Sister Nezu, Sister Kawarai and Other Teachers are fighting militarism in Japan. They need your letter of support! Visit out new International Solidarity page for more information.

DREAM ACT: Did you know there are two?

California AB 2944 (Protect student privacy from ASVAB) needs your support!

New JROTC Figures for the 2006-07 LAUSD school year on the JROTC page (left column link)

CAMS & AFSC
Great Careers brochure for High School students

NEW WHAT EVERY GIRL SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE MILITARY BROCHURE

Visit Our New MySpace site
constructed by youth

OXNARD: MONDAY, AUGUST 18, 2008 Political Activist Singer/Songwriter David Kovics in Oxnard ! Monday August 18th at 7pm North Oxnard United Methodist Church
2300 W. GonzalesPlease join Ventura County Committee to Stop The War
in welcoming the very talented and poignant David Kovics
who is making a special trip to Oxnard to share his music. $10 suggestion donation (no one turned away)

BOSTON, MA, AUGUST 14-17, 2008
Think Outside the Bomb : National Youth Conference on Nuclear Abolition
Travel stipends available now! Food and transport paid for by the sponsoring organization based in Santa Barbara, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. Deadlines for applications are August 1 for those who need travel assistance, and August 8 for those who do not. A little about the conference, excerpted from the Web site:Think Outside the Bomb is unique: it is the only conference of its kind that is fully organized and led by youth (roughly defined as under-29), and does more than educate students and young people on the issues surrounding nuclear weapons, waste, and power -- it places us in the forefront of the movement, making change happen! Encourage high school and college-age youth to attend. Opps like this help young minds to open up and network with others their age, from all over the country. Peacebuilding starts somewhere, so why not here?
Detailed info here

LOS ANGELES: AUGUST 23, 2008
The Rev. James Lawson will lead a Saturday Morning Nonviolence Workshop
at Holman United Methodist Church.
Date & Time: Saturday, August 23, 2008 9:00 am to 12:00 Noon
Location: Holman United Methodist Church, 3320 W. Adams Blvd., Los Angeles. This is a free workshop. Refreshments provided. Nonviolence Has Changed the World: The U S Civil Rights Movement : Gandhi's independence movement in India : The Solidarity Movement in Poland : The South African Apartheid Revolution : The U S Women's Suffrage Movement : Democracy in Ukraine : The U S Labor Movement Contact: Walter Johnson

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA: AUGUST 28-31 2008
IVAW CONVENTION ****ALL LOS ANGELES IVAW MEMBERS WANTING TO GO PLEASE CONTACT IVAW-LA ASAP with your information (dates
available to fly) priority will be given to:
new members, board nominees, active duty. If you will be going but can cover your own expenses please let us know>>>> Scholarships are available for those who have difficulty procuring the money necessary for getting to the convention, and hotel lodging will be provided for all members free of charge. Priority for scholarships will be given to board nominees, active-duty members, new members, and members who do not
have a chapter nearby. To apply for a scholarship, contact IVAW

You can see a list of all the PDF files on this web site by going here. Opt Out Forms, material for organizing and distribution, Iraqi history timetable and more

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CAMS Youth Brochure

Updated CAMS Brochure Page 1 Page 2

Hiroshima Grand Action
Hiroshima:August 6 , 2008 by Arlene Inouye

I am humbled to be here together with you on this day, August 6th, which marks the 63rd anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. We gather here at the very place where history has shown us conclusively that a nuclear war must be prevented, nuclear weapons must be abolished and nothing less than complete nuclear disarmament led by the United States and Russia must be a priority.  We call out to people around the world to eliminate war and nuclear bombs through the unity of workers and people around the world. The people of Hiroshima and Japan know the human cost of war and the horrific devastation wrought by the 8800 pound uranium bomb named “Little Boy” that unleashed an explosion and fiery inferno upon this city.  Over a hundred thousand people died from this atomic bomb, with untold numbers left to suffer from radiation sickness and its effects for generations to come; all this, from the results of a single nuclear bomb. 

As a Japanese American born after the war, on the other side of the Pacific, my life has been influenced by World War II.  I believe that the war defined the identity of the Japanese American people. My grandparents from Kurume and Okayama came to the U.S. over 100 years ago for a better life, and yet, my facial features would not let me assimilate, even after the war.  I was born in 1950, and have been influenced by the experience of my parents and grandparents, who were seen as the enemy.  They were among the 100,000 Japanese Americans who were forced into internment camps, losing their property, their personal rights, and their pride in being Japanese.  The anti-Japanese discrimination was institutionalized as my family like so many others lost their property, their way of life and their future dreams about becoming part of this country.  As a member of a minority group in a white dominated culture, I grew up feeling less, different, and longing to belong.  As a child I was asked by Caucasians, “Where are you from?”  When I said that I was born in America, that wasn’t the right answer because they would keep asking me, where are you REALLY from?  I also was frustrated by hearing over and over again, “You speak English so well.” I believe that I am defined by WWII. It has shaped who I am, and perhaps has given me the strong desire for peace.  Although it took years, I have learned to appreciate who I am, and I am grateful to be a Japanese American woman.  The expressions I articulated last year, that “I am wonderful” and “We are great persons”, are the foundation for my activism.   I can’t think of anything more worthy of my time and energy, than to be an advocate for youth as an educator and union activist fighting for peace and justice.

            It is the job for all of us to teach the true history of war and keep its memory alive so that the youth who will be the adults of tomorrow will not repeat that tragedy.  In our anti-war work in the U.S., we use a comic book or manga called, Addicted to War  to show students an alternative perspective on American history.  It depicts our addiction to war for capitalistic profits that exploit people and the environment.  I hope that all young people will learn from the older generation that we are all connected as members of the human family.  I hope that all of us will change the direction that our current leaders are taking, and passionately and urgently pursue peace. 

           Not long ago, I met a 55 year old teacher at my high school named Mayumi. When I asked her if she came from Japan she told me her story. She said that I was the first person to express an interest in her family history.  I learned that her parents though born in the United States were both in Japan during World War II.  Her father was a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley but when World War II began, he refused to sign the loyalty oath and was shipped to Japan.  He was sent to a country that he had never lived in or known.  Her mother was sent to live in Hiroshima after high school, and was there on August 6th, when the bomb fell from the sky.  Though she was far enough away from ground zero to be spared, she saw the bodies of scorched victims who cried out for help as they poured out of the city.  Her parents met in Hiroshima, were married and my friend Mayumi was born in Hiroshima. When she was 8 years old, the family was finally allowed to immigrate back to the United States even though her father worked for the United States government as a translator on a military base.  The wounds of her family have never healed.  Her mother cries and adamantly refuses to talk about what happened during the war. Her father sadly drank himself to death.  Mayumi wants to know the truth about her past for the sake of her children, and grandchildren. I believe if you don’t know your history, you don’t know who you are.

I am horrified by the path that the United States has chosen. We stock pile nuclear weapons and prioritize military power at the expense of human needs. The United States is the most militarized country on earth.  There’s an expression that says “Americans are in the belly of the beast”.  From birth, our children are taught through war toys and television that violence is normal, and even glorified through military ads and war movies.  Fifty four percent of our tax dollars goes towards military spending, which is $711 billion dollars for fiscal year 2009. Federal human resources spending which combines health and human services, education, housing and labor is only 30% of the federal budget.  It is shocking that the United States military spending is equal to the military spending of the next 15 countries combined (i.e. China, Russia, Britain, France, Japan, Germany, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, India, Brazil, Italy, Australia, Canada, Indonesia and the Netherlands). It should also be noted that Japan is 6th in the world in military spending and spends a considerable part of their national budget for its Self Defense Forces (SDF). 

 Today 26,000 nuclear weapons remain in the world, with over 95% of these in the arsenals of the U.S. and Russia.  The US has voted against every one of the 15 nuclear disarmament measures that have come up before the 2007 United Nations General Assembly.  The nuclear non-proliferation treaty was signed 40 years ago last month.  Its purpose is two-fold:  to prevent nuclear proliferation and to achieve nuclear disarmament; in other words, to create a level playing field in which there are no nuclear weapons. In the 60’s when John F. Kennedy was in office he gave a speech calling for the abolishment of weapons of war, before they abolish us.   He also pledged that the U.S. government would not provoke or commit aggression and would never fear to negotiate.  He called upon the people of the world to not have an arms race, but a peace race where we would advance together for complete disarmament, with a treaty that ends nuclear tests.  Tragically we have moved in the opposite direction doubling the number of weapons states in the world and threatening life on this planet.

Over the past 30 years the United States has shifted away from public policies and practices that benefit a majority of the people, to a system that benefits the wealthy elite backed by tax inequities, and corporate power, while spending for social programs, education and health care has been slashed.   Americans realize that our first amendment free speech rights have been eroded as the Bush administration has blatantly spied on and wiretapped its own citizens and peace organizations. Bush also pushed through Congress, The Patriot Act, which gives the administration unprecedented “war time” powers to detain, spy and torture suspected terrorists.  We know that the housing crisis, the tripling of the gasoline cost since Bush took office, the environmental neglect and outright racism of what happened during the hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, all manifest the serious situation facing the working people and poor in the U.S. 

            There is anger rising in the American people as there should be.  But anger without action will not lead to meaningful change and a different path.  I also felt anger when I first saw the blatant military recruiting practices in the high schools of Los Angeles, ten years ago when I first began working as a Speech and Language Specialist.  I learned that these practices were pervasive throughout high schools across the nation after the attack of 9-11 and the invasion of Iraq, in working communities with large numbers of minority students.   I witnessed military recruiters talking to students during the school day, at lunch and following them home after school. Military recruiters dominated career fairs with their free video games, posters, literature, caps, and sometimes brought military equipment onto high school campuses. 

 The No Child Left Behind Act, a misnomer for the federal education bill, was signed by President Bush in 2001.  It states that the privacy information of secondary students must be turned over to military recruiters upon request unless parents have signed a special form which many students do not know about.  The NCLB also states that military recruiters cannot be denied entry into high schools and are given the same access as college and career recruiters.  It is absurd that an education bill would have language ensuring that military recruiters have access to young people for military recruiting purposes.

 Militarism is embedded in the school culture in America, with the Army’s own Recruiting Handbook stating “school ownership is the goal”.  Military recruitment practices went unchecked throughout the city, and so we established the Coalition Against Militarization in our  Schools (CAMS) which is a grassroots organization of educators, students, parents, community members and veterans with the mission of providing the information about the realities of enlisting into the military in order to provide balance against the military marketing of our youth, and to promote the nonviolent alternatives.  Since that time we have developed an Adopt a Schools project in which we have representatives from 50 high schools so we are able to collect data, provide information and to develop specific strategies for individual high schools.  We have addressed the Los Angeles Unified Board of Education over the past 4 years drawing attention to the harassment and aggressive pursuit of students as well as calling for limits on military recruitment and clarifying the roles and responsibilities of all involved- the school, staff, parents and military recruiters.

It was the invasion of Iraq that made me realize the urgency of this time in history.  I felt that I had to do everything I possibly could to stop this illegal and immoral war that should never have started.  I was angry that even though millions around the world demonstrated that we did not want to invade Iraq in 2003, Bush declared war anyway.  It was also up to me to do something about the vulnerable students being lied to and deceived in order to have enough soldiers to continue unjustifiable wars in the Middle East.   And I am happy to say that hundreds of youth have indicated that they have changed their minds about enlisting as they learned about some of the realities that soldiers experience- the effects of depleted uranium from the weapons, the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or psychological trauma from going to war, the sexual assaults of females and males, brain trauma and the severe injuries resulting in the loss of limbs and body parts, to name a few.  They have also learned that an estimated one million Iraqi civilians have been killed in this “war on terror.”

            Students, who signed up because they felt they could get money for college, changed their mind after they learned that 57% of soldiers actually never get a dime of the college money.   This is due to conditions they must meet, and the realities of returning to civilian life. Some immigrant students want to be in the military because they feel that it will prove their devotion and lead to their acceptance as “Americans.”.  They are products of the 4 billion dollar advertising campaign that glamorizes the military and tells them that by enlisting, they will fulfill their dreams. Sometimes students enlist because of the high stakes testing demands of NCLB which causes students to “give up” and leaves them vulnerable to see the military as a way to gain discipline and be successful.  And unfortunately, some students have made up their minds to be soldiers at an early age and refuse to be swayed, no matter what the facts are. Sometimes their friends tell us months later that they completed boot camp, had shipped to Iraq, and now regret making the decision to join. We are sad for these students, who are young and still teenagers, making what is likely to be the biggest decision in their lives.

           CAMS believes in a bottom up approach to organizing, and a multilevel systematic approach to addressing the militarism in our schools and society.  We have expanded our reach nationally, and internationally, and have become united with you in the many struggles you have fought in this country. We applaud your courage and determination to never send your students to the battlefield again, and your demonstrations against the neo-liberal policies forced upon you.  We are united in solidarity and in hope for peace. 

Sisters and brothers, now is the time to build up an international solidarity movement for eliminating nukes and pursuing peace. The future of our planet is at stake.  Article 9 of your constitution must be protected because it is a model for a peaceful and sustainable world.  Continue the fight.  You are the ones who will lead us all on this path to peace.  You are the foundation of hope for the next generation.  You are the ones who will change the world. 

We honor your struggle and hold you in our hearts always.  Gambatte!

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I’m a teacher and coordinator of Project Great Futures.
July 29, 2008 by Michelle Cohen

Do you believe that the education and support needed to prepare young people to thrive in today’s economy are out of reach for those who need them most? If you do, you are partly right. Things should be a LOT better.

But who benefits from this belief? The young people? No, it actually benefits those who exploit them and the fact that they believe that they don’t have good options: Corporations, who love cheap, undemanding labor; Politicians, who don’t want to work hard for change; The prison-industrial complex, because it profits from those without hope, and of course Military recruiters with quotas to meet!

But here’s some information that I hope you will consider good news: Project Great Futures, a project of CAMS, the Coalition Against Militarism in our Schools, has been busy researching, collecting, and informing people about many resources and programs in Southern California, for the youth who are often mistakenly labeled “without good options”.

Let me mention just a few:

FIRST: A program for 16-24 year-olds, with several locations in Southern California, and 122 throughout the country, that provides academic education, life skills, employment preparation, and placement assistance for many of today’s in-demand jobs. Career-track certification courses at occupational centers and colleges are provided, with all expenses paid. On top of the free educational and vocational classes, students are provided with housing, food, transportation, counseling, medical care, clothing, and a small paycheck, for up to two years.

SECOND: A new program that supports young people through intensive education in skills and technologies needed for building, developing, and maintaining our region’s infrastructure, including emerging “green” energy sources. This, too, is completely free, and supported by mentoring and job-placement services.

THIRD: Programs that pay and support young people to creatively work with kids in our public schools, where they explore the teaching profession, a meaningful and ever-growing career.

FOURTH: Multiple programs that work with youth commonly labeled “at risk”… former foster youth, gang members, single and/or teen parents, high school dropouts or push-outs, those who have been in trouble with the law… Many creative programs throughout Southern California successfully provide education, job preparation, life skills, and placement assistance, with amazing results.

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Please print clearly...military recruiters want more than your test scores.
May 4, 2008 by Gregory Sotir

The ASVAB test is given to hundreds of thousands of high schoolers every year. Yet educators are not informed about how this 'Career-test' ties directly into the marketing agendas of military recruiting. It should be clear from the title, ASVAB stands for Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, yet the connection from 'test' to 'war; is often missed. And while teachers and counselors are told that the test is a free career-placement test for teens, many of whom are unsure as to their futures, test givers and test takers may be unaware that the ASVAB places students into pre-assigned categories for today's military infrastructure.

Why is this a problem? There is a need to help direct young adults towards meaningful career choices. While we educators may all work tirelessly we know that all of our students are not going to apply for higher education. Our counselors, often over-burdened with administrative tasks, welcome additional free resources towards this end. And we all suspect that the budget cuts will only make the situation more difficult but ASVAB is free. So what's the problem? Students and teachers need to know where the numbers go.

Let's place it in a hypothetical construct. Say you go into a store. You are shopping for a new chair for your writing desk. You know you want something comfortable, but also something that will encourage you to produce rather than just fall asleep. A salesmen eyes you eying the ergonomic hairs and saunters over clipboard in hand. He hands you a form, telling you it has been scientifically designed to help you choose the chair that best suits your needs. Interested in this novel survey you agree to fill in the colorful user-friendly form. When you have completed the survey you wander the aisles while awaiting the results. A nice harvest-wheat colored chair grabs your eye. You move towards it, noticing the care put into it's design. The salesmen intercepts you and directs you towards another chair. But you don't want that chair. The salesman is confused, pointing to the survey results. Unhappy with the experience you decide to leave and find another, more traditional store. Driving towards the freeway your cell phone lights up. It's a chair salesman. A chair salesman? How did they get your cell number? You ask them firmly to not call back. At a boutique you buy an well-made antique chair that suits your needs fine. But the phone calls continue, and continue, always trying to sell you a chair.

Granted the above example is a bit reaching.  But the real events that the ASVAB compel are quite similar. Once a student is assigned a numbered career potential, the information is forwarded to military recruiters, as well as student phone number, home addresses, and demographic information. The student is transformed from someone seeking a fulfilling life-path into a lead for military recruiters using high-pressure sales tactics. And the phone calls begin.

In LAUSD in 2004 ten students at Fremont HS could not be fooled. When marshaled with a large group of other students into the auditorium for a career information test they noticed recruiters in military garb standing along the side. The students quickly surmised the real nature of the ASVAB and ten of them refused to take the exam. The site administrator reacted by initially suspending the students. But teacher and UTLA outcry forced the site administrator to back down and the students were reinstated without consequence for refusing to take the 'voluntary' ASVAB.

In negotiations with LAUSD in late autumn 2007 teachers from the Coalition Against Militarism In Our Schools petitioned the District to use an information reporting option within ASVAB to with-hold all student data from the Pentagon and military recruiters. This is known as Option 8 and educators and counselors at schools where the ASVAB is given should push for the choosing of this option. CAMS petitions to LAUSD were granted and LAUSD is now a blanket Option 8 district!

In April 2008 at the 66th California Federation of Teachers Convention in Oakland a resolution was introduced by Local 1021/UTLA and passed by the body encouraging all CFT locals to make Option 8 the standard: "Therefore be it resolved that the California Federation of Teachers encourage and promote all ASVAB testing schools to use Option 8 to protect student privacy and publicize the use of Option 8 in all ASVAB testing scenarios." (CFT Resolution 31, passed April 13, 08)

Finding direction towards making career choices is a complicated and ever-evolving process. It is not one where people should be pushed into an assigned job. And having military recruiters calling and visiting our students at home as a consequence for taking a test, any test, is unacceptable and has no place in the American public education setting. Let's all make Option 8 the standard reporting option wherever ASVAB is administered.

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May 1st International Worker’s March: Green Card Soldiers
May 3, 2008 by Arlene Inouye

On May 1st, a unity of organizations across the globe held rallies and marches to call for dignity and peace for all workers.  Along the west coast the International Longshoreman Workers union held a work stoppage in opposition to the war in Iraq, in solidarity with the Port Workers Union of Iraq.  A march in Los Angeles proclaimed Legalization For All and Stop the ICE raids that are terrorizing our community.   

I find it ironic that while immigrant workers are being denied the right to work and are terrorized by government raids at their places of employment, that on the other hand there is a job that they are being sought after for, manipulated for and even lied to in order to apply- and that is the US military.

Recruiting foreign nationals into the US military is a practice as old as the military itself.  They fought the British in the Continental Army and have served in nearly every conflict. Today there are tens of thousands of foreign-born members in the US armed services, with an estimated 39,000 who have been naturalized. They represent about 7% of the military, with the largest share coming from Mexico.  Since 9-11 there has been a surge in recruitment, with many immigrants hoping to secure citizenship via fighting wars. Immigrant rights and counter-recruitment organizations report that military recruiters are misleading and sometimes blatantly lying to green card soldiers, playing upon their desire to become Americans.

One obvious drawback to this attempt to gain citizenship is not surviving this route to a green card.  Case in point are the 109 foreign born members of the US military who earned American citizenship by dying in Iraq.  The first to be killed was Jose Gutierrez, a homeless child who immigrated to the US from Guatemala.  His foster mother agonized: Why did Jose have to die for America in order to truly belong?  Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles who presided over Jose’s funeral service wrote to President Bush in April 2003 and said, “There’s something terribly wrong with our immigration policies if it takes death on the battlefield in order to earn citizenship.” 

We of CAMS are opposed to the military recruitment of minors, and believe that green card youth and their families face greater risks, are more likely to be misled and taken advantage of.  Their citizenship status is being exploited and they are being used to fill the ranks in an immoral war that is murdering innocent victims of color.  We join in solidarity saying:

Dignidad y paz para todo!  Legalizacion para todos!  Alto a las redadas! Paz y justicia siempre. (Dignity and peace for all! Legalization for all! Stop the raids! Peace and justice forever.)

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Public Education Not for Sale: Stop the Militarism in our Schools
April 20, 2008 by Arlene Inouye

CAMS was honored to be a part in the 8th Trinational Coalition to Defend Public Education hosted by the United Teachers Los Angeles on April 18-20th, 2008. Concerned educators representing numerous countries including Mexico, Canada, the US along with Puerto Rico, and Guatemala gathered to focus on the roots of the attacks on public education, part of a neo-liberal agenda connected to NAFTA the No Child Left Behind Act and the corporate movement to privatize public schools.  We came together to develop strategic and coordinated actions across borders while acknowledging and honoring the educators and community of Oaxaca whose struggle has resulted in the murders and kidnappings of progressive educators and activists, and sustained state violence.

CAMS seeks to make connections between militarism and the issues impacting education.  In the US, militarized school environments and 'border' fences surround school campuses, while students are criminalized and policed to maintain an authoritarian school structure. The No Child Left Behind Act has taken the joy out of learning, with its mandated testing regime, pushing out struggling students, and creating further inequalities and barriers for youth of color, students from economically depressed communities, students with learning disabilities, and those learning English as a second language. A military budget truly leaves every child behind as over 50 cents to the tax dollar goes for war, while public dollars for education has been slashed, and higher education costs have skyrocketed leaving students more vulnerable to consider military enlistment.

            The Canadian and Mexican delegations noted that in their own countries there was an increasing military presence.  But they were stunned to witness and hear about the pervasiveness of militarism in US schools. They found it shocking to see the steel-meshed and barred campuses and hear of the extent of the military recruitment of minors.  Perhaps, they feared, it is a glimpse of what may be heading their way.

The Tri National Conference affirmed the important role that teachers and educators have with students in shaping the future. We also embraced the philosophy that to be members of teachers unions is synonymous with taking on the fight for social justice.  As teachers it is our responsibility to speak out against the forces that crush public education and those in power who are profiting off the backs of our children.  CAMS  is committed to international solidarity in this struggle and joins  the world community in saying:   No to privatization! No to corporate globalization! End deregulation! Stop union-busting and attacks on civil liberties and forced militarism   And Yes to an international solidarity for peace, justice, responding to human needs and education as a  civil right.

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Archive of past commentary

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Los Angeles Times articles on CAMS

from June 9, 2008, kind of slanted pro-military: "Activists seek to counter military recruiters" by Seema Mehta

from February 19, 2007 frames the issue “Junior ROTC takes a hit in LA, Adele Siegel's follow up letter is on the JROTC and Press Pages.

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