the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Jun 6, 2005
Increasingly, people are protesting the presence of military recruiters in their children’s schools. They’re upset that the federal "No Child Left Behind" law forces the schools to allow access to the recruiters and even requires schools to turn over students’ home phone numbers and addresses to the military.
The New York Times carried an article on June 3 about this growing opposition. A truck driver from California requested that he be allowed to hang posters at his son’s school combating false promises by the military offering young people jobs as musicians. A mother in Seattle stood beside recruiters with pictures of soldiers injured in Iraq. Another mother from High Falls, New York voiced her opposition at a school board meeting by reading from a military handbook telling recruiters how to gain access to schools using such methods as offering free doughnuts.
Recruiters admit more people are expressing hostility when they try to contact students at home. Many are hanging up on recruiters. One father threatened recruiters who showed up on his doorstep, saying they better not come back without protection!
The Times and the military try to make it appear that the parents are standing in the way of those young people who want to join the army. Fat chance of that! If young people wanted to sign up they would easily find a way to go around their parents–and they’re not. If young people were rushing to sign up, the military would not have to resort to the hard-sell tactics they’ve been using.
Parents may have been speaking out more strongly–with reason. Many of them have been through wars before.