Counter-recruitment in New York City

Military recruiters targeting high schools in New York City are facing resistance in the form of counter-recruitment campaigns. Anti-war activists are canvassing New York neighbourhoods, attempting to convince students of other options:

"We've heard everything up to and including having a desk in the guidance counselor's office," said Amy Wagner of Youth Activists-Youth Allies (YaYas), a group that focuses on counter-recruitment. "When the kid comes in to talk to the counselor about college, before the kid can get there, they've got somebody in their face saying, 'You want to go to college? How are you going to pay for college?"'

New York City organizers are educating people about alternatives to enlisting and the realities of military life. Vietnam veterans and anti-war activists Jim Murphy and Dayl Wise visit high schools, where they recount for the students stories about their time in the service.

In one class of juniors at West Side High School, Murphy told them that before the service he spent time making money playing seven-card stud. Once he left community college, he was drafted.

"I wasn't smart enough to have fear about it," Murphy told the class. "I didn't have a clue." Wise, who was in the infantry, didn't want to go to war when he was drafted. His father offered to help send him to Canada.

"I took the easy way out by reporting for duty," he said. "It takes a braver person. I let it happen to me? I didn't have a plan. I gave up control."

He warned the students: "Please have a plan. Don't let others make plans for you."

The YaYas, staffed almost entirely by high school students of color, work to make sure young people avoid falling into military service because it seems like the only option for advancement.
"It's either jail or the military," said Jeannel Bishop, a senior at Brooklyn's South Shore High School and a YaYas staffer. Many students at her school think enlistment is the best they can accomplish.

When Navy recruiters visited her school recently, students were allowed to leave class to visit with them. Bishop brought pamphlets and confronted the recruiters about their assurances of tuition and training. She pointed out to them and other students nearby that getting college money was a much more complicated and uncertain process.

"I was taking over their whole show," Bishop said. "[The recruiters] were amazed."

Three students who had been "pumped up about the military" had second thoughts after Bishop spoke. It took just a little information for them to have doubts, she said.

Besides speaking out in their own schools, the YaYas hold workshops for teenagers and make presentations to PTAs. They encourage students to post literature in the guidance office and set up counter-recruitment tables next to military recruiters. Most importantly, they want young people to make an informed choice, Wagner said.

For instance, most students don't know that:

Two-thirds of recruits don't get any college money, according to the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors.

Most people in the military do not have time to attend college while in the service.

To qualify for college money recruits have to pay $100 per month for a year.

The unemployment rate for veterans is three times higher than the national average.

People who sign up with the Delayed Entry Program are told they can't change their minds, but getting out is as simple as writing a letter.

The enlistment contract is for eight years.

There are other ways to finance college, like federal financial aid, private scholarships, going to community college or joining AmeriCorps.

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