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Josh Sonnenfeld and Yvonne Lewis during the Counter-Recruitment 101 session. Held at the Friends Center in downtown Philadelphia, the second annual 'Stopping War Where it Begins' national counter-recruitment conference kicked off a weekend of workshops and trainings. Officially forming as the National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth (NNOMY) over 100 counter-recruitment activists and organizers met over the weekend to network, formulate strategies for action, and to nominate the NNOMY steering committee. This network brings together large national organizations as well as smaller grass roots community groups under one umbrella and will provide an entry point and united front for the growing counter-recruitment movement. As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to bleed our communities and economy, more and more people are becoming interested in doing this work. NNOMY will attempt to bring them in and effectively put them to work as soon as possible. Mario Hardy speaking at the NNOMY conference. The first day of the conference was spent discussing the various issues of recruitment and how they effect specific groups or populations. Caucuses were formed to deal with the issue of military recruitment among youth, youth of color, LGBTQ, women in the military, people of color, rural organizing, and the No Child Left Behind Act to name a few. These caucuses were formed to ensure that NNOMY would not only be accountable to organizations and groups with members on the steering committee, but also to groups traditionally marginalized in the anti-war and counter-recruitment movements; and to provide space on the steering committee for members of these caucuses. While at times this process was long and painful for many, it was absolutely vital for NNOMY to include at the forefront issues that concern the youth. After all it is the youth that are being targeted for military recruitment most aggressively and indefinitely. One group discusses what it means to be an anti-racist movement. Unlike the conference held in 2003 which was open to anyone, this conference was aimed at "training the trainers" and strengthening the current counter-recruitment network. On the second day of the conference we were treated to an excellent powerpoint presentation of Counter Recruitment 101 by Josh Sonnenfeld and Yvonne Lewis. This was a broad overview that covered the JROTC, No Child Left Behind, the Poverty Draft, the MGIB, conscientious objection, and the DEP. A more in-depth presentation on counter-recruitment strategies and techniques was led by Mario Hardy and drew on his vast experience gained through almost 10 years of work with CCCO. One thing Mario mentioned was the different state of the counter-recruitment movement when he began and how it has changed in the decade he has been doing the work. He pointed out that most counter-recruitment organizations had few people of color on staff and their efforts didn't reach into communities of color which continue to be where recruiters spend much of their time. He also spoke of the enormous value of AWOL Magazine in bridging that gap and stressed other organizations to seek creative ways of getting information and materials to more youth and in communities of color. As if on cue, the next portion of the day was spent discussing 'Racism and the Counter-Recruitment Movement' led by Asif Ullah and Clare Bayard. Challenging everyone with the question 'how can we be an anti-racist movement', we broke up into small groups to brainstorm and then we had a report back session. Youth from the YaYa Network in NYC address the conference. After lunch, time was set aside for caucus reporting and discussion, at which point the various caucuses reported on their ideas for working with NNOMY and officially formed as caucuses wanting voting privileges. The rest of the day was spent going over the bylaws of NNOMY, membership privileges, current membership, the role of caucuses, strategies for improving counter-recruitment work, and taking inventory of current counter-recruitment materials as well as deciding what new materials needed to be created. Patrick Sheehan-Gaumer and Arlene Inouye go over the finer points of NNOMY membership. The final day of the conference was the first day of NNOMY in action. Formal decisions were made on the name of the network, steering committee members were nominated and then voted on, and the role of caucuses was finalized. Discussion dominated the tail end of the final session as people started to bid farewells, trade contact info, and make their way back to their communities energized to put in motion much of what was hammered out throughout the conference. For more info on NNOMY, to see a list of member organizations, and to read a detailed report on what went down go to http://www.youthandthemilitary.org. For a report detailing the conference in 2003 go here. All photographs taken by Kevin Ramirez.