Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD)

Articles Archive
Hits: 4098

From Draft NOtices, October - December 2014


— Rick Jahnkow
    
Assembly Bill 2201, which would have prevented men from driving legally in California if they didn’t register for a possible future military draft, died when it failed to survive the Senate Committee on Appropriations.

If it had passed, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) would have automatically registered male driver’s license and driver’s license renewal applicants with the Selective Service System (SSS). Selective Service is the federal agency that would draft men into the U.S. military if Congress ever voted to return to conscription.

After passing the California Assembly and the Senate Transportation Committee, AB 2201 was sent to the Senate Appropriations Committee, where on August 4 it was placed on the appropriations suspense file. It was never removed and sent to Senate floor and, therefore, missed the deadline for approving legislation.

Articles Archive
Hits: 3383

From Draft NOtices, October-December 2014

— Jesus Mendez-Carbajal
    

In the past nine months as Project YANO’s 2013-2014 student intern, I have learned an immense amount of information about U.S. militarism, its far reach, and counter-recruitment. I have been directly impacted on multiple levels. I have grown mentally through the knowledge I have gained and also personally through the interactions and relationships I have built with youth, advisors, teachers, mentors, and Project YANO supporters, volunteers and board members. I have had the pleasure of working with students who look like me, engaging low-income youth of color who have stories and backgrounds similar to my own.

At the time I began the internship, I had accepted and started working as an intern for another local non-profit organization. I am very grateful to both organizations for the opportunities they have provided me and for the personal and professional growth they have facilitated both for me and in me. I am especially grateful for the fact that both were paid internships, which allowed me the freedom to do work that I enjoy, that I am passionate about, and that is not routine -- because, as I experienced first-hand while I worked at Wendy’s, repetitive work is tiresome work.

When I began, I was very excited to intern with YANO but I was also a bit nervous and scared about successfully balancing school, my second internship, and personal life. From YANO, its board members, program coordinator and volunteers, I learned lessons in non-profit organizing, basic mailing operations, and fund appeal letter writing; strengthened my facilitation, time management, and multitasking skills; and acquired an expanded interdisciplinary view of the world.

Articles Archive
Hits: 3257

From Draft NOtices, October-December 2014

    

Below is an excerpt from a military regulation governing recruiters when they arrange for high schools to give the military’s aptitude test, the ASVAB (emphasis added):

    School and student participation in the STP [Student Testing Program] is voluntary. DOD personnel are prohibited from suggesting to school officials or any other influential individual or group that the test be made mandatory.

USMEPCOM 601-4, Chapter 3, The Student Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) Scheduling and Session, 3-1.(e) Voluntary aspect of the student ASVAB.

Draft NOtices

Quarterly print newsletter

Subscribe now Learn more

 

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