Organizing a protest at a recruiting center is about sending an effective message. The message can vary because a recruitment center is a symptom of many other systematic problems. Going to a recruiting center also leaves lots of room to do new creative things.

Ingredients:

• 1 military recruiting center
• A working group of 3+ people
• Advertisements/Posters
• Handouts (optional but important to send a message)
• Signs/Banners
• Media correspondent (varies)
• Police correspondent
• Camera

Directions:

When your group decides to organize a protest at a recruitment center it’s important to talk about the goals. What should the message be? It’s hard to pick because there are so many. Some of the messages/themes Activate has worked with are: revealing lies used to increase enlistment, the poor health care for returning veterans, the continued destruction of Iraq, and Iraqi lives. Deciding on a message can be helpful in narrowing down (but not limited too) what a banner, posters, advertisements, and fliers say.

Besides knowing what the theme is going to be, it’s also important to have a plan on what to do when arriving. Are you going to: Drop a banner from the top of the center, go inside to receive an “interview”, stand in front with signs, perform street theater, tape posters to the windows or shut it down? Or all six! More importantly what is the group comfortable doing. After taking time to talk about these main goals, and plans it’s time to start getting down to the nitty gritty.

(To learn more refer to street theater how-to guide)

It’s really important to plan a day and time that is good for the group, as well as a time when the center is open. After this it’s time to make posters, send out a press release, and create online social network events–the more the merrier.

(To learn more refer to advertising how-to guide)

When the protest initially starts, it’s good to make a slam bang entrance (in case the slam bang exit isn’t too good). A good way to do this is having an initial meeting place were people can walk together to the recruitment center as a group; this has worked out really well in the past. Usually we’ve met at a parking lot to walk to the recruitment center; this way people have a place to park and unload posters and banners. It’s also good to go in shouting; having a planned list of chants and a sturdy megaphone make it all the louder.

During the protest it’s really handy to have people designated to hand out fliers with information on the specified message/ theme. Besides handing them to people walking by, they can be put in car windshield wipers, or taped to the recruitment office (note: taping flyers to the recruiting center is usually considered illegal).

If the press release has worked, it’s important to have a person ready to communicate to the media a previously decided on statement. Keeping to a decided sentence or two can really help keep the message from being distorted.

(To learn more refer to media how-to guide).

It’s also important to be prepared for police. Usually recruiters call the cops; so it’s good to have someone ready to communicate to them. Having a camera ready to record confrontations with the police or the recruiters are really helpfully, plus it’s helpful to create a nifty you tube video.

(To learn more refer to know your rights how-to guide)

Note: Plan to go to a recruitment office more than once! These tactics and advice also can apply to military recruiters at schools or festivals.