Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD)

Articles Archive
Hits: 2608

From Draft NOtices, April—June 2011

— Kathy Gilberd
    

Think of yourself as a soldier. Working at a desk job, you see shocking messages, reports and pictures about military activity that seem wrong and sometimes horrifying. And then, one day, you see a video recording of U.S. soldiers laughing as they shoot unarmed civilians from a helicopter.

If you’re like most soldiers, you didn’t receive much training on the rules of engagement or the law of war, but there’s little doubt that what you’ve seen and read are war crimes. And you know, as most soldiers do, that reporting the problem to your superiors would get you in a lot of trouble and never go any farther than that. What is a person of conscience to do?

Someone in this situation decided that the reports and images had to be seen by the public. Bradley Manning, who allegedly had access to the information, is accused of releasing the helicopter video and thousands of reports and messages from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to WikiLeaks, who posted a portion of the reports and the helicopter video on the Internet.

The Army has not released any information linking Manning to the documents or showing that he was the person who gave them to WikiLeaks, although the military commonly does this in high-profile cases. But the Army has clearly made up its mind on the matter -- enough to charge Manning with a death penalty offense and to keep him in maximum confinement at Quantico Marine Corps Base under conditions echoing Guantanamo’s isolation and humiliation of confinees.

Articles Archive
Hits: 2597

From Draft NOtices, April—June 2011

—Rick Jahnkow
    

On Feb. 10, Congressman Duncan Hunter, a Republican House member from San Diego's conservative East County, introduced HR 637, the Fairness for Military Recruiters Act. If passed, the proposal would make it impossible for students under the age of 18 to opt themselves out when high schools release student contact information to military recruiters. Parents or legal guardians would have to do the opting out until a student has reached age 18. The bill also seeks to clarify that policies which make such releases contingent on a person opting in are not permitted.

In a press release explaining the bill, Hunter criticizes the successful campaign to pass a restrictive policy on recruiting in the San Diego Unified School District (see Paradigm Shift). Hunter says, “[W]e cannot allow this decision to serve as a trigger for additional efforts to even further restrict military recruiters in San Diego schools.” He further states:

    Although current law, enacted under the No Child Left Behind Act, provides parents and students the right to request that contact information be withheld, some school boards and anti-military activists have attempted to limit and creatively interpret the provision to deny military recruiter access.

The No Child Left Behind Act eroded the ability of secondary schools to control military recruiting by stipulating that military recruiters must be given the “same” access to students as representatives of colleges and employers. Faced with this attack on their autonomy, some school districts have adopted guidelines for balanced access that have resulted in a net reduction in military recruiting. Such across-the-board guidelines have been adopted by, among others, the nation’s three largest districts: Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City. San Diego’s new policy builds upon these and others.

Articles Archive
Hits: 2608

From Draft NOtices, January—March 2011

New Victory over Military Recruiting in San Diego Schools

— Stephanie Jennings
    

Recruiting on high school campuses in San Diego underwent a paradigm shift on Nov. 30, 2010, with another victory by the Education Not Arms Coalition.

Born in 2007 out of students’ frustration over being put into JROTC classes against their will, and after constantly being told there was no room for them in college prep and AVID classes, the coalition brought together young people, their teachers, parents and community activists to challenge a practice that felt like tracking and a back-door draft for students in working-class communities.

In February of 2009 the Education Not Arms Coalition achieved its first victory by winning a 3-2 vote in the San Diego Unified School Board to eliminate weapons training in their schools. It also successfully influenced the superintendent to issue a policy that requires informed consent for students taking JROTC courses.

After this victory was celebrated, the students and other activists quickly went to work to challenge other inequities they saw playing out daily on their campuses. Military recruiters had unfettered access to students at school, often having daily contact in classrooms and the lunch quad. Recruiters sponsored assemblies and rallies and offered free gifts in exchange for personal information, which they later used to contact students at home.

At the same time students seeking college and career information rarely saw college or job recruiters on campus. When visiting the counselor’s office, they could access plenty of information on military careers but had difficulty finding college information. Combined with the lack of availability of A-G courses (the basic set of courses that are required for acceptance to California state universities), the message was painfully clear. Getting a college preparatory education was not possible for many of the students on their campuses. Instead they were being led toward the military as one of only a few viable options presented to them.

Subscribe to...

Click HERE

 

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:

Find Out More | Download PDF