| While most of us are teaching our kids to avoid violence, the US military is extolling the virtues of war. Junior ROTC programs are sprouting like weeds around the country, and military recruiters enjoy limitless access to our youth in high schools.
The draft ended and the military had to get sneakier — along with JROTC we now have the poverty draft. The Pentagon spends $4 billion on recruiting. They entice youth into the military with promises of college and job training: sounds like a great way out. Eventually, young people learn the truth — instead of being caught in drive-bys, they’re doing fly-bys.
In 1968 we joined together to protest killing and war. We mobilized successfully against the Vietnam War, but haven’t been able to free our government from its militaristic ways. The Wars of Terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan, the poverty draft, Junior ROTC, hazing, racism, sexual harassment and abuse are all dangers of an unchallenged military. It’s time again to act.
The Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors has been there continuously since 1948, helping people who get caught in the military’s web. We still help them get out, just like we helped people get out of the tragedy of Vietnam. Now we need your help.
CCCO is an independent, non-profit organization funded primarily by voluntary, tax-deductible contributions. Because of the nature of our work, it is difficult for us to obtain support from large foundations or corporations. Not surprisingly, none of our money comes from the government. Thus, we rely on people of conscience — people like you — to give generously. You make this work possible.
Our Programs
200,000 young people enlist in the military every year. Those who made a mistake don’t know where to turn.
In the year 2006, CCCO and our partners on the GI Rights Hotline will answer close to 40,00 calls from members of the military seeking information about discharges, grievance and complaint procedures and other civil rights.
We also publish Helping Out: A Guide to Military Discharges and GI Rights, the most comprehensive reference work on military discharges in print.
The military and its recruiters are present in almost every school in the United States. Recruiters are at schools to sell students military enlistment, using half-truths and outright deception. We believe the military’s sales pitch should not go unchallenged.
Despite the military's yearly recruiting budget of $4 billion, (approximately the amount Iran spends on their annual defense budget) activists in local communities have gained some astounding organizing victories.
- School districts are implementing policies which limit military recruiters to three visits per year.
- Activism around the No Child Left Behind Act's Military Recruiter provision have seriously affecting the recruiting market nationwide.
- ASVAB testing is challenged on a regular basis as students and parents join forces to hold the school accountable for using this military enlistment test as if it were some kind of "dry run" for the SATs.
- Recently returning veterans from Iraq and Afghansitan continue to become active participants in counter-recruitment efforts providing riveting and compelling stories enabling youth to make a more informed decision concerning enlistment.
CCCO’s Third World Outreach Initiative is part of our Military Out of Our Schools Program seeking to address the historical relationships between Third World people and militarism; establish community-wide dialogues on issues of military recruiting, militarism of public schools, and our rich tradition of resistance to militarism; and to work in coalition with other national and local groups and organizers, and to organize, inform and aid our communities in fighting the “economic conscription” of young people.
Our primary work in this area is AWOL Magazine: Revolutionary Artists Workshop-
The fifth edition of CCCO’s AWOL Magazine is slated for an early 2008 release. Our prior four volumes has sold over 40,000 copies!!
Volunteering with CCCO
We are looking for a few good men and women to work for peace — both in our Oakland and Philadelphia offices and in communities across the country.
Volunteer to answer the GI Rights Hotline in our Philadelphia office! Or support the Hotline by helping out with mailings and other support work.
Confront the military recruiters when they come to your community. Contact us to get involved!
Don’t let the recruiters have access to your local school unchallenged. Take CCCO materials to your local guidance counselors office and ask that they be placed next to the recruiting brochures, table at a career day fair, or place ads in the high school newspaper telling young people they can get out of the Delayed Enlistment Program.
Contact us for details at (888) 236-2226 or info@objector.org. |