Army of None: Strategies to Counter Military Recruitment, End War, and Build a Better World is a new book about militarism, the counter-recruitment movement, and the social justice movement at large. We hear lots of talk about apathy among today's youth, yet the counter-recruitment movement is an inspiring refutation of these claims. (But we don't need to look in a book to see what's happening--youth in our immediate area, such as Youth Against War and Racism (YAWR) and the Olympia Port Militarization Resistance (OlyPMR), provide a fine illustration.)

Authors Aimee Allison (an Army veteran and conscientious objector) and David Solnit (a community organizer who was very involved in fighting the WTO here back in '99) provide a detailed analysis of the specific tactics and strategies currently used by military recruiters and by counter-recruitment organizers. They relate the larger context--how does militarism relate to liberation? How do racism, sexism, and economic inequities further imperialist goals? What are alternatives, and how can we build them?--and collect the hard facts about recruitment and militarism in our schools, as well as the position of the counter-recruitment movement in these larger struggles.

In the first section of Army of None, Allison and Solnit expose the wide-ranging tactics the military uses to sell young people on military service--from the outrageous recruiting scandals we love to hate, to the focus-grouped brand-building imported directly from top Madison Avenue advertising firms. Of course the military employs strategy, and their approach to recruiting is nothing if not comprehensive. Here's a sample:

--Recruiters lie. One out of five army recruiters were under investigation in 2004, which is horrifying since enlistment documents are legally binding for recruits, but not for the military.

--Students can be forced to take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery Test, for which the Pentagon maintains the largest database on 16 to 25-year-olds in the world.

--Cash-strapped school districts use military recruiters to teach gym classes and after-school programs.

Some other effects of aggressive military recruiting: 33 percent of homeless men in the US are veterans; among recruits who sign up for the Montgomery GI Bill, 65 percent receive no money for college and only 15 percent ever receive a college degree. And while recruiters lure young people with promises of on-the-job training, Vice President Dick Cheney boasts, "The military is not a social welfare agency; it's not a jobs program."

Feeling thoroughly disgusted, the reader can proceed to section two which relates all manner of retaliation strategies against recruitment. The book offers techniques appropriate for a range of audiences--from flyer templates destined for school-wide distribution, to DIY wheatpasting and stenciling guides. The authors emphasize creative work, tactics like public theater, poetry contests, and the adorable "adopt-a-recruiter" campaign.

Section three is about mobilizing your community, exploring larger social justice concepts, and provides a how-to guide for organizing a campaign. The campaign examples offered are all anti-war efforts, but the knowledge is applicable to any grassroots endeavor. One exercise we loved focuses on identifying the pillars supporting injustice, such as the war in Iraq. Here, three key pillars are soldiers, corporations, and media disinformation; once the pillars have been named, we can begin thinking of strategies to weaken them.

This section of Army of None emphasizes the importance of working in coalitions. In the case of counter-recruitment, the fundamental coalition allies are young people (who are being recruited or observe their friends being recruited), and veterans (who have been through the militarization process and didn't like it). Groups like Iraq Veterans Against the War are playing a crucial role in counter-recruitment efforts and the larger anti-war movement, just as veterans groups played a major role in ending the Vietnam War.

Despite stereotypes that youth are indifferent, or that youth organizing is about resume-building more than creating change, many kids are recognizing injustice and fighting to overthrow it, refusing to allow their friends to be tricked into fighting a for-profit war. Army of None gives us admirable examples of awesome organizing being done by youth, puts this work in context with other social justice struggles, then provides recipes for future campaigns.

Aimee and David plan to come to Seattle in January on their book tour. Check http://couragetoresist.org for more information.