The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY)

November 27, 2011

Peace and Justice Online - 11:12:05

The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) reports, “The US Military is aggressively recruiting young people for military service.”  “Recruiters,” the NYCLU states, “often target immigrants, students from poor families and people of color.” The targeting of teens in low income and minority communities is an acknowledged and accepted practice, according to a former military recruiter with whom I spoke.

The military often assigns recruiters to meet with students at local high schools. Schools must allow this, by federal law, if they permit job or college recruiters to meet with students.

High schools routinely provide the military the names, addresses, birthdates, and telephone numbers of their students. This, too, is required by law.  However, students or their parents can choose to “opt-out,” preventing the school from providing this information.  Additionally, schools must inform students and parents of this right to opt-out.

Matt Guynn -

It’s not necessary to go to Washington for a protest to significantly engage key issues related to the War on Terrorism. Try going to a local coffee shop or any other public place where you can strike up a conversation with youth or young adults about the choices and paths that the young people in your community see in front of them.

I tried this recently, when I began talking with a camouflage-fatigued young man next to me in the airport.  He was in his third year in the US Army, about to be shipped to Iraq next week.  “Why did you join?”  “My town (in central Oregon) was boring.”  The refrain from young people in many communities across the United States is that there is nothing to do: Nowhere to get a job (or a job that anyone wants).  Little help available for education. Few paths toward a life of meaning and wellbeing. Too little accompaniment, mentorship or assistance.

source: http://www.justicewithpeace.org/node/349

by Emily Pistell, Randy Forsberg Intern
Mass Peace Action Education Fund

David Morales, a recent graduate from Mission Bay High School in San Diego and activist in the Education Not Arms Coalition, walked to the stage in jeans, a baseball hat, and an old jacket with an image of Che Guevara stitched onto the back panel.  As Arlene Inouye from CAMS told the story of how he was denied the right to walk in his high school graduation because of absences due to his community organizing work, the 19-year-old exchanged his hat for a graduation cap.  Since he was not honored in his hometown, Morales graduated with a diploma and high honors in front of a standing ovation from a crowd of hundreds at the NNOMY Counter-Recruitment and Demilitarization Conference. 

The graduation of young David Morales was the beginning of a three day conference in Chicago, Illinois hosted by NNOMY (National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth) from July 17th to 19th, 2009.  At the Chicago AFSC office and Roosevelt University, hundreds of youth and adults gathered to build a movement of resistance to the ever-increasing militarization of American youth and the targeting of students of low-income neighborhoods for military recruitment. 

The NNOMY Conference brought together many activists and organizations as participants and educators.  There were representatives from the AFSC, Alternatives to the Military, Coalition Against Militarism in Our Schools (CAMS), War Resisters League, BAY-Peace, Peace Action, Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors, Truth 2 Youth, Center on Conscience and War, Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD), the Student Peace Action Network, among many other counter-recruitment groups. Over 40 states were represented, and the participants ranged from age thirteen to seventy.

The conference began with an opening panel called Education, Militarism, and Counter-Recruitment: Where We’ve Come From and Where We’re Going, in order to give a larger perspective on CR work.  On Saturday, NNOMY offered the conference participants 32 workshops to choose from with  a vast range of topics, from the basics of counter-recruitment work (Race Class and Culture in Counter Recruitment, CR Strategies, Intro to Organizing, Militarization of Education) to taking the movement further (Legislative Approaches to CR, Alternatives to the Military, College Recruitment).  Some of the most compelling workshops were those led by the high-school students who are currently leading their counter-recruitment efforts, including BAY-Peace from Oakland, Ya-Ya Network from New York City, CAMS from Los Angeles, and Educators Not Arms Coalition from San Diego.

Between all the workshops and panels, NNOMY left plenty of time for youth and adults to network with each other in order to build a national movement.  The final day of the conference was left for the participants to form informal caucuses to address specific regional and identity needs, in order to engage in future organizing and planning.  BAY-Peace and CAMS high school students met up with long-time activists to address issues of California, Ya-Ya Network and Veterans for Peace discussed counter recruitment on the east coast, and other regional activists found each other to share tactics and strategies. 

The conference ended on Sunday afternoon with a few words of reflection on the weekend.  The last speaker was a high school girl from Hawaii, who had traveled to Chicago with an educator from her school.  In tears, she expressed her appreciation for the conference, for her community faces its own particular struggle against the military.  The young students at the conference had inspired her to continue her activism, and now she returned to Hawaii with more materials and strategies that she had come with.  She shared the Hawaiian activist cry that translates to “fight on” in her native language, and hundreds of people dedicated to counter-recruitment echoed her words, from high school students to older veterans.  The movement was unified, if only for a moment, and the young girl from Hawaii found her struggle supported by hundreds of others.  She left, as did every other participant, with a wealth of materials, names, and an understanding that there is a growing movement of counter-recruitment in this country.

As Arlene Inouye wrote in the introduction to the NNOMY conference, “This weekend we’ll revitalize the engine of our network by closely examining the nuts and bolts of its most crucial moving parts.  We all have something to offer and all of us have more to learn.  Each of us is integral to this historic effort.”  The power of the conference lay in just that, in the ability for counter-recruitment to empower youth and to allow them to be the educators and experts in the movement.

At the conclusion of the conference, two goals were made clear by conference participants: to further the development of common CR resources and to increase training for CR local organizers.  After this weekend in Chicago, it seemed that all the participants were revitalized and inspired by the level and sophistication of counter-recruitment work going on across the country.

Learn more and get involved at:
NNOMY.org (National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth)

http://www.39online.com/news/local/kiah-army-recruiter-story,0,7931344.story

David Solano
June 25, 2010

GALVESTON, Texas - A Galveston based Army recruiter is being charged
after a student said he touched her in an offensive manner.
36-year-old, Antonio De Leon, was arrested and charged with two
counts of assault by contact late last month. 39 News learned more
about what happened on Friday, June 25 about this Army recruiter,
who's making headlines for the wrong reasons.

De Leon was recruiting students at two Galveston High Schools in May
when teenage girls reported complaints. When Galveston police looked
into the allegation, they discovered five females had similar
complaints of being touched inappropriately. De Leon was arrested and
booked in Galveston Co. jail.

"A matter like this is under investigation," said Nathan Bollinger, a
major with the United States Army, who works out of the recruiting
battalion office in Houston. "It's under investigation with the
Galveston authorities."

Galveston Independent School District police chief, LeeRoy Amador,
told 39 news that, "We want to make sure that he has not done this to
any other schools besides Galveston."

"It was equivalent to a [class C] misdemeanor offense, and he posted
bond that evening," said Bollinger.

De Leon is charged with two counts of assault by contact in civilian
jurisdiction. It would have been a different story had it occurred on
a military base, meaning the United States Army would have had full
jurisdiction over the case. Bollinger said De Leon is suspended for
several reasons.

"To protect that soldiers rights to do processing and fairness for
him; we suspend him to protect the civilians, who have made these
allegations against our soldier. And finally, it's designed to
protect the integrity of the investigation until these allegations
are fully examined," Bollinger said.

Galveston district officials said the girls alleged De Leon invited
them to the Army recruiting office in Galveston, touching them in an
offensive manner.

"Everybody in recruiting is let down when one of our recruiters fails
to up hold the Army and recruiting command standards," Bollinger
said. "We take these allegations very seriously, and we do whatever
we need to do to restore the trust and faith of the people we serve."

De Leon has recruited in Galveston for the past four years. It's 39
News' understanding that no other Army recruiters were involved.

.

Thirty activists gathered around noon at the Lakewood Military Recruiting Center, to protest the war and discourage potential recruits from joining the military.

While some read the names of those killed in the Iraq war, others gathered signatures that will be sent to Senators DeWine and Voinovich, asking them to bring the troops home.

Joe Mueller and Chris Knestrich took things a bit farther, and committed an act of civil disobedience. They entered the unlocked front door of the building, and knelt down inside to pray. After some time, three police officers showed up and asked them several times to leave. When they refused, both Joe and Chris were arrested and charged with criminal trespass.

When the vigil was over, twenty-four of the protesters went to the Lakewood Police Station, to show solidarity with them, and pray for them.

Joe Mueller and Chris Knestrich were later released on $124 bond each.


Photos Copyright-Adam Woznicki