Counter-recruitment (CR) activists scored a major victory last week when the San Francisco school board voted 4-2 to phase the JROTC (Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps) out of their public schools within the next two years. JROTC is a major means of attracting young people to military service, and teachers, parents and some students are tired of the military presence in their schools. JROTC is very popular--about 1600 youth attend in the city--and some were devastated because it's a place where they feel they belong. "I think people should not despair too much," board member Mark Sanchez told the San Francisco Chronicle. "I think now the work begins--to work within the community to develop new programs that will fulfill the needs of our students." Just as with finding living wage jobs to substitute for military jobs, counter-recruitment activists will now need to help find JROTC kids a new place to hang out with their friends. Replacing the role that military service plays in the social lives of American youth and adults is one of the main challenges of the CR movement today.

Time will tell if the resolution sticks. Three of the San Francisco school board members will soon be gone, two of whom were in the anti-JROTC majority. Historically, JROTC units around the nation were eliminated only due to lack of interest from the students, so the San Francisco decision is unprecedented. JROTC does allow gay and lesbian students to join, but the US armed forces do not give them the full rights and benefits of heterosexual soldiers when they join the military. The US military attempts to screen out homosexuals during the enlistment process, and once enlisted, the service members must remain closeted or face discharge. According to Resolution 65-32A1, presented by school board members Mark Sanchez and Dave Kelly, heterosexism is the main reason to phase out JROTC. A secondary reason cited in the resolution was to limit military interference in civilian life. JROTC is widely recognized to be our military's primary recruiting tool for youth. For some kids, JROTC is one of the only after-school clubs available in a poor neighborhood, and so this is in effect a form of coercing kids into the military after high school. An amendment was attached that ensures alternative activities will be provided to students who formerly used JROTC as their after-school hangout--activities that won't lead to an early death in Iraq. --Rebecca Snow Landa

Media democracy activists preparing to testify before the Nov. 30 FCC hearings on media ownership in Seattle [for details, see Geov Parrish's article on the FCC hearings elsewhere in this issue--ed.] have uncovered allegations of international fraud and anti-trust violations against one of the firms involved in the $18.7 buyout of Clear Channel Communications. The investment firm, Thomas H. Lee Partners, is one of the businesses currently being targeted by the Justice Department for possible anti-trust violations involving leveraged buyouts.

Clear Channel, the largest operator of radio stations in the US with over 1,500 stations, announced on Nov. 16 that it will be sold to a group of investment firms for $18.7 billion. The investment group, led by Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capitol Partners, plans to take the company private, paying $37 per share.

Bain Capitol Partners, based in London and Munich, is one of the world's largest private investment firms, controlling over $40 billion in assets.

Thomas H. Lee Partners is the world's second largest private equity firm, specializing in leveraged buyouts. Private-equity firms are currently the target of a Justice Department investigation into possible anti-trust violations. Shareholders filed a lawsuit on Nov. 15 in Manhattan's federal court accusing Thomas H. Lee Partners and the Carlyle Group, among others, of illegally conspiring to drive down the prices they paid when taking companies private, and of violating anti-trust laws when they teamed up to make leveraged buyouts.

In June 2005, Thomas H. Lee Partners was hit with a $1 billion lawsuit filed in Paris which accused them of international fraud. According to the plaintiff's lead attorney, Frederik Karel Canoy, Thomas H. Lee Partners and an independent futures brokerage firm named Refco failed to disclose to the Securities and Exchange Commission that they had been named in several major international lawsuits, and that they were the subject of criminal proceedings in the Paris High Court. The firm may also be subject to two more pending claims now before the New York Supreme Court totaling over $1.5 billion for "unjust enrichment." There have been three separate criminal investigations in the case.

Media activists in Seattle claim that Thomas H. Lee Partners' history of litigation for unethical business practices does not bode well for the legal and financial future of the Clear Channel properties which have dominated the US media. --Mark Taylor-Canfield