Melançon Enterprises • a multidivision multinational since 1980

Counterrecruiting: very much a project for which I personally want to use PWGD. (PWGD tools, of course, are freely available for everything. Universal. That's the point. But if we who build it don't have some specific things in mind, we really lack imagination and purpose!)

(A discourse regarding the hypothetical People Who Give a Damn website...)

PWGD.org helps people who give a damn find one another and organize to take effective action on issues they care about. Right now these tools for connecting are pretty weak.

Worse, there aren't that many people on the network so your odds are low of finding people.

But PWGD is about more than growing the network to be large enough that even the limited tools (which have some overlap and analogue with Yahoo Groups, Meetup, Digg, Craigslist, etc.) become useful.

This is about the power of big for the many, the power of organizing without the corporate, governmental, or institutional overhead.

PWGD means thinking big. (We'll come back to this.)

Counter-Recruiting

http://notyoursoldier.org/

Draft letter-- this would in fact apply to all the resources found. (Not Your Soldier was the first good search engine result but many more that followed appear to be slightly more practical, up-to-date, or active.)

Dear NotYourSoldier,

Your web site is a key resource for Counter-Recruiting that I've found, but it doesn't have a forum, or a way to connect directly to other – especially local – people interested in counter-recruiting.

I'm part of a group slowly creating a network for helping connect people to take the most effective action possible, given will and resources, on the issues they care about. This network for all People Who Give a Damn is (to be) completely open, transparent, and not-for-profit.

Counter-recruiting is something I, personally, think is very important to lessening suffering in this world, and would like to set up our rudimentary tools to help people interested in counter-recruitment who find Not Your Soldier – and other resources – to connect with one another to oppose (or just fact-balance) military recruitment locally.

benjamin melançon
People Who Give a Damn (PWGD)

Other:
by the D.C. Anti-War Network (DAWN)
http://www.counter-recruitment.org/website/

United For Peace and Justice (UFPJ) - Counter Military Recruitment Campaign
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/section.php?id=76

American Friends Service Committe (AFSC) Counter-Recruitment Basics
http://www.afsc.org/youthmil/counter-recruitment/default.htm

Code Pink's occasional highlighted counter-recruiting action
http://www.codepink4peace.org/section.php?id=48

Quaker House Truth in Recruiting (solid, intelligent, thorough approach- familiarize with recruitng materials first -- i know i linked to this from the PWGD wiki)
http://www.quakerhouse.org/truth-in-recruiting-02.htm

Voices In the Wilderness Counter Recruitment
http://vitw.org/cr/

GI Rights Hotline, AWOL Magazine - Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors (CCCO)
http://objector.org/

this is PWGD so the goal is always grandiouse-- counter-recruiting activity EVERYWHERE there is recruiting activity (except, if I get my way, with paid advertising-- do not feed the media)

it also means we are not out to replace any of these organizations
there materials should not be lifted onto the PWGD web site, except perhaps for collaborative editing, but linked to
the goal is to make it so organizations doing good work don't have to advertise, or spend money on fundraising-- they will be known about, and vital community groups doing the fieldwork will support the organizations like AFSC, CCCO etc. that support them.

to do this we also want the help of all these organizations
to invite their members to opt into PWGD tools, so they can connect with one another (help two AFSC supporters in the Natick area find one another, and to connect to AWOL magazine subscribers in the area, meet Voices in the Wilderness donors from Framingham, and find Code Pink people in Wellesley...)

Oh, and the essay that started this internet search before I event read it:

Can Your Town Ban the Military from Recruiting Anyone Under 18? Guest Commentary by David Swanson (In this case, guest on the Black Commentator means white ;-)

http://www.blackcommentator.com/263/263_ban_military_recruiting_swanson_...

Draft ordinance for prohibiting any recruiting activities that involve kids under 18. @TODO for Natick.