Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD)

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From Draft NOtices, April-June 2016


— Bill Galvin and Maria Santelli, Center on Conscience & War
    
With the combat restriction for women in the U.S. Armed Forces now lifted, discussion of draft registration is back in the news, the courts, and the halls of Congress. But the problems with Selective Service System (SSS) registration go much deeper than gender equality. There is little political interest in bringing back the draft. Yet draft registration remains a burden upon our nation’s young men -- and now, potentially our young women, as well.

The extrajudicial penalties imposed upon those who choose not to or fail to register make life more difficult for many who already are marginalized, and they particularly target conscientious objectors who believe that registering with Selective Service is a form of participating in war. There is no opportunity to register as a conscientious objector. Legal protection for conscientious objectors was provided in the constitutions of several of the original colonies and was written into early drafts of what became the First and Second Amendments to the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution (Lillian Schlissel, Conscience in America). Instead of honoring and upholding these freedoms and protections, modern lawmakers have subjected non-registrants to laws that deny education, employment and other fundamental opportunities. These laws amount to an unacceptable burden on those individuals who cannot, in good conscience, register, and in fact serve to punish and marginalize those who are living their lives true to the very essence of our democracy.

With the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, draft registration ended as well. In 1980 President Carter reinstated registration to send a message to the Soviet Union, which had just invaded Afghanistan, that the U.S. could be ready for war at any time. This remains the law of the land today: virtually all males residing in the U.S. and all male citizens between the ages of 18 and 26 are required to be registered with Selective Service.

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From Draft NOtices, April-June 2016

— Jesus D. Mendez Carbajal
  
In March 1977 the United Nations deemed water an essential human right, stating that “All peoples, whatever their stage of development and social and economic conditions, have the right to have access to drinking water in quantities and of a quality equal to their basic needs.” This is rightly concluded given that the human body is made up of 60-70% water, and lack of access to potable and clean water is potentially life-threatening. Despite this UN declaration, the 2013 United Nations International Year of Water Cooperation website states that “there are still an approximate 780 million people who do not have access to water and 2.5 billion people who do not have access to adequate sanitation.” The 2013 UN Water website goes further by stating that “~3.5 planets Earth would be needed to sustain a global population achieving the current lifestyle of the average European or North American.”

A 2014 report by Environmental America found that the Department of Defense (DoD) is the third highest polluter of waterways, a serious concern given that the DoD has hundreds of bases all over the world. This is one of several red flags pointing out how the global capitalist system is not a sustainable, equitable, or reciprocal socioeconomic model of organization or life.

Flint, Michigan, is one of many global communities that has faced water pollution issues. Others include the state of Virginia, Washington, D.C., the Dine (Navajo) Nation, different countries across Africa, and possibly many more in the years to come given aging water infrastructure, lack of access to clean and potable water, and climate change. The current situation in Flint, a largely Black/African-American, working-class and poor community, is a multilayered issue that affects low-income people, with disproportionate impact on Black Flint residents and their families. What happened in Flint demonstrates the limits of U.S. government (local, state and federal) and the racist, nativist, classist, and sexist views held by its leadership and representatives. In December of 2015 the situation was declared a state of emergency by Flint Mayor Karen Weaver, and then by President Obama on January 14, 2016.

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From Draft NOtices, April-June 2016

— Kathy Barker  

As many counter-recruitment groups do, Washington Truth in Recruiting (WaTiR) has participated in dozens of tabling events. Usually these are local, and we are invited because of contacts we have made within the schools or peace communities. School career fairs, state PTA meetings, local school counselor meetings, National Lawyers Guild meetings, LBGT meetings, church meetings, Democratic State conventions, antiwar meetings -- we table and present anywhere we can, sometimes through the invitation of allies.

We eventually thought it would be interesting to table at places where we weren’t invited, at some of the state or national conventions of “educational influencers.” So in lieu of gaining entrance through invitations, we spent money to become exhibitors at meetings and conventions. We targeted education-related, in-state conventions to minimize travel expenses, and we found conventions with exhibitors by web searches or by asking teachers and counselors what meetings they thought were worthwhile.

Still, we sometimes couldn’t get a table at a convention because someone on a committee thought we were too anti-military. More often, the calm and formidable Marion Ward (shown in picture) would work to persuade the booking committees that we would add to the convention by offering help in navigating the legal commitments for the No Child Left Behind Act. Marion was so effective that she sometimes got a discount better than the non-profit rate offered.

And it was a good thing she did. Donations were more frequent during the overt Iraq war, and conventions are expensive -- the price for a table at a state convention runs around $1000, with more for a corner location. Typically, that money buys a 6-foot table, two chairs, and a backdrop behind you.

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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:

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