited to speak to the Commission about the reasons people might not serve, or want to serve, in the military.
Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD)
- Rick Jahnkow
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Report from the National Counter-recruitment and School Demilitarization Strategy Summit
From Draft NOtices, October-December 2018
— Rick Jahnkow
During the weekend of June 23-24, 2018, a group of 28 activists gathered in Chicago to share the knowledge and lessons they have learned from organizing to counter the militarization of schools and military recruitment of young people. They came from various regions of the U.S. and met at the Cenacle Retreat and Conference Center.
Sponsored by the National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (www.nnomy.org), the gathering provided an opportunity for organizers to assess the context for their work under the Trump/Pence administration, identify individual and collective challenges they face, and evaluate possible strategies and best practices for increasing their impact.
The planning committee for the summit consisted of:
Pat Alviso, Recruiter Awareness Project (Long Beach, CA)
Michelle Cohen, Project Great Futures (Los Angeles, CA)
Kate Connell, Truth in Recruitment (Santa Barbara, CA)
Natasha Erskine, Vets For Peace (Chicago, IL)
Libby Frank, Northwest Suburban Peace Education Project (Chicago, IL)
Rick Jahnkow, Project YANO (San Diego, CA)
Seth Kershner, Winsted Area Peace Action (CT)
Siri Margerin, Full Picture Coalition (Bay Area, CA)
- Rocío Cordova
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Army Reservist Speaks out Against the Military Industrial Complex
From Draft NOtices, October-December 2018
— Rocío Cordova
The motto for the U.S. Army Reserve’s Psychological Operations Command is “Persuade. Change. Influence,” which is exactly what Captain Brittany DeBarros aims to do — only, instead, her messaging is in complete opposition to the U.S. military industrial complex.
DeBarros, who is a member of About Face: Veterans Against the War, gained viral recognition when she took to her Twitter account in early July to expose the numerous ways in which the U.S. military spends its resources to inflict violence and murder upon innocent civilians, particularly in the Middle East. Prior to that, she delivered an emotionally-charged speech at the Poor People’s Campaign rally in Washington, D.C., where she proudly identified herself as a multi-racial queer woman. It is these intersecting identities and lived experiences as a combat veteran that have awakened her to the realization that “there can be no true economic, racial, gender liberation without addressing the militarism that is strangling the morality and empathy out of our society.”
Comrades at About Face have begun a fundraiser to cover legal support after it was revealed that the military had opened an investigation targeting DeBarros. To learn more updates about the case and contribute to the fund, visit https://www.gofundme.com/fund-war-resister-cpt-debarros.
This article is from Draft NOtices, the newsletter of the Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (http://www.comdsd.org/).
Ninth CIRCUIT COURT RULING: CONFRONTING MILITARISM BY USING EQUAL ACCESS TO HIGH SCHOOLS
When the military comes to your local high school, you have a legal right to give students an opposing view. This has been the position taken by federal district courts in Florida, Pennsylvania and Illinois and two federal appellate courts. The most broadly-worded decision came from a case that COMD took to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the 1980s. Here is the background:
