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Interfering in the huge French army recruiting operation
seemed quite an obvious antimilitarist strategy at the time...
Not much impact ... yet
Tikiri
It seems as though the French army
has agreements with all the job
centres in France. Every week you
can find them in the career and studies
information centres (CIO) even in
small towns; their presence grows at
every school career day and even more
so at "le Salon des Etudiants" - a huge
fair for companies and schools aimed
at attracting students - which is held
every year in most of the big French
towns.
The army also run huge publicity campaigns
on billboards, TV and in the
newspapers. Without there being thousands
of antimilitarists, it seems as
though we can't do much!
No surrender!
Still, some of us try to go as often as we
can to army conferences, to challenge the
idea that "joining the army is a job": we
do this just by asking questions about
workers' rights or whether human rights
are recognised in the armed forces. A few
people still rip down the military's job
offers at the job centres, but this is not a
very efficient tactic as they get replaced
very quickly; more interesting are the
posters antimilitarists make and put up
to warn unemployed people about the
realities of these military "jobs".
On the advertising front, the army are
primarily engaging in short-term, but
huge, campaigns. So far the few of us
involved in removing or subvertising
their adverts dont feel we have had much
impact. However, the "Salons de l'Etudiant"
seem to be the best and ultimate
places where antimilitarists can take
action, have an impact and even get a bit
of media coverage.
Other ways
Of course the army itself is still the best
advert for persuading young people not to
join it. The army prosecutes soldiers for
such silly things (for example, stealing
cutlery!) that sending a small article about
it to the newspapers is quite an efficient
action. The army kills and wounds: and
RNVAA (Rassemblement national pour la
verite sur les accidents a l'armee) is a
group doing a great job making sure the
truth about accidents which happen in the
army is made public.
Quitting the army is deserting! And
supporting people recruited into the army
who are trying to cope with the reality of
it is perhaps the most efficient way of
opposing recruitment. Recently, the
French army had to change their policy:
so that anyone can quit the army during
the first six months of their engagement,
though this means the military still has
to stay attractive for a while!
Hopes
Traditional antimilitarist groups have
failed to co-ordinate and to show real
resistance to the army recruiting cam-paigns
in France. But our hopes are now
that high school pupils and university
students will challenge the intrusion of
the army recruiting teams in their schools
and campuses. And if our forces can be
combined on occasions such as the
"Salons de l'Etudiant", we may be better
able to challenge the military in more
concrete ways.
Tikiri is a French antimilitarist activist.
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