Information AboutCounter-recruitment |
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Counter-recruitment is a strategy often taken up to oppose War . Counter-recruitment is an attempt to prevent Military Recruiters from enlisting civilians into the military. There are several methods commonly utilized in a counter-recruitment campaign, ranging from the Political to Direct Action . Such a campaign can also target entities connected to the military, such as intelligence agencies, or private corporations which do work for the government. IN THE UNITED STATES Recently, counter-recruitment (which has long been a strategy of Pacifist and other Anti-war groups) has received a large boost in the United States with the unpopularity of the War In Iraq and the well-publicized recruitment difficulties of branches of the U.S. military, particularly the Army and National Guard . Beginning in early 2005 , the U.S. counter-recruitment movement grew substantially, particularly on High School and College campuses, where it is often led by students who see themselves as targeted for military service in a war they don't support. Early history The counter-recruitment movement became important as the successor to the anti-draft movement with the end of Conscription In The United States in 1973, just after the end of the Vietnam War . The military stepped up its efforts to recruit volunteers to fill the gap, with the total number of recruiters, recruiting stations, and dollars spent on recruiting each more than doubling between 1971 and 1974. Anti-war and anti-draft activists responded with a number of initiatives, using tactics similar to those used by counter-recruiters today. Activists distributed leaflets to students, publicly debated recruiters, and used equal-access provisions to obtain space next to recruiters to dispute their claims. The American Friends Service Committee (A.F.S.C.) and the Central Committee For Conscientious Objectors (C.C.C.O.) began publishing counter-recruitment literature and attempting to coordinate the movement nationally. These organizations have been continuously involved in counter-recruitment to the present day. .]] High schools On U.S. high school campuses, most counter-recruitment activism since 2001 has focused around a provision of the No Child Left Behind Act , which requires that high schools provide contact and other information to the military for all of their students who do not opt out. Counter-recruitment campaigns have attempted to put pressure on schools to disobey the law in protest, to be active about informing students of their ability to opt out, and/or to allow counter-recruiters equal access to military recruiters. These political campaigns have had a significant degree of success, particularly in the or the National Lawyers Guild . Organizations which have attempted to organize such campaigns on a national scale include A.F.S.C. and C.C.C.O., the Campus Antiwar Network , and the War Resisters League . Code Pink , with the Ruckus Society , has sponsored training camps on counter-recruitment as well as producing informational literature for use by counter-recruiters. United For Peace And Justice has counter-recruitment as one of its seven issue-specific campaigns. Colleges and universities On U.S. college campuses, the Campus Antiwar Network (C.A.N.) claims that its protests have chased recruiters off over a dozen schools since its founding in 2003, including San Francisco State University , City College Of New York , UC Santa Cruz , and (in the first and perhaps most-known protest, as Bush was being inaugurated) Seattle Central Community College , as well as disrupting recruitment at countless others. A common method of attack against military recruitment at schools which have non-discrimination policies that protect Lesbian , Gay , Bisexual , or Transgendered students has been to demand that military recruitment be prevented in order to comply with these policies, since the U.S. military discriminates against LGBT persons through its Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. C.A.N. also organized nationally coordinated student counter-recruitment protests on December 6 , 2005 , as the Supreme Court was hearing arguments in Rumsfeld V. FAIR to decide the legality of the Solomon Amendment , which requires universities to allow military recruiters or forfeit their federal funding. At colleges and universities, counter-recruitment activities have often resulted in discipline from university administrators, who have threatened activists with penalties including expulsion, and law enforcement, who have arrested and sometimes used physical violence against activists engaged in counter-recruitment protest. C.A.N. says that it has faced ten "major free speech cases" relating to its counter-recruitment activities. In every case, all charges against students were dropped after a public defense campaign was waged. Many counter-recruitment activities at universities also appear in the Pentagon's surveillance database of anti-war protests, a portion of which was leaked to NBC in December 2006. Proposition I/College Not Combat Perhaps the most significant single result of the counter-recruitment movement to date has been the passage, with 60% in support, of Proposition I/College Not Combat in San Francisco on November 5 , 2005 . This proposition, which does not carry enforcement power, declared the city's opposition to military recruitment in public high schools and universities and stated that money should instead be directed toward Scholarships . It was written by Todd Chretien . The passage of Proposition I led famous Fox News anchorman, Bill O'Reilly , to say on his television show, "Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead. And if Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower ? Go ahead." DEBATE In addition to the general debates about war and the alleged connection of the military to Homophobia , Sexism , Racism , and Imperialism which take place across the anti-war movement and relate to counter-recruitment, there are debates about the benefits of military service and the promises of recruiters which take place specifically in the context of counter-recruitment:
TO THE BRITISH ARMY Opposition to joining the British Army existed in Ireland at least as far back as the 1800s. A number of anti-recruiting songs dating from the pre-World War I period exist, with some dating the the mid 1800s - some examples are Arthur McBride , Mrs. McGrath , and Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye . NOTES |
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