In response to public anger at widespread “improprieties” by military recruiters, on May 20 recruiters across the country closed shop for a one-day “Values Stand-down” retraining (see “Out of Our Schools — Just Say No to Military Recruiters“). Youth Against War and Racism (YAWR), alongside other counter-recruitment groups, issued a national call to protest recruitment stations on May 21, to say “One day is not enough!”

Michael Moore posted an Army Times article on his website, reporting that a Seattle recruitment station planned to shut down to avoid the YAWR protest! Over 80 lively supporters showed up to picket and received tremendous media coverage, including reports on National Public Radio and a picture in the New York Times.

We organized similar lively protests in Boston, and in Minneapolis 50 young people and community supporters marched 15 blocks to a recruiting station, chanting “Money for jobs and education, not for war and occupation.”

The week before, YAWR activists turned in almost 400 petitions to the Minneapolis School Board, and a similar number to the Bloomington, MN School Board, demanding that students be given opt-out forms to keep their private contact information out of military recruiters’ hands.