A coalition of Chicagoland students, youth, parents, teachers and members of the faith and peace and justice community invite you to participate in a local "Organizing Rally" against the upcoming Military Recruiting Conference and to raise the following demands.

*Bring the Troops Home Now!
*End the Racist Poverty Draft!
*Military Out of Our Schools!
*Funding for Education, Not for Occupation!

Saturday, December 18
12:00 - 2:00 P.M.
Outside the Marriott Hotel in Downtown Chicago
540 N. Michigan Ave.

*Please note that the program is going to be a little different than what most of us are accustomed to. We'd like to use this organizing rally in a strategic and interactive fashion rather than as an ideological platform. The main thrust of this Organizing Rally will be used to convey practical information such as where to find resources, what some of the alternatives are, what's being done about this in the Chicago area, concrete ways that you can get involved, provide updates on the draft and recent court rulings related to this issue and solicit feedback where possible. We will have plenty of signs and banners but people are also encouraged to design and bring their own. Be creative!

BACKGROUND:

400 military recruiters and support personnel will gather in downtown Chicago this coming weekend as part of the Army's annual recruiter training conference. This is where recruiters receive training, exchange resources, coordinate their recruitment strategies and get on with the business of marketing and recruiting for war.

The Bush Regime, in order to continue the project of imperialism, must constantly feed new meat into the grinder of war and repression. Military recruiting has become a big business with more than $200 million going to Leo Burnett annually for developing the "Army of One" campaign and a total expenditure on recruiting from the Pentagon of over $2.4 Billion.

When approached directly many recruiters will admit that their promises of job skills training, money for college, opportunities for advancement and a life of adventure are gross distortions of the truth and outright lies in many cases. Racist recruiting practices target the poor and youth of color disproportionately who then die disproportionately in increasingly unpopular and unjustified wars of aggression. Incidents of racial, gender and sexual discrimination occur at a much higher rate within the military than in civil society and people of color are disciplined and discharged under less than honorable conditions at a much higher rate than their white counterparts. VA hospitals are closing all around the country from a lack of funding, benefits for veterans and current GI's are being slashed, many veterans are being denied basic medical coverage, and 1/3 of the existing homeless population in this country are veterans of the U.S. armed forces.

Is this what the Army means when they say "Be All You Can Be"? Or what the Navy means when they say "Jumpstart Your Future"? Is this what Spike Lee, who now makes TV commercials for the Navy, means when he says, "Do the Right Thing"? If the military and schools are so blatantly incompatible and if military-style training and "discipline" are so detrimental to the development of our youth then why do Mayor Daley, Alderwoman Mary Ann Smith and US Representative Jan Schakowsky believe that the Navy and Senn High School are a great combination?

Is this really the best that we can do for our children and the people of the world? If we really want to do something about all of this and reverse the dominant paradigm that places service to one's country above one's responsibility to the people of the world then we need to get together, do some serious strategizing, and begin organizing together for a better tomorrow. Please join us on Saturday.

For additional information send an email to S4SJ (at) hotmail.com.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
- chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/49799/index.php
- chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/49793/index.php
- www.counterpunch.org/sharkey10202004.html
- chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/49793/index.php
- www.savesenn.org
- www.afsc.org/pacificsw/counter-recruitment.htm
- awol.objector.org/
- www.comdsd.org
- www.nisbco.org
- www.objector.org
- www.projectyano.org
- www.afsc.org/youthmil/jrotc/msitps
- www.warresisters.org