Campus battlegrounds
Desperate military recruiters
And a growing opposition
Square off in local schools
By Abigail Kramer
As the body counts rise in Iraq and Afghanistan, military recruiters in the United States must contend with an increasingly formidable mission of their own: to convince the nation's young people to join the ranks of a military at war.
After falling short of recruitment goals in February and March of this year, with another miss expected for April, the increasingly desperate U.S. Army and Marine Corps have dumped more money and personnel into the pursuit of new cadets. But in high schools and colleges across the country, a growing counter-recruitment movement is fighting to keep potential soldiers at home and out of uniform.
One recent battle in the war over recruitment was waged March 9 and 10 at San Francisco State University, when the military rented a booth at the university's two-day spring career fair. Students Against War showed up the first day with more than 150 protesters to picket air force and army recruiting tables. According to SAW member David Carr, protesters staged a peaceful teach-in around recruiters' tables until they left.
When two activists returned to the student center to pass out flyers the following day, police forcibly removed them from the building. In a letter to activists, university officials wrote that the protesters – who face possible suspension from school, while SAW and other groups face unspecified sanctions – were removed because their activities disrupted a university-sponsored event.
It was a scene that's becoming increasingly common across the country, one that pits a military that uses federal policies to force access into schools against activists who oppose unjust wars, recruiting efforts aimed at low-income people of color, and the military's discrimination against homosexuals.
As Carr told the Bay Guardian, "All we were doing was exercising our right to voice our grievances against the government. Military recruiters are predatory, deceptive, and discriminatory. Under the university's own antidiscrimination bylaws, it's them who should be removed, not us."
http://www.sfbg.com/39/29/news_military_recruiters.html
Desperate military recruiters
And a growing opposition
Square off in local schools
By Abigail Kramer
As the body counts rise in Iraq and Afghanistan, military recruiters in the United States must contend with an increasingly formidable mission of their own: to convince the nation's young people to join the ranks of a military at war.
After falling short of recruitment goals in February and March of this year, with another miss expected for April, the increasingly desperate U.S. Army and Marine Corps have dumped more money and personnel into the pursuit of new cadets. But in high schools and colleges across the country, a growing counter-recruitment movement is fighting to keep potential soldiers at home and out of uniform.
One recent battle in the war over recruitment was waged March 9 and 10 at San Francisco State University, when the military rented a booth at the university's two-day spring career fair. Students Against War showed up the first day with more than 150 protesters to picket air force and army recruiting tables. According to SAW member David Carr, protesters staged a peaceful teach-in around recruiters' tables until they left.
When two activists returned to the student center to pass out flyers the following day, police forcibly removed them from the building. In a letter to activists, university officials wrote that the protesters – who face possible suspension from school, while SAW and other groups face unspecified sanctions – were removed because their activities disrupted a university-sponsored event.
It was a scene that's becoming increasingly common across the country, one that pits a military that uses federal policies to force access into schools against activists who oppose unjust wars, recruiting efforts aimed at low-income people of color, and the military's discrimination against homosexuals.
As Carr told the Bay Guardian, "All we were doing was exercising our right to voice our grievances against the government. Military recruiters are predatory, deceptive, and discriminatory. Under the university's own antidiscrimination bylaws, it's them who should be removed, not us."
http://www.sfbg.com/39/29/news_military_recruiters.html
posted by Kangaroo Brisbane Australia at 7:19 PM
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