Last summer in Philadelphia, about 40 people participated in “Taking it to the Streets,” a counter-military recruitment training that focused on the experiences of non-whites with military recruitment, enlistment and resistance. Sponsored by the Third World Coalition and the National Youth and Militarism Program of the American Friends Service Committee and the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors, and facilitated by counter-recruitment organizer Mario Hardy Ramirez, the training was an opportunity for people diverse in age, political perspectives and experiences with racism and military involvement to come together to learn more about the specific strategies the military recruitment machine uses to funnel non-whites into the armed services.
While such a gathering may seem unimportant in the large scheme of major convergences that went on in cities related to the then upcoming presidential election, any attempt at building resistance against the military industrial complex is significant. And the significance of counter-recruitment efforts by non-whites is even more pronounced when placed within the history of the US-based anti-war movement.
As Ramirez shared in his introductory remarks, the mainstream anti-war movement has historically been preoccupied with saving white people from military service and therefore has spent a lot of energy and resources ensuring their rights to resist military recruitment. In the past, non-whites who wanted to show resistance toward war and forced military conscription generally, tended to be sacrificed or outright dismissed by the mainstream movement, sometimes ending up in jail or, if they had the mobility, fleeing to Canada when other resources did not pan out. And yet, non-whites, particularly Blacks (including Black women), are disproportionately represented in the military, and most non-whites can share stories of being actively targeted—sometimes outright harassed—by the military recruiters who prowl their schools, neighborhoods, subway stops, community centers or hangouts. Many give in to recruiters because they have few options outside of the military to meet their basic needs or are expected to prove loyalty to a country constantly questioning their commitment, worth or existence.
The military lures new recruits with the promise of good jobs and money for school hyped up in glossy ads and television and radio commercials easily paid for by its annual recruitment budget of over $2.7 billion. As Ramirez pointed out, economic conscription, or the “poverty draft,” is by far more responsible for getting folks of color into the military. Yet, many enlistees end up with job skills that are not transferable to the public sector and 57% never see any of the $50,000 promised for college. And while promises made to recruits are broken or renegotiated by the military left and right, rates of racial discrimination and sexual violence in the military are high, according to the US government’s own estimates.
Several veterans of different wars were present at the training to share their experiences, including the ways in which they were recruited and what life was like inside the military. Some of these veterans had also served time in America’s prisons and draw from both experiences to raise awareness about the connections between the prison industrial complex and military industrial complex in ongoing activist work.
Other participants of “Taking it to the Streets” also provided valuable information about how recruitment happens, some of which falls below the radar of even those involved in counter-military recruitment work. Some told stories about how military recruiters would try to play a parental role to the youth they were recruiting or else act as a “buddy,” hanging out with teenagers and driving them around to different places. For example, a Puerto Rican individual described how a military recruiter took a friend to strip clubs during the recruitment process. A Black woman described how the military recruiter came to her house to encourage her son to join the military, making promises that her son would be safe. The woman’s son is now in Iraq. A Muslim, the mother described her concern about how the military had brainwashed her son into reconciling himself to killing other Muslims.
A Black woman who was enlisted for a short time in the early 1990s shared how she entered the military because she needed money for college but eventually left because of the culture of the military. She has since become more interested in counter-military recruitment work and through the course of her research, has learned about instances of recruiters raping women whom they are trying to recruit. And folks involved in organizing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth of color in NYC shared how military recruiters hang out after midnight at the Christopher Street Pier, a well known hangout for non-white LGBT youth (many of them homeless), a fact that debunks the myth that military recruiters do not actively recruit LGBT individuals.
Overall, “Taking it to the Streets” was a local effort to bring together non-white people to figure out how we can be more effective in resisting the military industrial complex and its strategic targeting of non-white communities through the all too often empty promises of better jobs, money for school and social acceptance. The training was also a way to encourage participants to consider how non-whites can be important resources to one another in terms of providing support and information with our communities, even in the face of the daily stress of racism, sexism, homophobia, low funds or no funds at all, and the general passive-aggressive selfishness of the institutionalized (read: white) anti-war and peace movement. As the US military seeks to find more and more people to do its dirty work, it is important that stories like those shared at “Taking it to the Streets” are not only appreciated but prioritized as valuable insights into how military recruitment happens and more, what needs to be done to stop it.