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"Vietnam? You call that a quagmire?! I got your quagmire right here!" |
Hey Y’all,
Thanks to the (s)heroic efforts of Cindy Sheehan and her fearless
allies in Crawford, our vacation-time (oops! I mean wartime) president
is on the hot seat like never before! Bush’s numbers are cratering
harder than Merck stock, and we’ve got many ingredients of a Peace
Movement here! Yeah, that’s right, you heard me... I said Peace MOVEMENT. Let me count the ways:
- We’ve got courageous spokespeople who have been profoundly impacted by the war in key positions of leadership.
- We’ve got a diversity of groups, large and small, mainstream and radical, putting aside their organizational egos and operating in concert with one another.
- Folks are thinking outside the box and making tactical choices based on smart strategies. (Hey! Hey! Ho! Ho! Useless tactics have got to go!)
- There is a genuine effort to build bridges out to sympathetic struggles and campaigns.
- Important roles for EVERYONE are being created. All across America.
The Crux
But let’s not go counting our chickenhawks before they hatch. If you think the NeoCons are really planning a gradual withdrawal from the second-most oil-rich country on Earth anytime soon, then Donald Rumsfeld has a tranquil piece of real estate in the Sunni Triangle that he'd like to sell you. We can march around and stomp our feet until we’re blue in the face but the Pentagon's "Operation Enduring Hatred" will grind on in Iraq until we the people take away their military option. Here’s how it can be done.
Our “all volunteer” military relies on a steady stream of young recruits, many from poor families and communities of color. (Can you say “racist poverty draft?”) We’ve got no real Peace Movement until their voices are central to this struggle. The Ruckus Society needs your support to assist the young people who are refusing to be Bush’s tools of war.
Not Your Soldier!Young people across America are taking action to deny military recruiters access to their schools. While the Pentagon clings to its homophobic "Don't Ask, Don't Tell Policy," the Counter-Recruitment Movement forges ahead with a courageous new "Don't Kill, Don't Die Policy.” To support them, Ruckus and a whole gaggle of our allies have launched a Counter-Recruitment initiative called Not Your Soldier! (NYS) Support Ruckus’s Not Your Soldier efforts and get our dope new NYS t-shirt! Not Your Soldier (http://www.notyoursoldier.org) is a collaborative effort of national, regional, and local peace and justice organizations to support the Counter-Recruitment Movement. Steering committee members include: The Ruckus Society, The National Youth and Student Peace Coalition, the War Resisters League, the National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth, Code Pink, and the American Friends Service Committee. |
NYS Action Camps
Not Your Soldier trainings will bring together young people most ruthlessly targeted by military recruitment to share strategies, facilitate leadership development, and build relationships that will lay the foundation for strong alliances, networks, and coalitions. Not Your Soldier will support and help sustain efforts on a local level and build connections between organizations across the country. NYS camps will help youth step to the forefront of the Counter-Recruitment movement and to lead with strong organizing skills.
The NYS action camps will be a mix of workshops, training sessions, brainstorming, and relationship-building. Topics include:
Organizing Skills
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Counter-Recruitment Workshops
- Counter Recruitment 101: High School, College, Community
- People of Color and Military Recruitment
- Exposing the Poverty Draft
- Winning Campaigns: Countering No Child Left Behind
- JROTC and ROTC: connections to recruitment
Marching to Our Own Beat
The Ruckus Society is plotting and scheming with an incredible array of musicians, artists, poets, and animators on the promotion of Not Your Soldier. A Not Your Soldier Concert Tour is being kicked around with our allies, including our friends at Military Free Zone. We are currently developing a bombastic Flash animation with an infectious Hip Hop beat to travel the web exposing the lies of the Pentagon and its recruiters. We will be developing viral marketing materials like NYS stickers, posters, t-shirts, and banners to drive young people to the NYS website and get them involved.
Wage Peace NowWhile prominent Republicans are now publicly challenging the Iraq war and invoking the Q word (Quagmire, that is), the anemic Democrats continue to focus almost exclusively on defensive political battles (e.g. judicial appointments, preserving the filibuster, saving the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, protecting Social Security, etc.) Now, please don’t get me wrong. Progressives should and must fight like hell against the NeoCons’ assault on everything we hold dear. But the time is NOW to support visionary young organizers who have gone on the OFFENSIVE and are demanding a cessation to the hostilities in Iraq. Through their actions, they are breaking the cycle of US militarism that enforces our special brand of corporate colonialism around the globe. |
Know Your Enemy
Ain’t no way to starve the Beast unless you take the time to learn its feeding patterns. The Pentagon has a long-range plan. They are preparing for the reality of current troop levels in Iraq for the next four years. Can you imagine the hatred we will foment? They are rolling out a billion dollar recruitment advertising campaign. They are indoctrinating American children. Did you know that the US Army has designed one of today's most popular computer video games? They have 5 million young people simulating desert combat against "asymmetrical" threats online at http://www.americasarmy.com/. They are expanding JROTC and ROTC into more and more High Schools.
When the Going Gets Tough...In the next year, you'll be hearing about all kinds of creative efforts by courageous Counter-Recruiters to take their schools off the Pentagon’s radar screen. This is a Movement led by young people, and it represents the next generation of strong multi-issue progressive leadership. Still, there are plenty of ways for us old dogs to get into this fight. Our friends at Working Assets have developed incredible online tools (http://www.leavemychildalone.com/) to combat the insidious clause within “No Child Left Behind” that gives ruthless military recruiters an unauthorized-access pass to our children’s private records. Get involved with your school district, but be advised: it may lead you down the dangerous path towards comprehensive education reform and (shhh!) local politics. |
Support Not Your Soldier! How much money did you throw at the world’s worst opposition party (read: Democrats) last year? Why don’t you match that amount to stop this insane war in the next year? Feel free to spread it around. There are lots of groups doing amazing work.
Let’s get going!!!
Peace and Love,
Sellers
P.S. Pass this email along to your friends or allies or your favorite Joe Neckbone right-wing cracker!
The Ruckus Society
369 15th Street
Oakland, CA 94612-3303
United States