NNOMY

NNOMY Steering Committee

https://nnomy.org/committee/

(As of November 12, 2023)  The NNOMY Steering Committee can be contacted in group at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

Staff | Office Email | Speakers Bureau


Pat AlvisoMilitary Families Speak Out (MFSO) - National Coordinator, Long Beach, California

Rachel Bruhnke - Codepink - San Pedro, California

Kate ConnellTruth in Recruitment - Santa Barbara, California - (On Hiatus)

Sonia Santiago HernándezMadres Contra La Guerra - Canóvanas, Puerto Rico

Rick Jahnkow - Project on Youth and Non-Military Opportunities (Project YANO) - San Diego, California

Siri MargerinBefore Enlisting - San Francisco, California

Michael Merryman-Lotze - American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Office of Public Policy and Advocacy, Washington D.C.

Joanne Sheehan - War Resisters League/New England Regional Office - Norwich, Connecticut - (On Hiatus)

 

Emeritus Steering Committee Members
(The organizations attributed to these individuals refer to their associations during their time serving on the NNOMY steering committee.)

Stephanie  Atkinson - Courage to Resist - Seattle, Washington

Tori Bateman- American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Office of Public Policy and Advocacy, Washington D.C.

Oskar Castro - AFSC/Quaker Volunteer Service - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Pat Elder - Student Privacy Org - Montgomery County, Maryland

Libby FrankNorthwest Suburban Peace & Education Project - Arlington Heights, Illinois

Darlene GramignaAmerican Friends Service Committee - Chicago, Illinois

Miranda GrouxThe Resistance Center - Northampton, Massachusetts

Barbara HarrisGranny Peace Brigade - New York City, New York

Arlene Inouye - Coalition Against Militarism in Our Schools (CAMS) - Los Angeles, California

Seth KershnerHistory Department / University of Massachusetts Amherst - Amherst , Connecticut

John Lindsay-Poland - American Friends Service Committee San Francisco Wage Peace Program , U.S. West Region - San Francisco, California

Sebastian Munoz-McDonald - Feminists Against the Draft - Dartmouth College - New Hampshire

Stephen McNeil - American Friends Service Committee Bay Area Peacebuilding Program, U.S. West Region - San Francisco, California

Jesus PalafoxAmerican Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Midwest Region - Chicago, Illinois

Bill ScheurerOn Earth Peace - New Windsor, Maryland

Louis Raprager - Veterans for Peace - Digital Counter-recruiter - National

Maria SantelliCenter on Conscience and War - Washington DC

Sam Smith - I Will Not Kill - Fellowship of Reconciliation - Chicago, Illinois

Chris Venn - San Pedro Neighbors for Peace and Justice - Los Angeles, California

Amy Wagner - Youth Activists - Youth Allies Network - New York City, New York

 

Staffing | menu

Rick Jahnkow - NNOMY Administrative staff volunteer - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Gary Ghirardi - NNOMY Communications staff volunteer - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Fabiola CardozoPeaceful Career Alternatives communications staff person - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Natasha SouzaNNOMY Communications staff volunteer - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Libby FrankTECMITS project coordinator -  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

Emeritus Staff

Selene Rivas  - NNOMY Communications staff person

Diana Tagliafico - NNOMY research Intern

Tuktuki Bhattacharya - Peaceful Career Alternatives Intern

Anita Carraher - Winning the Peace intern

 

Office | menu

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

Speakers Bureau | menu

 

Rick Jahnkow -
Past Program Coordinator for the
Project on Youth & Non-military Opportunities,
contributor to Draft NOtices, a publication of the Committee Opposed to Militarism & the Draft,
Currently a NNOMY steering committee member and an administrative staff volunteer & organizer. 
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. +1.760.753.7518

Libby Frank -
Was a co-founder of Northwest Suburban Peace & Education Project; a counter recruitment
organization based in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. Since 2004 NWSUBPEP has been
tabling at all six high schools in District 214. She also was a volunteer for many years with the
Truth in Recruitment project of the Chicago chapter of the American Friends Service Committee. She is also volunteer staff of the National Network Opposing Militarization of Youth (NNOMY). 
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - +1.773.206.4945

Gary Ghirardi -
Has co-developed an international website called antimili-youth.net with the War Resisters' International in London in support of the Youth International Study Conference, in Darmstadt, Germany called Countering the Militarisation of Youth in 2014. He has supported online advocacy for the Project on Youth & Non-military Opportunities (Project YANO), and the Committee Opposed to Militarism & the Draft (COMD). He is a volunteer communications staff person for the National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY), and a board member of the Peace Resource Center of San Diego at the Peace Campus where he maintains an office for NNOMY. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - +1.858.705.9820

David Morales -
Helped form the Education Not Arms Coalition as a high school junior.
As a graduate student he attended the Stanford University Teacher Education Program,
taught high school Spanish, now in a doctoral program in education at Stanford University.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
- +1.
619.453.6663

Jesus Palafox -
Social Change Advocate, Social Worker, past steering committee member of NNOMY and past
operations manager of the Midwest office of the American Friends Service Committee, ChicagoThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - +1.773.962.1807

 


Please consider supporting The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth
and our work to demilitarize our schools and youth by sending a check to our fiscal sponsor "in our name" at the
Alliance for Global Justice.
Donate Here

 

###

 

Revised 12/05/2024 GG

 

NATIONAL NETWORK FORMING TO OPPOSE THE MILITARIZATION OF YOUTH

 

Join the new national network of groups working to stop the militarization of schools and young people!

This network is an outgrowth of 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. Below is a description of the proposed network; proposal details can also be viewed or downloaded at: http://www.youthandthemilitary.org.

As soon as 12 organizations join the network as sponsors it will become a working body. If your group would like to become a member, please send a notice as soon as possible to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

In order to plan the first convening of the network, a group of organizations have initially volunteered to form an ad-hoc steering committee (a regular steering committee will be formed when the network first meets). Ad-hoc SC volunteers so far are:

More slots are open for the interim SC. Any group wishing to volunteer should contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. as soon as possible, including the name, email and phone contact info. for the group's representative. Groups are urged to consider representation that would strengthen the voices of youth, people of color, women and LGBT community members in the network.

Finally, these are trying and yet exciting times for the counter military recruitment movement. Now, more than ever, the network needs to help shape the tone of anti-war & peace conversations to be more inclusive of our pro-active analysis opposing war. The network will also be integral in helping the nation understand that providing its youth with peaceful and viable alternatives to achieve success in life is an important sign of a civilized society.

I hope that you will consider your organizations role in the network as instrumental to achieving these goals.

 


PROPOSAL:

NATIONAL NETWORK OPPOSING THE MILITARIZATION OF YOUTH (NNOMY)
(Final name to be determined by the sponsoring organizations)

Originally submitted by the planning committee for the June 27-29 Stopping War Where It Begins conference. Revisions made following discussion at the conference and further discussions by the post-conference committee.

In order to build upon the collaborative efforts that produced the counter-recruitment organizing conference in Philadelphia, we propose the following:

  1. The creation of a national networking body that would bring together national, regional and local organizations to oppose the growing intrusion of the military in young people's lives.
  2. The function of the network would be:
    • to promote communication and the sharing of organizing skills and resources through regional and national meetings, conference calls, and other methods of communications;
    • to stimulate collaboration between network members on projects that would advance our collective goals (e.g., research, organizer trainings, and production of educational and public relations materials and organizing tools);
    • to facilitate nationally coordinated actions and campaigns;
    • to strengthen youth-led efforts on campuses and in communities; and
    • to educate the broader activist community and general public on the need to become involved in these efforts.
  3. The structure of the networking body will be decentralized and designed to minimize maintenance requirements. The networking body should be flexible enough to allow participating grassroots groups to address a variety of related issues and use different approaches based on their local organizing environment and constituencies.
  4. Goals and objectives would need to be determined by members of the network, and may include:
    • acknowledging, encouraging, and facilitating youth activism and leadership;
    • encouraging and facilitating the formation and development of grassroots organizations; - addressing the impact of the military on low income communities;
    • working against the targeting of communities of color for military recruitment;
    • raising awareness of the various forms of discrimination practiced by the military;
    • developing and articulating strategies for demilitarizing schools;
    • monitoring legislation and seeking to roll back laws that give the military special influence and power over civilian schools (i.e. the Solomon amendments and No Child Left Behind with regard to colleges and high schools, respectively);
    • strengthening the leadership roles and organizing capacity of communities that are especially affected by war and militarization; and
    • sharing information about alternative resources for college funding, job training, community service and travel opportunities.

    Proposed Structure of the National Network

    NNOMY (hereafter referred to as "the Network") is a network of local, regional and national organizations. It is not intended to function as an independent national organization, but rather as a coalition effort that can strengthen the work of participating groups.

    Membership

    There are two ways groups can participate in the Network:

    1. Become a sponsoring organization. Sponsoring organizations are groups willing to participate in a national organization that makes broad national network decisions. Sponsoring organizations may choose to carry out national actions. Sponsoring organizations appoint a Steering Committee for the Network (see Leadership). Participation includes submitting proposals to the Steering Committee for national actions and educational materials. Sponsoring organizations formally endorse the Network, may use and help develop Network resource materials, and thru a designated organizational representative make all Network decisions not delegated to the Steering Committee, including but not limited to financial decisions and recognition of caucuses. Decision-making will take the form of phone polling of sponsoring organizations, an attempt at consensus via the Network listserv, and if necessary, a 2/3 majority vote. Phone polling will be conducted by an organization designated by the Steering Committee and will require direct contact with a minimum of 2/3 of the sponsoring organizations.

      If two-thirds of the sponsoring organizations approve the proposal, the proposal will move to an email listserv consensus process. If there are no blocks (an absolute refusal to allow the proposal to pass) to the proposal within 48 hours, the proposal is passed. If there IS a block, the decision will revert to 2/3 majority vote.

      If at least two-thirds of the sponsoring organizations do NOT agree to the proposal, the proposal is considered "failed".

    2. Become an endorsing organization. Endorsing organizations are groups that may use network resources, and help publicize network activities but choose not to participate as a sponsoring organization.

    There is also the opportunity for individuals to participate in and contribute to the Network:

    While sponsoring organizations, through their designated representatives, make the decisions guiding the Network, individuals are encouraged to use the Network as a forum for discussion. An individual who wishes to propose an action or other item that requires a decision by the Network must request the support of an existing sponsorship organization, who may then officially submit the proposal to the Network.

    For the full text: http://www.youthandthemilitary.org/bylaws.htm

    Oskar Castro
    National Youth & Militarism Program
    American Friends Service Committee
    215-241-7046
    www.youth4peace.org

 

 Please consider becoming a $10 per month supporter of The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth
And our work to demilitarize our schools and youth.
Donate Here

 

###

 

 Revised: 02/05/2024 GDG

 

About NNOMY

 

OPPOSE THE MILITARIZATION OF YOUTH

Vista California High School CRU.S. citizens that are proactive in opposing war must help shape the tone of anti-war and peace conversations to be more inclusive of the counter-recruitment analysis. The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY) is integral in bringing local, regional, and national peace and human rights groups together to help the nation understand that providing ALL youth with peaceful and viable alternatives to achieve success in life is an important sign of a civilized society. Source: NNOMY

The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY) is a network of organizations that stand up against the militarization of schools and young people in the USA.

NNOMY was founded in the aftermath of the 2004 national counter-recruitment conference "Stopping War Where it Begins" in Philadelphia.[1] It is intended to be a decentralized and flexible structure that helps national, regional and local activists and organizations by promoting communication efforts and by stimulating collaboration between network members. NNOMY organizes actions and campaigns against militarism in order to raise awareness and to increase education on the topic.

The first steering committee included these organizations:

Other participating groups and organizations were Veterans for Peace, Fellowship of ReconciliationYouth Activists/Youth Allies (NY City) and Coalition Against Military in Our Schools.[1] Alliance for Global Justice and War Resisters League sponsor actions of the network.

 

Campaigns

 A National Call: Save Our Civilian Public Education

This campaign was a national call endorsed by 50 national leaders, activists, and educators in the peace community to peace and justice organizations alerting them to conservative forces in the Pentagon and their extending corporate influence on the learning environments of the K-12 and public universities.

 Divest “Your Body” from the War Machine

This project, organized in collaboration with CODEPINK, had the goal to remove invested assets from companies, which supplied and profited from militarization. The campaign wanted to provide broader opportunities to young people who look for community service alternatives to the military.[6]

 School Marksmanship Training

In collaboration Project YANO and NNOMY created a Guide to Removing Marksmanship Training from High Schools. That guide pointed to accomplishments of national and regional groups to:

  • end the placement of students in JROTC involuntarily;
  • facilitating a significant reduction of Marine Corps JROTC enrollment;
  • and the removal of shooting ranges from 11 schools in the San Diego City School District.[7]

 Winning The Peace

This was a national leafletting campaign, directed to acquaint youth with the reality of military enlistment and alternative opportunities to the military service.[8]

 Veterans For Peace and Counter-recruiting

This project is for raising public concern about Pentagon's militarization efforts on youth by providing personal experience of veterans and other activists.[9]


Links:

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Network_Opposing_the_Militarization_of_Youth
(NOTE: Some links have been changed outside of Wikipedia due to groups that do not have Wikipedia pages and directed to the best descriptive information on the cited organization)

 


 Please consider supporting The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth
and our work to demilitarize our schools and youth by sending a check to our fiscal sponsor "in our name" at the
Alliance for Global Justice.
Donate Here

 

###

 

 Revised: 02/05/2024 GDG

 

 

 

Subcategories

The NNOMY Opinion section is a new feature of our articles section. Writing on youth demilitarization issues is quite rare but we have discovered the beginning articles and notes being offered on this subject so we have decided to present them under an opinion category.  The articles presented do not necessarily reflect the views of the NNOMY Steering Committee.

 

Activists Demilitarizing Our Public Schools

The NNOMY CAMPUS page is a resource for activists wishing to understand how to more effectively intervene in our public schools against the increasing influence of Pentagon programs to indoctrinate our youth for war. A series of webinars are being planned on different successful strategies to effect policy changes in school districts that better protect student privacy from military recruiters, to organize access to counter-recruit on campus, and to monitor the activities of military personnel on public school campuses. Topics are listed by series and subject. NNOMY webinar based workshops are a more effective method to instruct how to proceed with curbing the number of youth that make the choice to join into military service, or do so with a more informed picture of what this service will entail.  This page will be updated periodically as additional webinars are conducted and new materials are produced to support these trainings. NNOMY will maintain these educational resources with the most up-to-date information and informed opinions as possible in order to keep the practice of national counter'recruitment efforts viable into the future.

 

Available Webinars:    

Michael FlynnThe warning, given to me 25 years ago, came at the moment Pat Robertson and other radio and televangelists began speaking about a new political religion that would direct its efforts at taking control of all institutions, including mainstream denominations and the government. Its stated goal was to use the United States to create a global, Christian empire. It was hard, at the time, to take such fantastic rhetoric seriously, especially given the buffoonish quality of those who expounded it. But Adams warned us against the blindness caused by intellectual snobbery. The Nazis, he said, were not going to return with swastikas and brown shirts. Their ideological inheritors had found a mask for fascism in the pages of the Bible. - Chris Hedges (From his article: The Christian Right and the Rise of American Fascism, 2011)

Revised 04/17/2016

 

Vice President Kamala Harris delivers remarks to Department of Defense personnel, with President Joe Biden and Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III, the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., Feb. 10, 2021. (DoD photo by Lisa Ferdinando)

Though the United States of America shares with other nations in a history of modern state militarism, the past 78 years following its consolidation as a world military power after World War II has seen a shift away from previous democratic characterizations of the state.  The last forty years, with the rise of the neo-conservative Reagan and  Bush (2) administrations, began the abandonment of moral justifications for democracy building replaced by  bellicose proclamations of the need and right to move towards a national project of global security by preemptive military force. Even with the return of eight years of the, so called, Liberal Obama administrations we saw the further erosion of long held human right protections with the suspension of habeas corpus and the increased usage of extra-judicial drone bombing killings of claimed combatants in multiple conflicts worldwide. Now with the Trump and Biden administrations, these programs have increased unbeknownst to the general public as the mainstream media silenced and normalized perpetual wars.

In the process of global military expansion, the US population has been subjected to an internal re-education to accept the role of the U.S. as consolidating its hegemonic rule internationally in the interest of liberal ideals of wealth creation and protectionism.

U.S. Air Force airmen acting as extras during the filming of the 2007 film Transformers at Holloman Air Force Base. A camera operator on an ATV can be seen filming them on the right.The average citizen has slowly come to terms with stealthily increasing campaigns of militarization domestically in media offerings; from television, movies, militarized video games,  and scripted news networks to reinforce the inevitability of a re-configured society as security state. The effect has begun a transformation of how, as citizens, we understand our roles and viability as workers and families in relation to this security state. This new order has brought with it a shrinking public common and an increasing privatization of publicly held infrastructure; libraries, health clinics, schools and the expectation of diminished social benefits for the poor and middle-class. The national borders are being militarized as are our domestic police forces in the name of Homeland Security but largely in the interest of business. The rate and expansion of research and development for security industries and the government agencies that fund them, now represent the major growth sector of the U.S.economy. Additionally, as the U.S. economy continually shifts from productive capital to financial capital as the engine of growth for wealth creation and development, the corporate culture has seen its fortunes rise politically and its power over the public sector grow relatively unchallenged by a confused citizenry who are watching their social security and jobs diminishing.

Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team members, some armed with assault rifles, preparing for an exerciseHow increasing cultural militarization effects our common future will likely manifest in increased public dissatisfaction with political leadership and economic strictures. Social movements within the peace community, like NNOMY, will need to expand their role of addressing the dangers of  militarists predating youth for military recruitment in school to giving more visibility to the additional dangers of the role of an influential militarized media, violent entertainment and play offerings effecting our youth in formation and a general increase and influence of the military complex in all aspects of our lives. We are confronted with a demand for a greater awareness of the inter-relationships of militarism in the entire landscape of domestic U.S. society.  Where once we could ignore the impacts of U.S. military adventurisms abroad, we are now faced with the transformation of our domestic comfort zone with the impacts of militarism in our day to day lives where we are witnessing militarized police forces in all our cities.

How this warning can be imparted in a meaningful way by a movement seeking to continue with the stated goals of counter-recruitment and public policy activism, and not loose itself in the process, will be the test for those activists, past and future, who take up the call to protect our youth from the cultural violence of militarism.

Counter-recruitment poster.The "militarization of US culture" category will be an archive of editorials and articles about the increasing dangers we face as a people from those who are invested in the business of war. This page will serve as a resource for the NNOMY community of activists and the movement they represent moving into the future. The arguments presented in this archive will offer important realizations for those who are receptive to NNOMY's message of protecting our youth, and thus our entire society, of the abuses militarism plays upon our hopes for a sustainable and truly democratic society.

NNOMY

 

 

 

 Please consider becoming a supporter of The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth
And our work to demilitarize our schools and youth.
Donate Here

 

###

Revised / 11/04/2023 - GDG

 

The Resources section covers the following topics:

 

NNOMYpeace has organized the following resources for our own staff of activists to promote our campaigns on different social media platforms. Many are formatted for Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter feeds. 

We also welcome those activists inside our network of groups doing Truth in Recruitment and Counter-recruiting activism to utilize there resources for their own social media channels.

If you are not a group associated to NNOMYpeace, and would like to utilize these resources on your own channels, we encourage your groups to integrate to NNOMY on our National Directory of Youth Demilitarization Groups to help support the national community of youth demilitarization groups to know you and the scope of your activism. You can share your information to list your group by submitting an organizational form at the following LINK.

We have distributed the following graphics by campaign. Click on the categories below to see those that support different campaign themes by NNOMY

__________________________________________

 

The Divest “Your Body” from the War Machine graphics are campaigning resources for social media for the Divest campaign that NNOMY is collaborating with CodePink. NNOMY focuses on asking youth to "Divest of their Bodies" from military service with the war machine. These are strictly to be utilized with counter-recruitment only and not with TIR.

These social media resources are to be utilized with the "Winning the Peace" campaign in cooperation with the palm cards developed by War Resisters League and the support website created for smart phones, "What Everyone Should Know Before Joining the Military / Lo que deberías saber entres de enrolarte en las Fuerzas Armadas (FF.AA.) ,"  to answer questions for youth about what military service really involves for them.

These social media resources focus on groups nationally and regionally that take part in some form of youth demilitarization activism. That can include themes such as Truth in Recruitment or Counter-recruitment activism or participate in outreach to schools as veteral or antiwar speakers. Those using them should be cognizant of the limits that your location and context present before you decide to select the appropriate images and appeals for your use.

The Misc. social media image resources category are designed around various appeals encompassing general counter-recruitment messages and antiwar themes. They should be utilized judiciously with attention paid to the moment and situation of which they are applied. Some of these may be themed along specific important dates in the peace calendar of on specific subject relating to militarization especially those themes that effect youth. Those found in this category are not specific to a campaign.

Back to School Against War & Militarism! Get the 2018-19 Back-to-school Kit for Counter-recruiting and School De-militarization Organizing from The National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth and find out how you can help keep our youth safer and send a message to school officials and your government... military recruiters should be monitored in local high school and minor-aged youth deserve a balanced narrative on military service! Act Now to activate in your child's public school against Pentagon intrusions into our community youth.

The "Eliminate Selective Service for Everyone" campaign category addresses the antiquated Selective Service system and the demand for its elimination. With the issue of women now being qualified for combat duties including fighting, the issue has been brought before the congress and senate of the United States to require women to register, like men, in the years when young adults are typically drafted into the services to fight wars if the draft needs to be re-initiated in the event of a national crisis where there are not sufficient troops to meet the troop requirement.

This campaign, "Eliminate Selective Service for Everyone," asks for the elimination of this demand based on it being a violation of basic and internationally recognized human rights protocols including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

https://nnomy.org/selectiveservice

The "Costs of War" campaign category came from the Watson Institute for International Affairs website of Brown University in Providence, RI. This institute has made their research into the economic, social, political, and human costs of U.S. wars their research focus. Their mission statement explains the following:

The Costs of War Project is a team of 50 scholars, legal experts, human rights practitioners, and physicians, which began its work in 2010. We use research and a public website to facilitate debate about the costs of the post-9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the related violence in Pakistan and Syria. There are many hidden or unacknowledged costs of the United States’ decision to respond to the 9/11 attacks with military force. We aim to foster democratic discussion of these wars by providing the fullest possible account of their human, economic, and political costs, and to foster better informed public policies.

This campaign, "Costs of War," asks for the public to be aware that our post 9/11 foreign policy has an effect on the U.S.'s international relations that are increasingly coming under question domestically and internationally and how those policies align with the stated goals of the U.S. State Department and its allied governments..

https://nnomy.org/costsofwar

NNOMY Peace produces workshops to assist groups in understanding the tactics of military recruiters in the school and the community and create community and strategies for groups envolved in youth demilitarization efforts.

NNOMYpeace produces printable and viewable resources to support the practice of Truth in Recruitment and Counter-recruitment activism.

News reports from the groups associated to the NNOMY Network including Social Media.

Reports from counter-recruitment groups and activists from the field. Includes information about action reports at recruiting centers and career fairs, school tabling, and actions in relation to school boards and state legislatures.

David SwansonDavid Swanson is the author of the new book, Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union, by Seven Stories Press and of the introduction to The 35 Articles of Impeachment and the Case for Prosecuting George W. Bush by Dennis Kucinich. In addition to cofounding AfterDowningStreet.org, he is the Washington director of Democrats.com and sits on the boards of a number of progressive organizations in Washington, DC.


Charlottesville Right Now: 11-10-11 David Swanson
David Swanson joins Coy to discuss Occupy Charlottesville, protesting Dick Cheney's visit to the University of Virginia, and his new book. -  Listen

Jorge MariscalJorge Mariscal is the grandson of Mexican immigrants and the son of a U.S. Marine who fought in World War II. He served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam and currently teaches at the University of California, San Diego.

Matt GuynnMatt Guynn plays the dual role of program director and coordinator for congregational organizing for On Earth Peace, building peace and nonviolence leadership within the 1000+ congregations of the Church of the Brethren across the United States and Puerto Rico. He previously served a co-coordinator of training for Christian Peacemaker Teams, serving as an unarmed accompanier with political refugees in Chiapas, Mexico, and offering or supporting trainings in the US and Mexico.

Rick JahnkowRick Jahnkow works for two San Diego-based anti-militarist organizations, the Project on Youth and Non-Military Opportunities and the Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft. He can be reached at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Pat ElderPat Elder was a co-founder of the DC Antiwar Network (DAWN) and a member of the Steering Committee of the National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth, (NNOMY).  Pat is currently involved in a national campaign with the Women's International League for Peace & Freedom project, Military Poisons,  investigating on U.S. military base contamination domestically and internationally.  Pat’s work has prominently appeared in NSA documents tracking domestic peace groups.

 

Documents:

audio  Pat Elder - National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth

NNOMY periodically participates in or organizes events(e.i. conferences, rallies) with other organizations.

News articles reposted about NNOMY. Includes news reports about our work with associated groups and conferences.

The Counter-recruitment Essentials section of the NNOMY web site covers the issues and actions spanning this type of activism. Bridging the difficult chasms between religious, veteran, educator, student, and community based activism is no small task. In this section you will find information on how to engage in CR activism in your school and community with the support of the knowledge of others who have been working to inform youth considering enlisting in the military. You will also find resources for those already in the military that are looking for some guidance on how to actively resist injustices  as a soldier or how to choose a path as a conscientious objector.

John Judge was a co-founder of the Committee for High School Options and Information on Careers, Education and Self-Improvement (CHOICES) in Washington DC, an organization engaged since 1985 in countering military recruitment in DC area high schools and educating young people about their options with regard to the military. Beginning with the war in Viet Nam, Judge was a life-long anti-war activist and tireless supporter of active-duty soldiers and veterans.

 

"It is our view that military enlistment puts youth, especially African American youth, at special risk, not only for combat duty, injury and fatality, but for military discipline and less than honorable discharge, which can ruin their chances for employment once they get out. There are other options available to them."


In the 1970's the Selective Service System and the paper draft became unworkable, requiring four induction orders to get one report. Boards  were under siege by anti-war and anti-draft forces, resistance of many kinds was rampant. The lottery system failed to dampen the dissent, since people who knew they were going to be drafted ahead of time became all the more active. Local draft board members quit in such numbers that even I was approached, as a knowledgeable draft counselor to join the board. I refused on the grounds that I could never vote anyone 1-A or eligible to go since I opposed conscription and the war.

At this point the Pentagon decided to replace the paper draft with a poverty draft, based on economic incentive and coercion. It has been working since then to draw in between 200-400,000 enlisted members annually. Soon after, they began to recruit larger numbers of women to "do the jobs men don't want to". Currently recruitment quotas are falling short, especially in Black communities, and reluctant parents are seen as part of the problem. The hidden problem is retention, since the military would have quadrupled by this time at that rate of enlistment, but the percentage who never finish their first time of enlistment drop out at a staggering rate.

I began bringing veterans of the Vietnam War into high schools in Dayton, Ohio in the late 1960s, and have continued since then to expose young people to the realities of military life, the recruiters' false claims and the risks in combat or out. I did it first through Vietnam Veterans Against the War/Winter Soldier Organization, then Dayton Draft & Military Counseling, and since 1985 in DC through C.H.O.I.C.E.S.

The key is to address the broader issues of militarization of the schools and privacy rights for students in community forums and at meetings of the school board and city council. Good counter-recruitment also provides alternatives in the civilian sector to help the poor and people of color, who are the first targets of the poverty draft, to find ways to break into the job market, go to a trade school, join an apprenticeship program, get job skills and placement help, and find money for college without enlisting in the military.

John Judge -- counselor, C.H.O.I.C.E.S.
 
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https://nnomy.org/popcultureandmilitarism/

Selene Rivas presents for the International Week of Action Against the Militarisation of Youth a series of brief articles exploring how the U.S. citizenry has been normalized to accept a permanent state of militarism through popular culture: Movies, video games and comic books. From Monday, November 20th and continuing through Sunday the 26th of November, 2017, a new segment of this series of short articles will be featured each day. Select from the articles below.

You can find out more about the Week Of Action at War Resisters' International.

Edward Hasbrouck grew up in Wellesley, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. He considers myself primarily a political activist. Hasbrouck began his resistance to the violence of illegitimate authority as an elected but nonvoting student representative to the local school board and as an activist for peace, disarmament, and students' rights. His first book was a handbook for high school students on their legal rights co-authored in the summer of 1977, between high school and college, as an intern for the student service bureau of the Massachusetts Department of Education. He majored in political science at the University of Chicago until leaving school to pursue direct involvement in political activism.

 

 


Conscription of young people to fight old people's wars is one of the ultimate expressions of ageism, and for me, resistance to an ageist draft was first and foremost a component and continuation of the struggle for youth liberation. The religious and authoritarian justifications for conscription and war are remarkably similar to the religious and authoritarian rationales for violence against children and for slavery. - Edward Hasbrouck


In 1980, after a five-year hiatus, the U.S. government reinstated the requirement that all young men register for military conscription with the Selective Service System. In 1982, Hasbrouck was selected for criminal prosecution by the U.S. Department of "Justice" (specifically, by William Weld and Robert Mueller) as one of the people they considered the most vocal of the several million nonregistrants for the draft. As one of 20 nonregistrants who were prosecuted before the government abandoned the enforcement of draft registration, Hasbrouck was convicted and "served" four and a half months in a Federal Prison Camp in 1983-1984. The high-profile trials of resistance organizers proved counterproductive for the government. These trials served only to call attention to the government's inability to prosecute more than a token number of nonregistrants, and reassured nonregistrants that they were not alone in their resistance and were in no danger of prosecution unless they called attention to themselves.

 

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