Counseling and referrals:
We provide basic information to military service members and their families about their legal rights and options under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (military law), and we make referrals to the GI Rights Hotline (1-877-447-4487) or to veterans organizations as appropriate. We actively oppose compulsory military conscription (the military draft) and economic conscription (the poverty draft), and we offer information and support related to:
If you are considering military enlistment, and your only source of information is a military recruiter, then you are not getting all the information you need to make a balanced decision. Be sure you talk with a family member or a veteran--or contact us. We are happy to share our perspective, and we will not judge you. Current projects: We give classroom presentations at Portland-area high schools. The usual format is a panel of speakers, including Iraq and/or Afghanistan war veterans along with local peace & justice activists. Topics include veterans' perspectives on war and militarism, personal experiences with life and death in the Armed Forces, a reality check on military recruitment, federal budget priorities, conscientious objection and other alternatives. Recently we have been giving between ten and twenty classroom presentations per year. We also staff an information table next to the military recruiting booths when the Armed Forces are scheduled at local high schools. In Portland, these recruiting visits are limited to three per year at each high school as a result of our lobbying efforts over the years. (We staff approximately 30 information tables per school year.) At highs schools outside of Portland Public Schools, there are no such limitations and few opportunities for equal access tabling. Additionally, we organize an annual protest against militarism at Portland's Rose Festival in the form of Navy and Coast Guard warships at the downtown seawall, military recruiting booths at the fair, etc. We also coordinate sign-holding on the downtown bridges at various times and especially on tax day (April 15th)--with a pro-peace / anti-war message for rush hour commuters. And we regularly join other local organizations in protesting the escalation of war and occupation, including drone warfare and nuclear weapons proliferation. |
"War is just a racket...I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else."
--General Smedley Butler
--General Smedley Butler
"Nothing will end war unless people themselves refuse to go to war." --Albert Einstein
"No war by any nation in any age has ever been declared by the people." --Eugene Debs