May 16, 2005

May 10 National Day of Action
• Salute to Military Resisters and Youth Refusing to Commit War Crimes
• Call for a National Day of Action for GI Resisters
• Actions to Support GI Resisters
• Desperate and Deceptive Military Recruiting Tactics Intensify

Salute to Military Resisters and Youth Refusing to Commit War Crimes

On May 10, 2005, a national day of action was organized in support of all the soldiers refusing to fight in Iraq and all the youth refusing to join the military and organizing resistance in their schools and at recruitment centers. A broad range of organizations, including veterans, 9/11 families, youth and student organizations, women and anti-war groups, Muslims and numerous other religious groups, workers groups, all together took their stand against the war in Iraq and in defense of the soldiers refusing to commit war crimes. Voice of Revolution salutes the courage of the soldiers and all those who are standing by their convictions to oppose unjust wars.

Every day makes clear that resistance inside Iraq is growing, becoming more organized and yet more determined, despite every effort of the U.S. to crush it. Together with Iraqi resistance, the growing resistance within the U.S. military as well as the increasing refusal of youth to join the military is further intensifying the crisis faced by the ruling circles. Their disinformation that occupation is liberation has utterly failed as the vast majority of Americans recognize occupation is the crime that it is and are demanding an end to the war now. Further developing a homefront characterized by organized resistance and rejection of U.S. empire will greatly contribute to making things yet more difficult for U.S. imperialism.

Join the Resistance! Salute to GI Resisters & All Those Opposing Military Recruitment!

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May 10, 2005

Call for a National Day of Action for GI Resisters

On May 10th numerous actions were organized across the country, including several in California, as well as those in Hawaii, Montana, North Carolina, Florida, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and Maryland. A lively picket took place in downtown Buffalo at the recruiting station at Lafayette Square. In Rochester protesters went to a high school to oppose military recruiters in the schools and support all those soldiers resisting the war. Work is continuing in both cities to further organize resistance in the schools and the military.

The actions were initiated by a new group, Courage to Resist, which formed to further assist the work to support soldiers resisting the war. As their website says, they are “a group of concerned community members, veterans and military families organizing support for military objectors to illegal war and occupation and the underlying policies of empire. We have adopted a people power strategy to weaken the pillars that support the Iraq war and occupation by supporting GI resistance, which together with counter-recruitment and draft resistance work can remove the supply of obedient troops.” (see www.CourageToResist.org)

The following call for the May 10 actions was signed and circulated by numerous anti-war organizations, many other youth and student, women, religious and workers’ organizations who all joined in supporting the call and defending the growing number of soldiers who are taking their stand not to participate in war crimes, in Iraq or anywhere else.

* * *

We urge you to join us in a “National Day of Action for GI Resisters” on Tuesday May 10, 2005. This is the day before the US military is planning to bring sailor Pablo Paredes and soldier Kevin Benderman before military court martial tribunals for their opposition to the Iraq War. They face forfeiture of pay and benefits, and military jail time.

On December 6, 2004, Navy Petty Officer Pablo Paredes refused to board his ship as it left the San Diego Naval Station in support of the Iraq War and occupation. At the time of his refusal, Pablo said he hoped his protest might inspire other GI’s to refuse to take part in the war.

On January 5, 2005, Kevin Benderman refused to deploy for a second tour of duty in Iraq with the Army’s Third Infantry Division. At the same time seventeen other soldiers from his unit went AWOL, two tried to kill themselves and one had a relative shoot him in the leg to avoid deploying. Both men applied for discharge from the US military as conscientious objectors. The military has wrongly rejected both claims.

It’s time for us to escalate public pressure and action in support of Pablo, Kevin and the thousands of other courageous men and women who have followed their conscience to uphold international law and to take a principled stand against the unjust, illegal war and occupation of Iraq. It’s time we had their backs.

Objection and resistance by military servicepersons is a healthy and important assertion of Democracy in a country where the decisions to invade Iraq, to maintain an occupation, and engage in widespread human right violations and torture were made undemocratically in violation of international law and based on continuing lies and disinformation.

Please join us by organizing a public demonstration, vigil or rally of support on May 10. Every action, no matter how large or small is important. Also,

* Send letters of support and donations to cover legal fees to Pablo and Kevin via their websites listed below.

* Come to San Diego, California (Pablo) or Fort Stewart, Georgia (Kevin) to show your support during their trials.

Resisting illegal occupation and war is not a crime! The right to conscientious objection is being systematically violated by the military. Those objectors who are publicly asserting their rights are being singled out for punishment. We demand that military personnel retain their right to follow their conscience, publicly dissent and that their basic democratic rights be respected.

For more info about Pablo Paredes: http://www.SwiftSmartVeterans.com

For more info about Kevin Benderman: http://www.BendermanDefense.org

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Actions to Support GI Resisters

We list below some of the many actions organized May 10th to oppose the war in Iraq and support resisters and efforts to stop military recruitment in the schools.

West

California
• San Diego; 7pm; “Voices of Resistance” featuring Pablo Paredes, Adian Delgado, and Camilo Mejia at Aswan Hall; Contact:
solidaritywithpablo@yahoo.com
• Los Angeles; UCLA Campus.
Ventura; 12noon; Ventura Government Center, corner of Victoria and Telephone. Contact Not in Our Name Ventura at nionvtc@riseup.net
• San Francisco; 12noon; War Memorial Veterans Building. Also, a car caravan is being organized to leave from the protest to travel directly to San Diego for Pablo’s court martial May 11-13. Contact: courage@riseup.net
Hawaii
• Honolulu; 4-6pm; At the military recruiting station, corner of Kapiolani and Pi‘ikoi. Look for the large “Support GI Resisters” banners! Contact Not in Our Name Hawaii at nionhawaii@yahoo.com
• Waimea, Big Island of Hawaii; 4:30-5:30pm; In front of church row. Please bring signs supporting conscientious objectors and against military expansion on the Big Island. Contact 808-885-3484 for more information.
Montana
• Helena; 7pm; 512 Logan, Susanna Wesley Place. Organized by the Helena Peace Seekers. Contact Frank Kromkowski fkromkowski@yahoo.com or Wayne Lewis walewis@bresnan.net

South

North Carolina
• Charlotte; 6pm; Vigil at the corner of Elizabeth Ave & Kings Dr., Central Piedmont Community College. Action initiated by Charlotte No Draft, No Way! and Action Center For Justice. “Support these GI resisters and oppose the presence of military recruiters on campus!” Contact: nodraftnoway@yahoo.com
Florida
• Orlando; 11am-1pm; Military Recruiting Center, Herndon Shopping Plaza at Colonial and Maguire Streets. Contact Not in Our Name Orlando at: orlando@notinourname.net

East

Vermont
• Burlington; 5pm; Picket at Federal Building, corner of Pearl St. and Elmwood Ave. “Bring signs and noisemakers and friends!” Sponsored by Vermont Military Families Speak Out. Contact Paul 802-864-5587 or email vermontmfso@yahoo.com.
Massachusetts
• Deerfield; Contact the Traprock Peace Center for info at 413-773-7427
• Springfield; 4pm-6pm; Protest at the Federal Building in support of GI resisters. Organized by students and professors from Holyoke Community College and the Northampton Int’l Socialist Organization. Contact 413-230-0290 or email nudewavescsny@yahoo.com
Connecticut
• New Haven; 4-6pm; Federal Building on Church Street. For more info, contact the SCSU Anti-War Coalition at 203-506-2414 or tedewey@hotmail.com
New York
• Buffalo; 5pm; Picket and rally in front of the Military Recruiting Station on Lafayette Square (25 Lafayette Sq.) in downtown Buffalo in solidarity with the Courage to Resist National Day of Action. Co-sponsored by WNY School of the Americas Watch, Buffalo War Resisters League, Buffalo/WNY International Action Center, WNY Peace Center, & Erie County Greens. Contact: Buffalo War Resisters League at 716-822-1017.
• Rochester; 1:30pm; Rochester Against War (RAW) will hold a press conference followed by a rally at East High School to kick off a major new effort opposing military recruiting in city schools and in solidarity with the national day of action for GI resisters. Contact Jessica Baez at 646-431-1636 or jesscarbaez (at) hotmail.com.
Maryland
• Baltimore; 5-6pm; 4806 York Road, outside of the AFSC office. For more info about the vigil, contact 410-323-7200..

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Desperate and Deceptive Military Recruiting Tactics Intensify

As broad resistance to U.S. occupation in Iraq grows among the people of Iraq and the U.S., military recruiters are under growing pressure to intensify desperate and deceptive recruiting tactics to meet enlistment quotas.

But these efforts are not working and face more and more organized resistance in the high schools and on university campuses. As a result, headlines bemoaning the continual downward drop in enlistments are now appearing almost daily. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that, “Last month, Army recruiters fell 42 percent short of their goal, according to the Army Recruiting Command. They had hoped to sign up 6,600 volunteers; but despite bonuses of up to $20,000 for those willing to report by May 30, they fell 2,779 recruits short.” For the Marines, April was the fourth straight month of missed targets. “The problem is that no one wants to join,” said one recruiter. “We have to play fast and loose with the rules just to get by,” reports the New York Times.

In one incident last September in southern Ohio recruiters wasted no time enlisting a 21-year old youth who had just been released from a psychiatric ward. He has bipolar disorder, which would automatically disqualify him. Only after much struggling on the part of his parents was he released. Moreover, despite an Army investigation, the recruiters were not punished and were still working in the area late last month.

Two hundred miles away, in northern Ohio, another recruiter said the incident did not surprise him. He, like most recruiters nationwide, have been bending or breaking enlistment rules, including hiding police records and medical histories, falsifying documents and slipping wallet-size cheat sheets to applicants going to take the military’s aptitude test. Commanding officers not only do not stop this, they are the main ones pushing for it. The situation has gotten so bad that the military had to call a one-day stand-down, said to encourage recruiters from taking such measures. Given that both recruiters and their commanders admit that there is no other way to meet the recruitment quotas, most expect the widespread fraud and deception to continue.

In another recent incident, a 17-year old high-school student outside Denver, David McSwane, recorded two recruiters as they advised him how to cheat. One recruiter told him how to create a diploma from a nonexistent school, while the other helped him buy a product to cleanse traces of drugs.

By the Army’s own count, there were 320 substantiated cases of what it calls recruitment improprieties in 2004, up from 199 in 1999, and 213 in 2002, the year before the war on Iraq started. The offenses varied from threats and coercion to false promises that applicants would not be sent to Iraq. Many incidents involved more than one recruiter, and the number of those investigated rose to 1,118 last year, or nearly one in five of all recruiters, up from 913 in 2002, or one in eight. Recruiters and some senior Army officials admit that for every impropriety that is found, at least two more are never discovered.

At the same time the Army is punishing fewer recruiters. In 2002, roughly 5 of every 10 recruiters who were found to have committed improprieties intentionally or through gross negligence were relieved of duty; last year, that number slipped to 3 in 10. Recruiters in Ohio, New York, Washington, Texas, and New England said that as long as an offending recruiter met his enlistment quota of roughly two recruits a month, punishment was unlikely.

A further sign of the crisis in the military can be seen in the range of physical, mental, and emotional problems for recruiters themselves. “A recruiter in New York said pressure from the Army to meet his recruiting goals during a time of war has given him stomach problems and searing back pain. Suffering from bouts of depression, he said he has considered suicide. Another, in Texas, said he had volunteered many times to go to Iraq rather than face ridicule, rejection and the Army’s wrath,” reports the Times. Recruiting commanders routinely degrade and humiliate recruiters who do not meet set goals. Many other recruiters have reported marital problems and nervous breakdowns. At least 37 members of the Army Recruiting Command, which oversees enlistment, have gone AWOL (Absent Without Leave) since October 2002, Army figures show.

The Army is the nation’s largest military branch, comprising 80 percent of the 140,000 troops in Iraq. It currently has 7,500 recruiters, each working 60-80 hours per week. Recruiters contact on average 120 people before landing an active-duty recruit — and that number is growing.