Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD)

Articles Archive
Hits: 3190

From Draft NOtices, July-September 2020

Gilberto Robledo: Educator-Activist, Leader, and Veteran for Peace

— Isidro Ortiz, Ph.D.

Gilberto (left) with Isidro Ortiz at the Veterans For Peace convention, San Diego, CA, August 8, 2015. Photo: Project YANO.To youth who may be socially and economically marginalized, the claim that the military provides opportunities for growth, success and belonging may be seductive. The accomplishments of Gilberto Robledo -- educator, military veteran and peace activist — show how someone can attain those things without making a career out of the military.

When I recently interviewed Gilberto, I learned that he was born at home in Santa Paula, California, in 1940. Both of his parents were immigrants from Mexico. Neither of them was active in politics or in labor unions, but they experienced the cruel conditions of California farm labor, as children and as adults, working for corporate agribusiness. Despite such experiences, they aspired to become naturalized citizens. At the age of seven, Gilberto assisted them in this endeavor. As he notes: “In helping them study for their exam, I learned three big words of the branches of U.S. government: Legislature, Judicial, Executive.” Once they became naturalized, his parents “instilled the importance and privilege of voting in every election.”

Articles Archive
Hits: 2277

From Draft NOtices, January-March 2020

Truth in Recruitment’s Summit on Youth and the Military, Santa Maria, California

— Kate Connell

To raise awareness about the overwhelming military presence on high school campuses, Truth in Recruitment (TIR), a project of the Santa Barbara Friends Meeting, hosted a Summit on Youth and the Military last October at the Santa Maria Public Library. Topics covered included military sexual assault, deportation of military veterans, and the Selective Service System (SSS).

TIR has heard from many parents who are shocked when a letter arrives ordering their senior high school student to register with the Selective Service System for a potential military draft. Now that women can also serve in combat, in the future they may also be required to register. This applies to both documented and undocumented immigrants.

Articles Archive
Hits: 4602

From Draft NOtices, April-June 2020

 

The Resistance Continues: Building on the Legacy of the 1970 Chicano Anti-war Moratorium

 

 — Isidro D. Ortiz, Ph.D.

On August 29, 1970, the sounds of “¡Raza Sí, Guerra No!,” and “Chale, No we Won’t Go!” thundered across East Los Angeles as an estimated 30,000 Chicana/os marched to protest the war in Vietnam. The march was one of the events of the Chicano Moratorium (CM). Organized and spearheaded by the National Chicano Moratorium Committee, the CM was the capstone in the Chicano anti-war movement that surged in 1969 and 1970 throughout Aztlán, the mythical Chicano homeland.

Today the Moratorium still stands as the largest protest against the war in Vietnam by Chicanos. In some circles, it has achieved “iconic” status. A catalyst to the emergence of the movement were the findings of a study by political scientist Ralph Guzman. His research revealed that Chicanos were experiencing disproportionate casualties in the war in Vietnam, suffering twenty percent of the casualties at a time when they comprised only ten percent of the population of the Southwestern United States and when oppression and inequality were parts of the everyday experience of Chicanos, especially Chicano youth. In the public schools, for example, Chicano students were marginalized via segregation in the schools and tracking into vocational courses and away from curricula that would prepare them for college, feeding a school-to-military pipeline. They were also subjected to punishment for speaking Spanish and denied proper counseling services. Consequently, by 1970 the dropout rate, or as Chicano activists called it “the pushout rate,” hovered around fifty-five percent in East Los Angeles and elsewhere. And, like other draft-eligible youth, many were ensnared in the web of the draft and faced the prospect of death in Vietnam.

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