military recruitment

Tue
29
Mar
2016
New translation available
Submitted by hannah

“Don’t join the Army.”

“Don’t do what? Don’t leave here? Don’t learn new skills?”

These are the words from the new recruitment advert from the British Army to recruit new members to its ranks. It depicts a...

Wed
12
Feb

The Last Ambush?: reports

Forces Watch -

This report investigates some of the main mental health effects of a career in the British armed forces during the last decade. It explores how widespread these effect are, whom they affect most, and why. It finds that harmful levels of drinking, as well as violent behaviour after deployment, are serious problems in the armed forces. Compared with the general population and with current personnel, former personnel are markedly more affected by post-traumatic stress disorder, harmful drinking, common mental disorders (types of anxiety and depression), and self-harming behaviour. Pre-enlistment adversity, exposure to warfare at close quarters, and loss of social support after leaving the forces are among the most potent risk factors. While many people in the armed forces have good mental health, some face substantially greater risks than others. The youngest recruits from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds are the group most at risk.

Sun
02
Feb

Air Force Beach Games

Michael Schulze von Glaßer -

Wed
29
Jan

British army criticised for recruiting 16 year olds

Britain is one of just 19 countries that still recruit 16-year-olds to the armed forces. A new report claims that younger recruits are more likely to suffer from PTSD, alcohol problems and suicide than those who join as adults. This video tells the story of David Buck who joined the army at 17 but now feels he was conned by misleading recruitment marketing.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com

British army criticised for recruiting 16 year olds
Mon
27
Jan

America's Child Soldiers

America's Child Soldiers

Congress surely meant to do the right thing when, in the fall of 2008, it passed the Child Soldiers Prevention Act (CSPA). The law was designed to protect kids worldwide from being forced to fight the wars of Big Men. From then on, any country that coerced children into becoming soldiers was supposed to lose all U.S. military aid.

It turned out, however, that Congress -- in its rare moment of concern for the next generation -- had it all wrong. In its greater wisdom, the White House found countries like Chad and Yemen so vital to the national interest of the United States that it preferred to overlook what happened to the children in their midst.

As required by CSPA, this year the State Department once again listed 10 countries that use child soldiers: Burma (Myanmar), the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.  Seven of them were scheduled to receive millions of dollars in U.S. military aid as well as what’s called “U.S. Foreign Military Financing.”  That’s a shell game aimed at supporting the Pentagon and American weapons makers by handing millions of taxpayer dollars over to such dodgy “allies,” who must then turn around and buy “services” from the Pentagon or “materiel” from the usual merchants of death. You know the crowd: Lockheed Martin, McDonnell Douglas, Northrop Grumman, and so on.

Mon
27
Jan

Militarisation in Sweden: Interview

At our 2012 conference in Darmstadt, Germany, we recorded interviews with activists talking about militarisation of youth in their own contexts.

In this interview, Cattis, from Swedish antimilitarist group Ofog speaks about militarisation and recruitment in Sweden.

The photo shows an action described in the interview, when Ofog took action at Stockholm Pride. The speech bubble reads 'speech bubble saying: "Here I am walking defending my human rights while my job is about violating other people's human rights"

Mon
20
Jan

Emma Sangster: Young people and the British military

Emma Sangster, from Forces Watch, on how the British military interacts with young people.

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The Militarisation in Everyday Life in the UK conference was held in London in October 2013 and was organised by ForcesWatch. It brought together academics, writers, activists and campaigners who are researching, writing, campaigning on, or just concerned about the implications of the militarisation of everyday life in the UK.

Emma Sangster: Young people and the British military
Wed
15
Jan

Child Soldiers International on the kids being trained to kill

Rachel Taylor from Child Soldiers International talks to the host of Going Underground, Afshin Rattansi, about military recruitment age in the UK -- it's the lowest age in the Europe and the MoD doesn't want to change that. First aired 11.11.13

Child Soldiers International on the kids being trained to kill
Fri
10
Jan

Militarising Education

The incursion of the military into the British education system will mean that alternatives to war and peaceful ways of resolving conflict will be more difficult for young people to explore. In the long term we will all pay a heavy price, says Emma Sangster.

The UK government is on a drive to integrate 'military ethos and skills' into the structure of education, echoing developments in the US and founded on an ideology that says that everything military is good.  

Wed
08
Jan

Survey findings: Recruitment, and The military in public and private spaces

Indian Army

Recruitment

In the majority of the thirty-two countries surveyed[1], minors (those under 18 years old) cannot join the armed forces. However, there are multiple exceptions to this – such as the USA, France and Canada, whose military includes 17 year olds. In those countries that allow minors, there are often restrictions. In the UK, under-18s cannot serve in combat roles, and in Germany 17.5 year olds can join only with parental consent. In those states that do not officially allow minors to serve, this does sometimes happen nonetheless, for example in Israel and Colombia.

Wed
31
Oct

Tajikistan Blocks NGO from Investigating Press Gangs

Photo credit: Simon West. Dushanbe Army Day Parade: Soldier with toddler

Informed observers in Tajikistan are continuing to tell EurasiaNet.org that this week’s shuttering of a prominent human rights group had nothing to do with its alleged technical violations (moving its office without reporting to authorities, publishing its findings on a website) and everything to do with its persistent investigation into abuses of military conscripts.

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