Divest “Your Body” from the War Machine
www.nnomy.org/divestyourbody - en español
CODEPINK, in partnership with an array of peace and disarmament groups, has launched a divestment campaign to encourage universities, religious organizations, retirement funds, mutual funds, private investors, and other financial institutions in the United States to take action to reduce violent global conflicts and slow the hyper-militarization of our world by divesting from the U.S. War Machine. Divestment from the War Machine means divesting (removing invested assets) from companies that derive their profits by supplying and profiting from U.S. military interventions, expansions, and the militarization of our streets. In other words, we are calling for divestment from companies that make a killing on killing.
The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth is extending this divestment beyond how we support the vast and socially debilitating war industry with our dollars to include the idea of divesting of our bodies. Of course, from a humanistic point of view, your body is not a financial asset, but like so many things in our contemporary world, we have been reduced from citizens to consumers. And the military factors us in financial terms: the cost to maintain our training, deployment and, all too often, our health from being used as soldiers in endless wars and conflicts.
Codepink Divest Campaign Website at divestfromwarmachine.org
NNOMY has the hope that our participation will resonate with other peace organizations, inspiring them to take up the cause to tell our American youth to divest of their bodies to U.S. militarism, regardless of their prior interest in the military, patriotic appeals by military recruiters, peer pressure, wanting to continue family tradition of service, or wishing to believe that benefits offered by military service will help them determine a direction for their lives.
We realize that this is a great sacrifice for many who are facing limited opportunities provided by our economy, or are not able to pay for a college education at this time to move their lives forward. For NNOMY, this is a moral appeal to not risk harm to innocent others or themselves in a time of unending military conflicts based on a critical assessment of U.S. wars as not serving the security of our country or its citizens.
Many of those youth who seek out community service alternatives to the military will be serving inside their own communities and regions where there exists a great need for humanitarian assistance to aid in environmental and social crises that require our direct intervention. Those youth who can connect the dots of what real community service means for establishing a sustainable economy will be the real heroes challenging the future quality of all of our lives. We need to begin to send the message that the waste of military spending needs to be redirected from war profiteering to enlivening the communities where we live and to invest in renewable energy and away from extractive resources which are the source of much of our war-making.
The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth would also welcome Code Pink´s collaboration with us again in an active campaign of counter-recruitment in our public schools, especially those schools who serve our underprivileged students where we find the greatest military recruitment effort against our youth.
http://www.codepink.org/divest
Thank You
For peace and social justice,
Pat Alviso - Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) - National Coordinator, Long Beach, California
Tori Bateman- American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Midwest Region - Chicago, Illinois
Rachel Bruhnke - Codepink - San Pedro, California
Kate Connell - Truth in Recruitment - Santa Barbara, California
Barbara Harris - Granny Peace Brigade - New York City, New York
Rick Jahnkow - Project on Youth and Non-Military Opportunities (Project YANO) - San Diego, California
Siri Margerin - Before Enlisting - San Francisco, California
Sebastian Munoz-McDonald - Feminists Against the Draft - Dartmouth College - New Hampshire
Louis Raprager - Veterans for Peace - Digital Counter-recruiter - National
Joanne Sheehan - War Resisters League/New England Regional Office - Norwich, Connecticut
From "Divest from the War Machine:"
- 06.11.21
Divest Digest June 2021
A few weeks ago, CODEPINK Co-founder Medea Benjamin disrupted the General Dynamics Shareholders meeting to confront the CEO and the board with questions about the company’s weapon sales to Saudi Arabia and other repressive regimes, such as the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt. - 12.29.20
Divest from War Coalition Digest, December 2020
As we reflect on 2020, let’s remember it wasn’t all bad. Despite COVID, we managed to come together and find creative ways to continue to take on the war machine. - 09.12.20
Divest from War Coalition Digest, August 2020
What do Jane Fonda and Ben Cohen have in common? They both support the Divest from the War Machine campaign! Jane Fonda invited CODEPINK to participate in Fire Drill Fridays to highlight the cost of war to the planet, exclaiming that the “climate and the peace movement are one”. - 03.08.19
Can We Divest from Weapons Dealers?
Impoverished people living in numerous countries today would stand a far better chance of survival, and risk far less trauma, if weapon manufacturers such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, and Raytheon, stopped manufacturing and selling death-dealing products. - 03.06.19
If America can find $716bn for the military, it can fund the Green New Deal
Funny how some politicians have no qualms about ballooning the deficit with tax cuts for the rich but balk at investing in the long-term health of our people and communities. Just as peculiar: the fact that military spending cuts are virtually never mentioned as an option for freeing up funds for social good instead of war. - 09.17.18
Merchants of Death: How the Military-Industrial Complex Profits from Endless War
The Real News Network / Interview with Medea Benjamin
A look into how the military-industrial complex fuels endless war for corporate profits. CODEPINK’s Medea Benjamin discusses her new report on the five largest US weapons manufacturers and their arms deals with Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Egypt -
Resources
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"Welcome to the War Machine" - CodePink Divest Campaign
What are the dangers military enlistment poses to young people? How is JROTC, the Marksmanship Program, the ASVAB, and High School military recruiters related to the militarization of youth? Find out more by visiting our website https://www.nnomy.org/divestyourbody and by considering divesting your money, your body, and your mind from the war machine! Visit https://www.divestfromwarmachine.org/ to find out what more you can do to help curve militarization in our society!
In Cooperation with Codepink's Divest from the War Machine campaign, The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth contributes this guide for demilitarizing our schools from the over-reach of a provision of the Every Child Succeeds Act that permits unrestricted access to military recruiters in our schools. This guide instructs activists how to lobby school districts to follow equal access guidelines and to organize communities, parents, teachers, and students to limit recruiter access to their schools.
Much of the contents of this Divestment Campaign Guide are borrowed with permission from the National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY), National Coalition to Protect Student Privacy, Stop Recruiting Kids, and Save Civilian Civilian Education. We are extremely grateful to them for contributing their insight and experience to this movement. To learn more about NNOMY’s work, visit http://nnomy.org/index.php/en/. To learn more about Save Civilian Education’s work, visit http://savecivilianeducation.org/.
Download the DivestCRguide2018.pdf
- Should JROTC be in schools? (VIDEO)
NNOMY Education| 22:18 | An in-depth analysis about the ethicacy of the Junior Reserve Officers Training Program, (JROTC) a government and locally sponsored military cadet program located in thousands of public high schools in the USA. This video was produced for Codepink's Divest From The War Machine campaign in 2018 ny the National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth office staff. - Peaceful Career Alternatives website
The Peaceful Career Alternatives website has been developed with the support of multiple national, regional, and local peace and religious organizations to provide young people deciding how to begin their productive working lives with alternative ideas and options without entering military service.
We encourage school counselors, parents, teachers, and most of all our youth, to utilize this resource before recommending or deciding on a military career and to network this resource to those considering enlistment
https://peacefulcareers.org/about-2/
Cessation of Military Recruiting in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools, American Public Health Association (APHA)
Recruiters for the various US armed forces have free access to our nation’s public high schools, as mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Military recruiting behavior in the nation’s high schools has become increasingly aggressive and predatory. Although adults in the active military service are reported to experience increased mental health risks, including stress, substance abuse, and suicide, there is evidence that military service for the youngest soldiers is consistently associated with health effects far worse than for those who are older. This suggests that military service is associated with disproportionately poor health for those in late adolescence. These negative outcomes for teen soldiers, coupled with significant evidence that the adolescent brain is not equipped to make accurate risk calculations, leads APHA to conclude entry into the military should be delayed until full adulthood. For these reasons, the American Public Health Association opposes military recruiting in public elementary and secondary schools. APHA should encourage the United States to cease the practice of recruiting military enlistees in public high schools, specifically by (1) removing the No Child Left Behind Act requirement that high schools both be open to military recruiters and turn over contact information on all students to recruiters and (2) eliminating practices that encourage military recruiters to approach adolescents in US public high schools to enlist in the military services.
I pledge to work to Divest from weapons companies and invest in ethical, life-affirming solutions
The only way we can achieve a peaceful world is if we reduce the power of those who profit from war.
Visit the Divest from the War Machine Printable Resources & Guides Page:
You can visit Codepink's Divest from the War Machine website at https://www.divestfromwarmachine.org/
Revised 08/30/2022
