Draft evasion
Conscription evasion or draft evasion (American English)[1] is any successful attempt to elude a government-imposed obligation to serve in the military forces of one's nation. Sometimes draft evasion involves refusing to comply with the military draft laws of one's nation.[2] Illegal draft evasion is said to have characterized every military conflict of the 20th and 21st centuries, in which at least one party of such conflict has enforced conscription.[3] Such evasion is generally considered to be a criminal offense,[2] and laws against it go back thousands of years.[4]
There are many draft evasion practices. Those that manage to adhere to or circumvent the law, and those that do not involve taking a public stand, are sometimes referred to as draft avoidance. Draft evaders are sometimes pejoratively referred to as draft dodgers,[5] although in certain contexts that term has also been used non-judgmentally[6][7] or as an honorific.[8]
Practices that involve lawbreaking or taking a public stand are sometimes referred to as draft resistance. Although draft resistance is discussed below as a form of "draft evasion", draft resisters and scholars of draft resistance reject the categorization of resistance as a form of evasion or avoidance. Draft resisters argue that they seek to confront, not evade or avoid, the draft.[9]
Draft evasion has been a significant phenomenon in nations as different as Colombia, Eritrea, Canada, France, Russia, South Korea, Syria, Ukraine and the United States. Accounts by scholars and journalists, along with memoiristic writings by draft evaders, indicate that the motives and beliefs of the evaders cannot be usefully stereotyped.
Claiming a medical or psychological problem, if the purported health issue is genuine and serious.[3]
[4]
Claiming economic hardship, if the hardship is genuine and the law recognizes such a claim.
[21]
Purchasing exemptions from military service, in nations where such payments are permitted.
[22]
Not being able to afford armor or other equipment, in polities where conscripts were required to provide their own.
[4]
– opposed conscription in Australia during World War I
Australian Freedom League
– includes discussion of U.S. draft evaders
Canada and the Vietnam War
– provided information and counseling to U.S. war resisters and draft evaders from 1948 to 2011
Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors
– discusses military desertion generally and in several individual nations
Desertion
– opposed conscription of white South Africans in Apartheid-era South Africa
End Conscription Campaign
– co-founded by Emma Goldman in response to the U.S. draft during World War I
No Conscription League
– legal relief sometimes offered to draft evaders
Pardon
– A number of Christian denominations historically and presently opposed to war and the draft
Peace churches
- Overview of resistance by Israelis to participate in mandatory military service for the IDF
Refusal to serve in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)
– discusses variety of types of war refusers, including draft refusers
War resister
Bernstein, Iver. The New York City Draft Riots: Their Significance for American Society and Politics in the Age of the Civil War. Lincoln, NE: Bison Books / University of Nebraska Press. 2010.
Colhoun, Jack. "". Amex-Canada magazine, vol. 6, no. 2 (issue no. 47), pp. 11–78. Account of the political organization created by U.S. draft evaders in Canada. Reproduced at Vancouver Community Network website. Retrieved 29 November 2017. Article originally November–December 1977.
War Resisters in Exile: The Memoirs of Amex-Canada
Conway, Daniel. Masculinisation, Militarisation, and the End Conscription Campaign: War Resistance in Apartheid South Africa. Manchester, England: Manchester University Press. 2012.
Foley, Michael S. Confronting the War Machine: Draft Resistance during the Vietnam War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 2003.
Gottlieb, Sherry Gershon. Hell No, We Won't Go: Resisting the Draft During the Vietnam War. New York: Viking Press. 1991.
Hagan, John. Northern Passage: American Vietnam War Resisters in Canada. Boston: Harvard University Press. 2001.
Kasinsky, Renee. Refugees from Militarism: Draft-Age Americans in Canada. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books. 1976.
Kohn, Stephen M. Jailed for Peace: The History of American Draft Law Violators, 1658–1985. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1987.
Peterson, Carl L. Avoidance and Evasion of Military Service: An American History 1626-1973. San Francisco: International Scholars Publications. 1998.
Satin, Mark. Manual for Draft-Age Immigrants to Canada. Toronto: House of Anansi Press, "A List" reprint edition. New introduction by Canadian historian , new afterword by Satin ("Bringing Draft Dodgers to Canada in the 1960s: The Reality Behind the Romance"). 2017.
James Laxer
Williams, Roger Neville. The New Exiles: American War Resisters in Canada. New York: Liveright. 1970.
– a "tutorial" published in 2017 on Wikibooks, a project of the Wikimedia Foundation
How To Beat the Draft Board
– provides information on the Israeli anti-draft group Shministim, mentioned above
Hyper Texts
– provides information to U.S. citizens who do not wish to register or otherwise cooperate with the draft. Sponsored by War Resisters League, mentioned above.
National Resistance Committee
Archived 2018-02-23 at the Wayback Machine – English-language website of New Profile, Israeli anti-draft group mentioned above
New Profile
– official site of the government agency that registers young male U.S. citizens for the military draft
Selective Service System
– historical site for Draft Resistance Seattle, example of the locally based U.S. anti-draft groups mentioned above
Vietnam War: Draft Resistance
– annotated guide to texts and websites from the 1960s to the present. Compiled by scholar Joseph Jones, mentioned above.
Vietnam War Resisters in Canada
– based in Britain. Monitors conscription and conscientious objection in nations around the world.