Grand Rapids Anarchists

On Monday, The Grand Rapids Press reported that a Grand Rapids area military recruiter recently received an award from the Michigan Army National Guard for being the Guard’s top recruiter (“Ionia recruiter for Army National Guard is tops in Michigan – again”). Of course, owing to its underlying goal of supporting the status quo and U.S. foreign policy (while also largely reprinting anything that it is spoon fed by the military), The Grand Rapids Press largely focused on what an “honor” it is to receive such an award.

However, for those opposed to the very idea of the military, the more interesting part is that The Press reports that recruiting is up. Army and Army Reserve enlistments have grown from 2,614 in 2006 to 3,000 this year, with the Army expecting higher numbers this year. The article also says that the best source for recruits is the area high schools (2/3rds come from area high schools) with East Kentwood being the source for the highest number of recruits.

The article attributes the increase recruits to the economy, but of course, it doesn’t mention that the military is often seen as many enlistees only option, rather than something they truly choose. Sure, one can say that there is a “choice” between joining the military and ending up on the streets when there are no jobs and you can’t afford to go to college, but that’s not much of a choice in my book.

Overall, this article underlies the importance of counter-recruiting work.  In recent years, a growing number of people—from traditional peace activists to anarchists—have actively sought to persuade people not to join the military by informing them of alternatives to military service and the deceptive nature of military recruiters. This can take a variety of forms, from leafleting to potential recruits, to challenging recruiters on their lies, and to doing actions against recruiting centers. Recently, I’ve found that even yelling at recruiters while they are talking to a recruit (for example, shouting “recruiters lie”) can disrupt the way they do business.

There are a number of sources on the Internet for information and leaflets that can be used as part of a counter-recruiting effort. The Grand Rapids group ACTIVATE (now defunct) has a collection of counter-recruiting resources online while the Pittsburgh Organizing Group (who was one of the first anarchist groups to really push counter-recruiting) also has a guide to counter-recruitment (see also a report from their 2006 counter-recruiting conference). Beyond these anarchist resources, other good sources of counter-recruiting materials include Finding Alternatives to Military Enlistment, the American Friends Service Committee’s Counter Recruitment campaign, the War Resisters League, and Project YANO.