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Teachers reject ‘Army propaganda’

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Teachers have voted to oppose military recruitment activities in schools if they employ “misleading propaganda”.

Young people must be given a true picture of Army life, not a “marketised version”, the National Union of Teachers conference heard.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) denies actively recruiting in schools but says it does visit to raise awareness when invited in by head teachers.

Some teachers complain the Army uses sophisticated methods of recruitment.

Paul McGarr, a teacher from east London, said only when recruiting materials gave a true picture of war would he welcome them into his school.… Read more

Britain’s own child soldiers

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A third of army recruits are under 18. Is it right to target the young and the underachieving poor?

What first attracted Michael Lyons to a career in the armed forces was an advertisement he spotted as a teenager, depicting the Royal Navy delivering humanitarian aid. Lyons, now 25, is beginning a seven-month term in military detention after being found guilty earlier this week of wilful disobedience of a lawful order. He was also demoted and dismissed from the navy, where he had served since 2005 as a medical assistant submariner.

After refusing rifle training because of moral objections to his deployment in Afghanistan, Lyons’s case was the first to be heard on grounds of conscientious objection in over a decade. Because his concerns were broadly political – stemming, he said, from the WikiLeaks revelations – rather than religious, there was minimal precedent for the decision. (There was, of course, a well-established tradition of conscientious objectors in the last two world wars, with thousands of British men, including my own Quaker grandfather, granted exemptions on condition of “alternative service”.)

Perhaps it was simply the case that Lyons, who enlisted at 19, grew up. He is not the first, nor will he be the last, young man to enter the forces with a naive or partial view of all this commitment entails and then suffer the consequences.

… Read more

Dalston Army Showroom Closes

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We’re celebrating after the closure of the army showroom in the Kingsland shopping centre. We’ve been campaigning against the centre for two years.

When the centre opened we were horrified that it used video games and fake hand guns to suggest that the military was a “fun” occupation. In an area like Hackney with high unemployment we were appalled that young people were being conned like this. And, with Hackney’s gun crime problem, it was completely wrong to suggest that violence was a solution to anyone’s problems.

We quickly organised protests at the showroom – in one of the first, we occupied the showroom and forced it to close temporarily. We won support from Labour councillors, trade unionists and Turkish community organisations, among others. And we organised a well-attended Stop the War public meeting, at which a councillor for the ward with the showroom in it spoke.

Now the centre has shut down. The army say it is “closed for refurbishment” because of a leaking pipe – but it looks like it’s shut for good.

Everyone who was part of the campaign can feel proud. We argued that war is no way forward for Hackney’s young people – and we won.… Read more

Army closes Hackney recruitment centre – for now

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A controversial Army recruitment office has closed just two years after it opened amidst protests by anti war and gun campaigners.

The state of the art recruitment shop in Kingsland Shopping Centre boasted a virtual battlefield simulator which gave visitors he chance to use their friends as target practice with a replica handgun.

The centre was one of three pilots with others in Hounslow, west London and Maidstone in Kent.

At the time Lucy Cope the founder of Mothers Against Guns said it was insensitive to house the showroom in a borough where lives had been blighted by gun crime.

Campaigners from Hackney Stop the War had also pledged to shut the showroom down. They accused the Army of exploiting youth unemployment in Hackney in a bid to recruit people from poor areas with fewer career options.

They occupied the showroom at Kingsland High Street as part of their protest and two people were arrested and later acquitted of alleged offences.

An Army spokeswoman has stressed that the closure is temporary and is due to health and safety reasons so the office can be refurbished.

There is a leak in the roof at the showroom.

She said: “We are taking the opportunity during the repairs to have a look at what we have got in the showroom and moving them around.… Read more

Court martial for Navy medic conscientious objector

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A medic in the Royal Navy will face court martial on Monday 4 July despite declaring that he is a conscientious objector.

Michael Lyons has been charged with “wilful disobedience” because he asked not to participate in rifle training last September after having applied for conscientious objector status.

Lyons could face up to ten years’ imprisonment if convicted.

At a hearing in May, Michael Lyons’ lawyer argued that because Mr Lyons had already declared a conscientious objection at the time of the training, the command for him to participate in it was unlawful. Although Mr Lyons had not been required to handle a weapon since 2005 he was asked to do so when it was known that he had applied for discharge as a conscientious objector.

His lawyer further argued that if Mr Lyons had taken part in the rifle training without protest it would have discredited his claim as a conscientious objector and it was simply something he was unable to do.

Mr Lyons’ defence are also concerned that there could be a perception that the judge in this case is not impartial as he acted as senior prosecutor in a similar case. (2)

ForcesWatch, a network concerned with ethical issues around the armed forces, said the case highlights the lack of respect shown for the human rights of forces personnel.… Read more

response to Armed Forces Day

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Today [Saturday 25 June] is Armed Forces Day, one of the clearest examples of the creeping militarisation of British society.

From the military covenant to Help for Heroes, from military displays at summer festivals to an increased engagement of the the armed forces with our schools, a massive PR apparatus is being deployed to promote military culture and its values.

To date, over 370 UK armed forces personnel have died while serving in Afghanistan Most of these deaths were of men and women in their early 20s. Nearly 30 were just 18 or 19 years old.

While public involvement in events such as Armed Forces day is rooted in concern for members of the forces, veterans and their families, the Government has other ends in mind. After 10 years of unpopular wars, it clearly gains from creating a climate of uncritical acceptance of all things military.

After so many military deaths – not to mention the uncounted numbers of civilians killed in the conflict zones – surely it is time to reflect on the longer-term impact of our military culture and to ask what steps we might take to prevent war itself.

ForcesWatch… Read more

Campaigners and churches back Armed Forces Bill amendments on recruiting children into the armed forces

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Organisations and churches who have questioned the recruitment of under 18s into the armed forces are backing an amendment which could see children no longer able to enlist and bring the UK into line with international standards. The UK is the only country in Europe to routinely recruit people aged under 18 into the armed forces.

On Tuesday 14 June, the amendment (1) will be raised as part of the House of Commons debate on the Armed Forces Bill, five-yearly legislation that provides the basis for military law in the UK.

The organisations, including the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, Quakers in Britain, the Unitarian Church and ForcesWatch, have argued that, since the last Armed Forces Bill, there have been calls for the policy of recruiting minors to be reviewed from two significant authorities on children’s rights – the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and the UK Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights. These calls echo the recommendations made in 2005 by the Defence Select Committee. (2)

Support for a change in policy on recruiting children has also come from leading UK children’s rights organisations including UNICEF UK, the Children’s Society, and the Children’s Rights Alliance for England who wrote to parliamentarians urging them to use the Armed Forces Bill as an opportunity to raise the recruitment age.… Read more

Teenage soldiers given right to discharge

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Quakers welcome campaign success

Quakers have been central to a campaign that resulted in a change to government policy last week, as a minister announced that teenage soldiers will be given the right to discharge at any time before turning eighteen.

The news was warmly welcomed by Michael Bartlet, parliamentary liaison secretary for Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW), a department of Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM), the formal organisation of British Quakers.

Michael Bartlet has long campaigned on issues affecting young people in the armed forces. He described the change as a ‘significant step’ towards the goal of raising the minimum enlistment age from sixteen to eighteen.

After their first six months in the forces, sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds currently have no right to discharge until they turn twenty-two. They can be discharged if ‘genuinely unhappy’, but only at the discretion of their commanding officer.

The UK is the only country in Europe to routinely recruit minors to the forces.

QPSW lobbied ministers over the issue earlier this year, along with other groups including the Unitarians and the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers. The pressure grew as Liberal Democrat backbencher Julian Huppert proposed an amendment to the Armed Forces Bill to give under-eighteens a right to discharge.… Read more

‘MoD unfairly imprisons teenagers’

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Teenage soldiers have been unfairly detained in military prisons due to a failure from the MoD to effectively implemenent discharge policies, the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers has said.

The human rights body said provisions that should allow recruits under the age of 18 to be discharged had not been consistently applied, meaning that young soldiers who had gone absent without leave (AWOL) had been detained in a Colchester military prison.

“The Ministry of Defence has repeatedly claimed that recruits under the age of 18 can get a discharge just by asking for it. If this was the case they wouldn’t be risking imprisonment by going AWOL”, said Martin Macpherson, interim director of the coalition.

“The reality is that many young people who join the armed forces quickly realise it’s not what they want. If this is the case they should be allowed to leave as a matter of right rather than depending on the discretion of their commanding officer.”

It was claimed that in 2010 at least eight under-18s who had gone AWOL were sentenced by court martial to military imprisonment.… Read more

Joint Human Rights Committee report state that Armed Forces Bill gives opportunity for debate on service of under-18s

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The report from the JHRC on the Armed Forces Bill ‘raises a number of significant human rights concerns in connection with the Bill’ and ‘calls on the Government to clarify the arrangements for the discharge of under-18s from the Armed Forces and to amend the service commitment made by  under-18s to bring it in line with the commitment made by recruits of other ages.’

The report from the Joint Human Rights Committee on the Armed Forces Bill ‘raises a number of significant human rights concerns in connection with the Bill’ including:

The Committee calls on the Government to clarify the arrangements for the discharge of under-18s from the Armed Forces and to amend the service commitment made by  nder-18s to bring it in line with the commitment made by recruits of other ages.  The Committee believes that the Bill provides a good opportunity to consider the issue of under-18s serving in the Armed Forces and the recommendations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on UK compliance with the UN Optional Protocol on Children in Armed Conflict.

The Report also raises a number of other significant human rights issues:
*       The Government should amend the Bill to make clear that the criminal standard should apply to any factual determinations necessary for the making or varying of Sexual Offences Prevention Orders in relation to Armed Forces personnel serving overseas.… Read more