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Milwaukee Takes V.A. Office Again!

By VVAW

Last month the Milwaukee chapter of VVAW/WSO took over the local VA office to publicize that the VA is totally unresponsive to the needs of veterans. They again took over the regional office of the VA on Nov. 19. One of the vets described the action: "We went into the building in 2s and 3s and pretended to fill out forms for the AL, VFW, etc. At 10:29 we proceeded to the regional director's office, leafleting along the way.

"There were about 35 of us involved. The director wasn't in but his assistant was. We stayed for about 20 minutes. Then chanting, 'discharge upgrading is a must, lookout VA this is a bust', we went to the front of the building and set up a picket line. We then went to (two universities) to leaflet and rap about the demands and how people get mistreated by the VA."

The demands were the same as before: Full benefits for the 560,000 badly discharged vets; resignation of Donald Johnson, the VA National Director; restoration of all cutbacks in the VA budget; and a GI Bill equivalent to the one right after World War II.

The next day they returned, leafletted and picketed. The guards outsmarted themselves by refusing to allow 'militant' looking vets to enter the building. Those refused entry went to the street, talked to VVAW/WSO and after hearing what they had to say, joined in the picket line. The next meeting of the chapter had an additional 30 people!

If the VA is ever really going to serve the needs of veterans it will only be after vets force it to. As the Milwaukee take-overs show, there's a lot of vets ready to do just that!