EIS Delegates at the Scottish teachers annual conference in Perth successfully passed a motion calling for the banning of army recruitment units in Scottish schools. This matter must now be placed firmly on the political agenda at the Scottish Parliament, the Executive having responsibility for education.
The British Armed Forces are understandably experiencing a humiliating disinterest from their target audience, despite the army spending almost £90 million on recruitment campaigns in the year 2005/6. At the same time more soldiers are resigning than are joining. Historically, the army have seduced a large layer of recruits from the poorest and most deprived districts, with promises of "seeing the world" and opportunities for training. Economic conscripts in other words.
The trade unionists of the EIS are to be warmly congratulated on their excellent intervention at an important time. It is paramount that all attempts to recruit school students to kill other human beings is kept out of our schools where goodie bags are handed out and nonsense about adventure and a great life is portrayed to impressionable youngsters. But the lack of opportunities for decent jobs and training for our youth must be addressed. Faced with a lifetime of benefits and/or so-called "McJobs" there will be some young men and women who might be tempted to take their chances fighting for capitalists in their imperialist wars.
So far, the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq has cost you and I over £5 billion with no end in sight. Hundreds of our young men and women are dead. Nearly a million people in total have now lost their lives in this murderous war in which Gordon Brown is every bit as culpable as the madmen Bush and Blair. The toll of human misery, as these servicemen finish their tours and try to reintegrate into civilian life will, as usual, never be properly addressed or even adequately reported. The only war worth fighting is the class war; standing shoulder to shoulder with our fellow workers of all lands, backgrounds, traditions and colours striving together for a better world for everyone.
