Military Recruiters Out of Our Schools!
By Ty Moore

As the crisis in Iraq deepens, military recruiters are swarming our schools in growing numbers. They target poor, working-class youth who face a future of dead-end jobs, college debt (if you're lucky enough to even get into college!), or unemployment.

By dangling fancy brochures in our faces and promising financial bribes like college money, the military is hoping to sign up a new wave of recruits - "fresh meat" to replace the exhausted, angry troops currently in Iraq.

Fortunately, young people are proving harder to entice into the armed forces than Bush and the Pentagon tops expected! The Army is 40% short of this year's target of recruiting 80,000 by October, and other branches of the military are struggling as well. African American youth have long been targeted by recruiters. But while blacks made up nearly 25% of new recruits in 2000, they were only 14% of this year's recruits. The ROTC now has the fewest participants in a decade (Economic and Political Weekly, 7/23/05).

The military tops and the Bush administration are extremely worried by the recruitment crisis. After a trip to Iraq this summer, retired General Barry McCaffrey raised the alarm. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, the voice of Corporate America, McCaffrey explained: "We are also in a race against time. The U.S. Army and the Marines are too undermanned and under-resourced to sustain this security policy beyond next fall. They are starting to unravel. Congress is in denial and must act. In addition, the American people are losing faith in the statements of our Defense Department leadership. Support for the war is plummeting along with active-duty and National Guard recruiting." (7/2/05)

General McCaffrey supports the occupation of Iraq. He is trying to warn pro-war ruling circles in America that unless Bush can regain public support for the war, unless they can convince more young people to kill and be killed in Iraq, the U.S. may be forced to end the war.

McCaffrey's warning, which is echoed by a growing chorus of military and political leaders, shows the huge potential power of the antiwar and counter-military recruitment movements. It shows that protests, and especially combative actions like student walkouts, are not just symbolic but can have a real effect.

Young people can show the way forward. If we build antiwar groups like Youth Against War and Racism in thousands of schools across the country, educating our fellow students about the war and the lies recruiters tell us, protesting every time military recruiters dare to step foot in our schools, Bush won't be able to get enough new recruits to keep his war machine running. He will have to bring the troops home. So get active and help build a chapter of YAWR at your school today!

It's a Poverty Draft
We Need Money for Jobs and Education, not War
By Canyon Lalama

Young people across the country are having our future stolen out from under us. The unemployment rate for 16-20 year olds in 2004 was 12.3%, compared to 5.4% overall (Bureau of Labor Statistics). Young people are increasingly stuck in dead-end jobs that offer low wages and no benefits. Skyrocketing tuition costs are making college unattainable for many.

The pentagon, of course, recognizes this and is consciously targeting poor and working-class youth for military recruitment.

Just look at Puerto Rico for an example of the military's economic conscription. The territory faces an astounding 40% unemployment rate, and the island provides more than 4 times the yearly recruits than average (afsc.org).

Recruiters bribe students with offers of up to $20,000 in cash and $70,000 for college, as well as job training and opportunities to travel. However, few recruits actually see the promised college money or receive civilian job skills.

Why should we be forced to die in a war for a government that refuses to take care of us? Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent on the war in Iraq that should be used to fund our schools, rebuild our communities, and provide healthcare and jobs for all. Corporations that make a killing in the Middle East are outsourcing jobs and shirking taxes here at home.

We have had enough of greed and war. Fight back against recruitment in our schools! Fight back against the poverty draft!