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A Guide to Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Policies in the US Armed Forces for Servicemembers, MSV Survivors and Their Advocates

Sexual assault and sexual harassment have long been serious problems in the armed forces. In recent years, the issue has received far more notice and it is now generally acknowledged that the problem is – and likely always has been — epidemic. DoD’s own reports reveal that over 4,700 service members, both men and women, reported they were assaulted in 2015. Experts point out it is likely that only one in ten people report their assaults. The DoD reports show that many members are afraid to report assaults or harassment. This is often out of fear of command retaliation. When reports are made, they are often ignored or retaliation does, in fact, occur. This phenomenon, too, has been longstanding but has only recently come to public attention.

More Information - https://nlgmltf.org/programs-and-services/military-law-library/memos/military-sexual-violence/

The Military Law Task Force

Counter-recruitment Inside Out, is a compilation of articles authored during the last 12 years by activists and researchers, offering an analysis of counter-recruitment practices. It also seeks strategies for improving its effectiveness in persuading the youth to take a harder look at military enlistment, and to develop a more informed view of the motivations behind their government's wars. With the advent of militarized gaming and the increase of movie and television militainment influencing young minds and legitimizing state violence, counter-recruiters need to develop more nuanced methods of directing young people towards alternatives to militarization.

En cooperación con la campaña Desinversión de la máquina de guerra de Codepink, The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth contribuye con esta guía para desmilitarizar nuestras escuelas del alcance de una disposición de la Ley de éxito de todos los niños que permite el acceso sin restricciones a reclutadores militares en nuestras escuelas . Esta guía instruye a los activistas sobre cómo presionar a los distritos escolares para que sigan las pautas de igualdad de acceso y para organizar comunidades, padres, maestros y estudiantes para limitar el acceso de los reclutadores a sus escuelas.

Gran parte del contenido de esta Guía de campaña de desinversión se toma prestada con el permiso de la Red Nacional de Oposición a la Militarización de la Juventud (NNOMY), la Coalición Nacional para Proteger la Privacidad de los Estudiantes, Dejar de Reclutar Niños y Guardar la Educación Civil. Les estamos extremadamente agradecidos por contribuir con su visión y experiencia a este movimiento. Para obtener más información sobre el trabajo de NNOMY, visite http://nnomy.org/index.php/en/. Para proteger el trabajo de la privacidad del estudiante, visite http://www.studentprivacy.org/. Para obtener más información sobre Stop Recruiting Kids, visite: http://srkcampaign.org/. Para obtener más información sobre el trabajo de Save Civilian Education, visite http://savecivilianeducation.org/.

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 Protect Student Privacy’s work, visit http://www.studentprivacy.org/. To learn more about Stop Recruiting Kids, visit: http://srkcampaign.org/. To learn more about Save Civilian Education’s work, visit http://savecivilianeducation.org/.

You can visit Codepink's Divest from the War Machine website at https://www.divestfromwarmachine.org/ 

The human family consists for the most part of wonderfully ordinary people, who work hard to care for themselves and their children. However, there are a few people who aspire to positions of power, and then work to use their authority to manipulate and control all the others.

Educators' tour is about how youth are militarized and how the educational system plays a primary role in shaping the view of citizens about militarism in society.

Published 2008

Gary Evans, MD

19 pages

The Full Spectrum Counter-Recruitment PDF examines efforts to demilitarize public schools and end the flow of new warriors by modernizing counter recruitment efforts to oppose military tactics to use digital and online gaming platforms to reach kids. This document was prepared for a Veterans For Peace Online Convention workshop and is publically available as a resource.

Know Before You Go, 'Cause There's No Reset Button is a collaboration with the Ya-Ya Network (Youth Activists-Youth Allies), a youth of color-led antimilitarist organization based in NYC.

(updated version: 12/13/2011 Folks should discard any other recent versions you are distributing)

Our leaflet breaks down the enlistment contract and life in the military and provides new stats about sexual assault in the military, racial disparities in becoming an officer, and stop-loss.

Written to be accessible to everyone while providing the most important info for making a fully informed choice about joining the military, this leaflet will be a staple for counter-recruiters.

Available  on our online store for $0.15/copy plus 20% shipping.

Presenter: Rick Jahnkow, Project YANO (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

The legal rules for what can be said in schools by teachers, students and non-school community groups are not the same:

• Teachers: can control which topics will be introduced in their classrooms - but they also must conform to state and local school district rules on curriculum content and teacher behavior.
• Students: have an inherent right to engage in free speech activities at school, including the right to express themselves on conroversial topics - but their expressive activities can be limited by “reasonable” time, place and manner guidelines.
• Non-school groups from the community: have NO automatic right to enter schools. If given access, the content of their speech can be limited. 
  

Read More in PDF

Voters are often told that candidates for the U.S. Congress lack any foreign policy platform because they don’t know enough about the topic and don’t plan to focus on it. The following is meant to quickly remedy that situation. Below is information on:

• The Federal Budget
• The Militarization of Other Nations
• Foreign Aid
• U.S. Bases
• The Rule of Law
• War Powers
• Wars
• Nuclear Weapons
• “National Security”
• Sanctions
• Global Cooperation
• Intersectionality
• Jobs
• “Leading the World”
• U.S. Public Opinion
• Examples of Successful Candidates’ Platforms
• Unwarranted Influence
• Recommendations

Setting aside mandatory spending (including Social Security, Medicare, and other spending that Congress does not address annually) as well as payments on debts, and looking only at discretionary spending (the money Congress spends each year at its discretion), over half in recent years has gone to military spending.

Military spending (discretionary and otherwise) includes a budget of three-quarters of a trillion dollars for the Pentagon, plus hundreds of billions more for nuclear weapons in the Energy Department, military activities of other departments including Homeland Security, the budgets of 17 secretive agencies, debt for past wars, and the Veterans Affairs budget.

U.S. military spending dwarfs the cost of most infrastructure and social needs spending legislation, the cost of any other item (or dozen items) of discretionary spending, and the military spending of any other nation. In 2020, U.S. military spending was more than the military spending of the next 11 biggest spenders combined, nine of which nations were U.S. weapons customers pressed by the U.S. government to increase their military spending. The next 14 biggest spenders below the top 12 were the only others to spend over 1% of U.S. military spending, and of those 14, 11 were U.S. weapons customers.  

Learn More

From 2003-2006, the FCYO implemented and coordinated the Roots Initiative, a grantmaking and capacity-building project involving ten dynamic Youth Organizing groups from around the country. This Toolkit provides, additionally, various suites of tools (in the form of templates, worksheets and exercises) that we hope are useful to organizations undertaking a broad range of organizational development efforts.

A compilation and reworking of materials from the websites of leading truth-in-recruiting organizations, including:

• The Coalition Against Militarism in Our Schools
• Project YANO
• The National Network Opposing Militarization of Youth
• Non-Military Options for Youth
• The AFSC’s Youth & Militarism Program

Draft in Development September 2013

Power Point resource by activist Kathy Barker formerly of Washington Truth in Recruitment in Seattle Washington has produced this thorough review of the extent of military programs in our high schools and colleges and universities, A good resource to inform activists who choose to do counter-recruitment and other forms of youth demilitarization activism inside public schools and communities.

This Activist Toolkit provides any intern or volunteer with the basic tools necessary to run strong campaigns and service projects and win reforms both on and off campus for students and the public interest.

“Establishing Trust and Accountability: An Integrated Approach to Research on Militarism,” Fellowship Magazine, Spring 2011

Handbooks and Guides

Participatory Research Toolkit - The Data Center
Freedom of Information Act Guide - National Security Archives
The Pentagon Labyrinth: Ten Short Essays to Get You Through It - Center for Defense Information (2011)
The Arms Trade Revealed - Federation of American Scientists (1998 but still relevant)
Military Spending: Researching Impacts on Your Campus or Community - guide compiled by Western States Legal Foundation (2003, but most links still active)
Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply & Questions to Ask - University of California
Conducting Interviews - The Data Center

Sources of Information

A source list for researching militarism - Zoltan Grossman and John Lindsay-Poland (2011)
Internet Public Library - ask a librarian a reference question

Information assembled by Fellowship of Reconciliation: http://forusa.org

The WAR FREE SCHOOLS organizing kit includes two volumes. WAR FREE SCHOOLS: The Rise of the Counter-Recruitment Movement debunks the myths about the military actions Canada is engaged in and places them in the context of rising tuition fees and military recruitment. It also proposes a clear response to these trends. When governments push for war, the people have to push back. This resistance to war and militarism takes the many forms, including soldiers refusing illegal orders or deployments, conscientious objection, desertion, and counter-recruitment. The second volume, WAR FREE SCHOOLS: A Handbook for Counter- Recruitment in Canada, is a how-to guide for students in high schools, colleges, and universities, as well as others who are interested in organizing against military recruiters.

The WAR FREE SCHOOLS organizing kit includes two volumes. WAR FREE SCHOOLS: The Rise of the Counter-Recruitment Movement debunks the myths about the military actions Canada is engaged in and places them in the context of rising tuition fees and military recruitment. It also proposes a clear response to these trends. When governments push for war, the people have to push back. This resistance to war and militarism takes the many forms, including soldiers refusing illegal orders or deployments, conscientious objection, desertion, and counter-recruitment. The second volume, WAR FREE SCHOOLS: A Handbook for Counter- Recruitment in Canada, is a how-to guide for students in high schools, colleges, and universities, as well as others who are interested in organizing against military recruiters.

Place this letter size document in a plexiglass document holder as a tabling display and youth can scan with their cell phones to direct them to the winningthepeace.org mobile phone version.

You can order a freestanding plexiglass document holder from Dazzling Displays or find one in your local office supply store.