Resist Don't Enlist - Building Alternatives to Military Service

Click here to read our new counter recruitment pamphlet. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to find a downloadable version to print and use in your area.

Choosing military service is literally a life or death situation for young people. There have been over 2,000 American men and women killed in Iraq, countless Iraqi civilian deaths and over 15,000 wounded. With 58% of soldiers killed in Iraq between the ages of 18 and 25, it is clear that the lives of young people are being put on the line in order to pay the price of Bush's war.

Military recruiters by the thousands are sent into our schools and communities to lie, persuade and coerce young people into signing up for the military. Billboards are posted showing men and women making a difference and serving their country. Recruiters make promises of jobs, stability, education and sense of belonging that many young people want. They convince young people that war is bloodless, that bombs are precise and that there are few casualties and wounds.

This deliberate advertising scheme is part of what is called the poverty draft. The poverty draft happens when young people are forced into military service because of a lack of other options. Working class communities are starved and pushed into poverty because there are no decent jobs, schools are underfunded, and there are is no money for college scholarships. The poverty draft has a racist edge to it. The military specifically targets schools and communities that have large populations of African American, Latino/a and Native American youth.

With an unpopular and immoral war being waged, the military has found it harder to convince young people to sign up. The military has responded with an aggressive recruitment campaign. They have targeted our schools with the clause in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) that gives recruiters the names and contact information of all military age students. With programs like the Junior Office Training Corps (JROTC), and the Vocational Assessment Battery Test (ASVAB) the military is changing our schools from a place of education to a military recruitment hall.

Why are we pushing young people in the military? Why is Bush choosing to steal money from public education and jobs? It's all about profit. Bush cuts money for education, jobs and social programs for young people to give money to corporations, the wealthy and to pay for his wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Corporations profit from the wars through military contracts. This is known as “war profiteering.” The military has hired private corporations to make its fighter jets, build its missiles and to “reconstruct” the countries it destroys. According to the War Resisters League, in 2001 Halliburton had $400 million dollars in military contracts. By 2004, Halliburton's military contracts had exploded to $8 billion dollars. Other corporations like Lockheed Marten, Boeing and Northrop Grumman have also seen their military contracts grow by billions of dollars between 2001 and 2004. These corporations have a vested interest in more wars and larger militaries because their profits continue to rise.


There is another way!

The Young Communist League believes that if we want to end the poverty draft and stop the military from preying on working class young people and youth of color, we must create real alternatives to military service. We demand:

• Fully fund our public schools and colleges so that every person has access to quality education from nursery to university
• Job fairs, college recruiters, more guidance counselors in our public schools that help students find real options for their future
• More money for college grants; Congress needs to pass the Student Aid Reward Act (STAR) that would give more than $17 billion in need-based student financial aid
• More college recruitment and retention programs for working class youth and youth of color
• Fully fund and expand programs like Trio, Upward Bound and Gear Up that provide resources for youth of color to get into college
• Quality, union jobs in our communities
• An end to Bush's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and prevent future wars.
• An end to war profiteering and the repeal of Bush's tax breaks to corporations and the wealthy that steal money and resources from our schools and communities

• Distribute information against military recruitment at recruitment centers
• Hold information sessions on the effects of war on young people and your community
• Get involved in or build a community coalition to fight against cuts to jobs and education and military recruitment

• Get involved in or build a coalition to fight for an increase in funding for education and more retention programs
• Build a progressive coalition to take over student government and get involved in the United States Student Association (USSA) to get involved around issues like affirmative action and increasing student aid?

• Get students to sign opt-out forms
• Demand job fairs and college recruitment fairs instead of military recruiters
• Organize or attend a “Not Your Soldier Camp.” For more info go to notyoursoldier.org

• In the 2006 budget, the federal government will spend $991 billion dollars on the military while only spending $73 billion total on Education
• 57% of veterans that apply for GI bill are denied money for college
• The average stipend from the GI college bill is $2,151 a year
• 1 in 4 homeless people are veterans

• 64% of recruits in 2004 were from counties that had income lower than the national average
• 11 out of the 20 counties with the highest recruitment rates in 2004 were rural
• The three largest schools or programs in the country from which recruiters were drawn: the GED Test Center in the New York State Education Department, the Gary Jobs Corps Center in San Marcos, Texas and another GED based program in New York

• A school district spends $152,000 per JROTC unit
• 65% of JROTC programs are in the South
• There are 1,562 JROTC programs with an enrollment of over 274,000 young people
• School districts spend $220 million/year nationally

Attached files