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March 2008 - School board limits access to students by military recruiters
Years of organizing by students leads to victory
Southside Pride, March 2008 edition
by DAN DIMAGGIO
Military recruiters will no longer be able to roam the halls or table in the cafeterias in Minneapolis schools, thanks to a resolution passed by the Minneapolis School Board on Feb. 25. With nearly 30 students and community members sitting in the audience with bright yellow signs demanding "End Military Recruitment in Our Schools," the board voted unanimously to restrict recruiters' access to college career centers only, where they can be supervised by school personnel. The resolution also mandates that Minneapolis schools "provide equal access for organizations that wish to counsel alternatives to, or provide additional information about, military service" (i.e. counter-recruitment groups). As the resolution states, "If literature encouraging military service is displayed for students to read or pick up, groups counseling alternatives to military service may similarly display their literature." School administrators will now have to notify the public whenever the military is coming to table in a school and allow counter-recruitment groups to table as well.
While the resolution falls short of the demand put forward by Youth Against War and Racism and many community members to ban military recruiters from schools altogether, YAWR organizer Ty Moore declared it "a major step forward that will provide important opportunities to expand the counter-recruitment presence in Minneapolis schools."
According to Moore, school administrators have often erected barriers to counter-recruitment organizations, including denying students their democratic right to form their own organizations like Youth Against War and Racism to counter the military's presence in schools. "This resolution gives us the authority of the School Board to demand the right to table to counter the military's propaganda in every school," Moore said.
At the School Board meeting, several military recruiters and pro-war vets argued that the resolution was an attack on ordinary soldiers and veterans, an assertion that was countered by members of Veterans for Peace in the crowd. Organizers with Youth Against War and Racism and Socialist Alternative pointed out that the counter-recruitment campaign is not aimed personally at the military recruiters themselves or the spirit of sacrifice that causes many to enlist in the military, but rather against the Bush administration and the political establishment that has waged unpopular wars of military aggression.
This resolution came about after several years of struggle by Twin Cities students against military recruitment in schools, including organized petition drives, teach-ins, lobbying of school officials and direct action. In particular it was a walkout of over 900 students from dozens of schools across the Twin Cities last November, combined with petitioning and community pressure on the School Board, which got official gears turning. As Minneapolis School Board member Peggy Flanagan said at the meeting, "This motion came to be because young people did exactly what we ask them to do. To all the young people in the audience, thank you for your organizing."
While many have dismissed the current generation of youth as apathetic, the organizing done by YAWR has shown a different reality. According to YAWR organizer Tyrus Thompson, who graduated from Mahtomedi High last year, "Our experience has been that students are willing to take action against the war if given a lead. There is a ton of opposition to the war and military recruitment in high schools. You saw that by the great response we got to the walkouts."
Laura Madsen, a student at Kennedy High in Bloomington, said, "Students are infuriated at the brutality of the war and occupation as well as the overcrowded classrooms and lack of money for schools in the U.S., while the war is now estimated to cost up to $3 trillion. Students are also disgusted by the lies and harassment by military recruiters and are quite willing to take a stand against the war and military recruitment. But we have to get organized."
Students and counter-recruitment activists say that their main goal now is to set up tables every single time the military comes to Minneapolis schools. Their aim is to counter the presence of recruiters and argue against students joining the military to provide more bodies for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
According to YAWR, wherever student peace activists have consistently managed to set up counter-recruitment tables in schools, military recruiters have either stopped coming or dramatically lowered their frequency of visits. This could mean dozens or even hundreds fewer local youth will end up fighting in these wars.
However, the experience of other school districts which have passed similar resolutions shows that enforcement remains a major problem. Also, the military has many more methods other than their lunchroom tables to get youth to enlist. In 2006, the military spent $3.9 billion on recruitment.
Counter-recruitment activists and organizations, meanwhile, survive on a shoestring budget. YAWR is planning to launch a fundraising drive aimed at raising enough money to hire at least a part-time organizer dedicated to helping organize students and community members to staff the counter-recruitment tables in schools every time recruiters show up.
YAWR plans to use their victory in Minneapolis to push for other school boards to pass similar restrictions on recruiters' access, including the St. Paul School Board, which voted down a similar resolution last year after the military lobbied heavily against it.
Their aim remains making Twin Cities schools military-free zones. For Moore, "Ultimately, our goal is to build up the independent, self-organized strength of young people to ensure that our schools are made completely off-limits to the military, and more broadly, to ensure that the rising generation will grow old in a just, peaceful and sustainable world."
The November 16th Student Walkouts were a huge success!
Click here for walkout reports from...
Minneapolis: Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser
Minneapolis: Upcoming Events and video of Walkout Press Conference
Seattle Students Shut Down School Board
Youth Against War and Racism is a growing national network of youth activists and student groups. YAWR is organized around the following Points of Unity:
* End the occupation of Iraq - Bring the troops home now!
* Money for jobs and education, not war!
* Military recruiters out of our schools!
* Say no to racism, homophobia, and attacks on our civil liberties!
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