| | | NNOMY Newsletter Second Quarter 2024 | June 27th 2024 marked the 20th anniversary of the formation of the National Network Opposing the militarization of Youth which established itself from a coalition of national and regional organizations meeting in 2004 after the national counter-recruitment conference “Stopping War Where it Begins” in Philadelphia. Much good activism has transpired in the intervening years arguably peaking between the years of 2005 and 2011. With the cycle of wars over the last twenty years, NNOMY has seen counter-recruitment efforts shift increasingly to online information activism with "in-school outreach" diminishing from a peak in 2008 of 140+ groups identified active to a current listing on the National Directory of Youth Demilitarization Groups of around 40+. What contributed to this decline is a combination of factors including antiwar activists facing a public normalized to permanent wars and themselves tiring to affect change to a government under the ownership of the military industry lobbies and a political system beholding to that fact.With the prolonged war in Ukraine, and the U.S. funded genocide in Gaza in the Middle East, the country has witnessed a resurgence of antiwar activism and protests on school and university campuses nationwide. With the outrage associated to these atrocities there has been the insipient stirrings of a new cohort of youth and community support for all things anti-military including a barely visible interest in intervention into the military recruitment complex primarily at the University level with some stirrings within high school aged youth as well. At the same time military recruitment has plummeted for the Pentagon as young people choose civilian based futures for themselves and lack the basic qualifications to meet military recruitment standards and what some conservative politicians attribute to "wokeism". The U.S. military is desperate to turn this around to meet its minimum troop levels with increasing military recruitment.At this juncture, in the summer of 2024, the military and their allies in the government, are now trying to expand military based courses legislatively with programs aimed at poorer communities of color such as mandatory student placements into JROTC classes without parental or student consent and Project 2025 ASVAB testing in our public schools while exempting wealthier private schools. How this all works out past the 2024 elections and contributes to changes in the 2025 NDAA policy directives remains to be seen but one thing is certain; that increased demands put on our schools to allow increased military access to indoctrinate our youth is likely to renew interest in counter-military activism inside our public schools in the months and years ahead.For NNOMY, the challenges are manifold. To make connections with changing times and cultural changes with a new generation of youth, NNOMY will need to connect to their issues directly on environmental concerns, community policing, and rising antiimperialist sentiments that are becoming more prevalent after the witnessing of a genocide in Gaza, all which will become more imperative in order to gain attention to the counter-recruitment narrative. The failure to do so will likely make the CR activist issues less relevant to these youth and may not permit the passing on of this activism to the next generation adequately to keep counter-recruitment alive for the future. NNOMY needs to change with the times and be able to relate to those it is reaching out to more than ever. The time for this change is now at the 20 year mark for NNOMY. | |
The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth Turns 20 | The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY) is a vital network that brings together national, regional, and local counter-recruitment and peace groups to resist the increasing influence of the military in young people’s lives. As it celebrates its 20th anniversary, let’s delve into its journey and impact.
NNOMY has been at the forefront of advocating for youth rights and challenging the Pentagon’s encroachment into schools and communities. Counter-recruitment came out of the anti-draft movement from the Vietnam war. The U.S. war in Vietnam triggered the most tenacious anti-war movement in U.S. history, beginning with the start of the bombing of North Vietnam in 1964 and the introduction of combat troops the following year. Over the next decade, hundreds of thousands of young people become radicalized in a largely nonviolent, diverse and sometimes inchoate popular culture of war resistance, employing tactics ranging from comical street theatre to industrial sabotage. Students, government officials, labor unions, church groups and middle class families increasingly opposed the war as it climaxed in 1968, forcing a gradual withdrawal of U.S. forces. Anti-war activities, particularly large-scale resistance to military conscription, forced an end U.S. combat operations in Vietnam and a suspension of the draft by January 1973. | | | | Looking back at Twenty Years of NNOMY | July 13, 2024 / Staff / National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth - June 27th, 2024 marks the founding of the National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth stemming from the formation of the network at the national counter-recruitment organizing conference held June 25-27, 2004 named Stopping War Where It Begins: Strengthening the Movement Opposing the Militarization of Youth in Philadelphia. (1)
Through the many cultural shifts and political machinations of the United Sates domestic and foreign policy, the prospects and opportunities for NNOMY have experienced many ebbs and flows. Looking back at another time of resurgent US Militarism during the Bush Administration's Iraq war in response to a proven false narrative imposed upon the 9/11 terrorism, NNOMY experienced the height of counter recruitment activism as peace groups correctly intervened into the proceedings of US military recruitment at the high school level, to stem the flow of bodies into a series of unnecessary illegal wars for regime change.
Below as a testament and recognition of their efforts are listed the groups on this twentieth anniversary of the National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth and their counter-recruitment pages: | | | | Equal Access Struggle: Counter-Military Recruitment on High School Campuses | Winter 2011 / Phillip Ruben Nava / University of Illinois, Chicago Law Review - All we want to do is make students aware that there are other ways to find college money and serve your country without joining the military. But they're not getting the other side. Sally Ferrell, a counter military recruiter from Wilkes County, North Carolina. We're not going to allow her to do that anymore. We allow recruiters into the schools to recruit for post-high school opportunities. But she was not offering that. Stephen Laws, Superintendent of Wilkes County High Schools, North Carolina.
Ms. Ferrell, who is a member of a local counter-recruiting group, had previously been allowed to distribute pamphlets about alternatives to the military such as AmeriCorps and given access to set up "peace tables" inside the high school, alongside military recruiters' tables. However, after receiving complaints from, a principal in the district, the superintendent told her she was no longer welcome, citing her conduct as unpatriotic. | | | | | | A Turning Point for the Anti-War Movement? | February 2005 / Rick Jahnkow / Peacework - Despite 2005 being the start of a second presidential term for George W. Bush, this year may bring together a number of factors that will offer the antiwar movement an important opportunity to shorten the US occupation of Iraq and begin to reverse the decades-long growth of militarism in this country. However, to take advantage of this opportunity, the antiwar movement will have to think critically about its emphasis on symbolic war protest and look more closely at strategies for interfering with the flow of human resources needed for war, especially through counter-recruitment organizing. | | | | Pro/con: Should military recruiters be allowed to promote enlistment in high schools?
| Dec. 16, 2010 / Claire Boston, NoahGrace Bauman / Silver Chips Online: Montgomery Blair High School's Online Student Newspaper - Section 9528 of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires public schools to allow military recruiters in schools where college recruiters are also permitted. Opponents of the provision argue that recruiting in high school unethically takes advantage of students, while others claim that military recruiters simply inform interested students of possible career options.
Claire Boston says yes: Military recruiters expose students to alternative careers
After falling behind in school and graduating a semester late, 2009 Blair graduate Chris Sanchez could have been worried about his future. Instead, he joined the National Guard, a path he says taught him responsibility and commitment. A meeting with a military recruiter at Blair first exposed Sanchez to the possibility of a successful career in the military, an opportunity that all Blazers should have. As long as college recruiters are allowed on high school campuses, military recruiters must have an equally prominent presence, because recruiters present students with a viable career path and a way to pay for college.
NoahGrace Bauman says no: The military unethically targets vulnerable students
Military recruitment is an essential activity in ensuring national security. Recruitment in high school may seem like a logical place to attract young, educated potential soldiers. However, public schools have an obligation to maintain high standards for the organizations they allow to have access to students, and the military as it exists today does not meet these standards. Until the U.S. Military reforms its unethical and discriminatory practices to meet the standards of public education, it should not be allowed to recruit in high schools. | | | | America Prepares For Global War And Restarts The Draft For 18-26 Year Olds | June 14, 2024 / Dennis Kucinich / Popular Resistance - Congress must take up the question of war, long before the country institutes an automatic draft. An automatic draft is a preparation for war, dramatically altering the lives of young Americans. They deserve an answer. We all deserve an answer. America’s future is literally on the line.
Postscript: For my part, as a former member of Congress who is seeking re-election to the House of Representatives in November – – upon my return to Congress, I will bring forth legislation which will abolish automatic registration for the draft. I believe it is honorable, a sacred obligation, to serve in defense of one’s country. But our leaders have a deeper obligation, a solemn duty to explain why. They have not done so.
| | | | The Time for a Ceasefire is Now! | 10 June 2024 / Lauren Reyna Morales and Ana Yeli Ruiz / Draft NOtices, April-June 2024 - The U.S. government’s unwavering support for Israel remains steadfast despite public outcry for a ceasefire and an end to the genocide directed at the Palestinian people. Admittedly, it's only been in the past few months that some of us have truly grasped the staggering sum of taxpayer funds directed towards supporting Israel, but now both left- and right-leaning individuals are speaking out against the government’s prioritization of funding for yet another endless war.
From Israel’s establishment in 1948 through the conclusion of 2023, the United States has provided Israel with a total exceeding $300 billion in contributions, and several more billion dollars may be sent later this year according to the latest aid package being negotiated in Congress. Make no mistake, the Republican and Democrat parties alike benefit from providing support to Israel. One of the most powerful lobby groups in Washington, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, backs politicians from both parties who support aid for Israel.
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