Step 1: Donate to Sameer Project here (sugg. donation $40)

Step 2: Register for “Students Not Soldiers” here

In this workshop, organizers from the Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD) and Project on Youth and Non-Military Opportunities (Project YANO) in San Diego will share about their long-standing struggle of resisting militarism and military recruitment in schools and their communities.

COMD and Project YANO have fought for decades against the military’s predatory recruitment tactics. In the 2000s, they were part of the San Diego Education Not Arms Coalition that successfully campaigned to remove JROTC shooting ranges from San Diego schools. Since then, they have continued to fight to restrict JROTC on campuses and other facets of militarism that prey on their communities.

In this moment of hyper-militarization and authoritarianism, their work is crucial to making young people aware of how, as recruits, they could be used to carry out deportations, suppress dissent and terrorize communities, and enforce Trump’s threats to intervene militarily in places like Gaza, Panama, Mexico, and cities across the US.

Join us to learn about COMD and Project YANO's past and present struggles in San Diego, and discuss strategies for combating militarism in schools and communities where you are.

Oren Robinson is a tech worker, learner and educator based in Kumeyaay land (San Diego). Oren serves as program coordinator at Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD), and its sister organization, Project on Youth and Non-military Opportunities (Project YANO).

Davíd Morales is an educator and counter-recruitment activist rooted in San Diego. Since high school, he has organized with COMD and Project YANO to challenge the U.S. military’s predatory recruitment of racialized and working-class youth. His work is informed and inspired by global struggles against empire and militarism.

Ana Yelí Ruiz is a research analyst and activist with roots in Mexico and raised in the midwest. At 18 she joined the Marine Corps where she completed 4 years of active duty and walked away with military sexual trauma (MST). She currently resides in Chicago, IL and practices research and operations on county courts. She volunteers with COMD and Project YANO in her free time.