In This Issue Common Ground: New Orleans to Port-Au-Prince Contents After Katrina: The Depopulation of New Orleans Elections in Haiti: Papering Over an Illegal Situation Why We Need To Care About Haiti New Orleans: Occupied Territory Sir! NO Sir! A Film About GI Resistance Refusing To Kill: Katherine Jashinski’s Public Statement Interview With Katherine Jashinski From Chaos to Conscience to Peace Counter-Recruitment Wrap-Up 2005 Counter-Recruitment Posters Some Thoughts on the Bolivarian Revolution

Counter-Recruitment Wrap-Up by Kevin Ramirez Pittsburgh Police used taser guns and police dogs to disrupt a counter-recruitment protest, August 2005. It remains an intense time for counter-recruitment organizers as 2005 ends and a new year begins. Since the war in Iraq formally began in March 2003, in under three years one can see the tremendous potential that this movement has. What should we expect to come out of an antiwar movement that for the first time in history rallied millions of people to demonstrate their opposition to a war months before it even began? One result of this struggling yet powerful movement was an extraordinary spike of interest and participation in counter-recruitment organizing on all levels. It may have taken a bit longer than some of us would prefer, but 2005 was the year that many people in the antiwar movement recognized counter-recruitment work as one of the most effective ways to bring about an end to the war in Iraq. In 2003, most of the energy was directed at organizing mass protests and rallies. In 2004 it seemed as if most people were devoted to trying to get a cat to live in water, or rather, an antiwar candidate into office. So 2005 was finally our year, and what a result: the Army, Army National Guard, Army Reserve, Navy Reserve and Air National Guard all missed their recruiting goals by thousands, effectively bringing about the worst year in recruiting since 1979! A variety of factors this has been attributed to were reviewed in the article ‘Rough Road for Recruiters in 2005’, in the Summer 2005 issue of The Objector; but we would be wrong to think that counter-recruitment organizing and the increased visibility of this work didn’t also play a role. In fact, counter-recruitment organizers are becoming so popular and effective that we are increasingly being viewed by the military, and by educational institutions as a potential “threat”. To further confirm some of our collective paranoia, it was revealed in late December that the Pentagon is indeed spying on antiwar organizations and specifically infiltrating and collecting intelligence on some of the groups that are doing counter-recruitment work. One of the many student walkouts that took place November 2005. 2005 has been a critical year for counter-recruiters. It was a year when the growth and strength of our movement was put to the test in many ways. Efforts to demilitarize the schools have evolved from organizing an Opt Out Week for flyering about the No Child Left Behind Act, to directing pressure on school boards to adopt policies that restrict recruiting and advocate for more “truth” in recruiting. Policy changes at schools regarding military recruiters are happening in Maine, Maryland, Ohio, and other states all around the country. The struggle to remove JROTC units from high schools has garnered more interest as the war in Iraq drags on, as more former JROTC cadets return home from Iraq in body bags, and more people begin to recognize the direct link between JROTC and military recruitment. High school and college students have bulldozed their way to the forefront of the movement by organizing protests and demonstrations, effectively shutting down military recruitment at many of their schools across the country. Countless stories in the media detail instances of students leading protests at their schools against military recruitment for a needless war. There has also been a lot more effort put into picketing and protesting outside of military recruitment stations and offices. Some of the great counter-recruitment efforts in the last six months of 2005 include: * In October, the Campus AntiWar Network and the Military Out of Our Schools Bay Area organized a great counter-recruitment conference in Berkeley CA. * A national call for student walkouts weas organized on November 2 and was reported to be a major success from Massachussetts to Washington State, as students left their classes and went to the nearest military recruiting station to protest. * On November 17 for International Student’s Day, many antiwar coalitions called for a day of protest for youth and called it “Not Your Soldier Day” which saw another nationwide day of action against military recruitment efforts. * November 18, the very next day, was dubbed “National Stand Down Day” and again activists across the country staged protests and engaged in civil disobedience to show their opposition to the war in Iraq and military recruiting. These are just a few of the more publicized actions and activities that have taken place recently. Many other, lesser known actions have happened, and in some of these cases campus repression, police misconduct, and questionable ethics have unfortunately landed some counter-recruiters in courts, jails, and hospitals. In Pittsburgh, PA this past August, a counter-recruitment group planned a “non-violent day of action” outside a military recruiting station holding banners and signs. Accounts vary as to what caused the altercation with the police, but many witnesses describe the scene as being “over the top” as police officers used electric taser guns to shock and torture protesters who were already subdued, had police dogs scare and bite people, as well as the commonly used tactic of pepper spraying directly in people’s faces. Five people were arrested and two were sent to the hospital. University of Pittsburgh police were also on the scene, and were telling protestors that if any one of them were students, that they would be expelled. Holyoke Community College Student Charles Peterson confronts a police office after he was pepper-sprayed. On September 29 at Holyoke Community College in Massachussetts, antiwar students were attacked in their cafeteria for protesting military recruitment there. As verbal arguments heated up between antiwar students, and some of the campus police officers and college Republicans, a scuffle ensued over a protest sign, which was all the police needed to act. Students were physically roughed up, and one was pepper sprayed and threatened with expulsion. On the same day at George Mason University in Virginia, another student experienced the same treatment. Far from a planned protest, this student who is of Pakistani heritage and a veteran, walked into the student center and saw the recruiters tabling there. The student made a small 8 x 11 protest sign and simply held it near the table. An ROTC student walked up to the sign and ripped it away. Before long campus police had this antiwar veteran and student in a headlock, then a chokehold, before he was arrested, led away in handcuffs, and later threatened with expulsion. Similar instances of campus activism being met by repression have affected antiwar students at Kent State University in Ohio, and Hampton University in Virginia. Fortunately, in each of these cases, students have vigorously organized protests and defense campaigns for the students who were singled out for expulsion and disciplinary actions. We must continue to protect and support one another during these kinds of repressive actions. As our energy and movement begin to see success, a predictable result from the powers that be is more repression. When you have people who are willing to risk their education and walk out of classes for their beliefs, and are also willing to engage in civil disobedience and risk arrest, the forces that seek to silence and neutralize this effort will strike. Their response has been the use of fear tactics, threats, and violence administered through campus and local police authorities. Their most recent attempt to stifle this movement is the revelation that we are actively being spied on by our own military and government! In 2003, the Department of Defense directed the CIFA (Counterintelligence Field Activity) to establish and "maintain a domestic law enforcement database that includes information related to potential terrorist threats directed against the Department of Defense. The information is entered into the reporting mechanism known as a TALON (Threat and Local Observation Notice) report, which provides "non-validated domestic threat information" from military units throughout the U.S. that are collected and retained in a CIFA database. The reports include details on potential surveillance of military bases, stolen vehicles, bomb threats and planned anti-war protests. Among the 43 listed antiwar meetings contained in part of the files reviewed by NBC news were: Quaker meetings about counter-recruitment efforts in schools in Florida, a protest against ROTC in Wisconsin, a picket against recruiters in Rhode Island, and even an entry about an antiwar postcard in Texas! The Pentagon is investigating the database, and has stated that these particular incidents should have been deleted from the database as they were deemed “non-threats,” but the damage has been done. For years antiwar and counter-recruitment activists jokingly would talk about our phones being tapped, our email being read, and our meetings being infiltrated; this was the legacy of antiwar organizing against the Vietnam War. Now, we are again at a similar point in time; the nation’s military is overseas fighting a war it doesn’t need to, the majority of public opinion in the U.S. is now shifting against the war, and a high profile, energetic, and dedicated antiwar movement is rapidly growing among the youth. Apparently, someone with power feels the need to monitor this type of activity and has defined this phenomenon as threatening. Do we pack up our brochures, posters, and other counter-recruitment materials and call it quits? Do we cease communications between activists on the phone and over the Internet? Hell, no! Why should we? We are not trying to hurt or destroy military recruiters, their offices or their vehicles, and anyone who listens to my phone conversations and reads my email can attest to that fact. We know what our rights are under the law, and when we go into the schools to counter-recruit, we know we are acting within our legal rights to inform young people about the devastating effects war can have on one’s life. It is possibly one of the most important times to do this work. As Iraq war veteran Dave Airhart said recently, “I wish that I could have had someone who had been in the military tell me, “Hey, your recruiter is full of shit. He gets bonuses for recruiting people, so he'll do whatever it takes to get people to join.” As recruiters continue to make promises and guarantees to young recruits about college money, job training, and traveling the world, there must continue to be a presence in the schools to make sure that students understand that the only real thing the military can guarantee you today is war.

http://www.objector.org