From the University of Tennessee in Knoxville

Students in the Progressive Student Alliance here at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville have inaugurated a short and solemn pledge for young people to take, asserting that, should a draft be reinstituted, they will not serve. Signatures have already started coming in to our website at www.wewontgo.org .

* Please forward this Call to any appropriate online list, blog or website you think will spread the word.
* Please bring it to the attention of high school and college students, other young people and educators you know.
* Please do it soon!

With your help, this pledge will develop the momentum it needs to become a valuable new tool in the growing resistance to the unjust and unjustifiable occupation of Iraq .

THE "WE WON'T GO" PLEDGE--A CALL TO ACTION

Is the draft coming back? More and more signs point that way--the steady stream of casualties from the occupation of Iraq , the "back-door draft" being used to conscript troops whose enlistments are up, the collapse of recruitment, especially into the National Guard. We in the Progressive Student Alliance , an organization of students at the University of Tennessee dedicated to the fight for social justice and peace, are determined to take a stand against this threat. We call on all those who oppose the Iraq war and the possibility of their forced participation in it to pledge themselves, publicly, to refuse to serve in the armed forces as long as this country continues to wage war in or occupy the sovereign nation of Iraq .

We ask that you sign our pledge at www.wewontgo.org:

"We, the undersigned young women and men, are eligible to serve in the U.S. armed forces, and if the draft is re-instated we may be subject to induction. We pledge, however, that we will not serve in the U.S. armed forces as long as U.S. troops are occupying or waging war in Iraq."

This pledge serves two purposes--it alerts our sisters and brothers to the danger of a reinstituted draft and, as thousands of us sign, it puts this and future Presidential Administrations, the Congress and the American public on notice that we won't be fighting or dying for this war.

The PSA is a small group on one campus. To accomplish the campaign‚s purposes will take the efforts of many other students and young people. We hope that this campaign can be a useful tool in ongoing anti-war and community organizing among young people across the country.

The PSA knows that young people have the creativity and ingenuity to change the world--one struggle at a time. We believe that this is such a Struggle--one against both the current unjust, immoral war and occupation in Iraq , and against the ever-present possibility of another undemocratic draft. We call on all people who may be drafted--women and men--to resist and declare, openly, "Not With My Life, You Don't!"

For more information, check out the We Won't Go's campaign website at: www.wewontgo.org