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Vets & Students Protest Parade

By VVAW

The US Army was out to "celebrate" their 200th anniversary on April 6th with a parade in downtown Detroit. The ruling class just couldn't wait to kick off their bi-centennial events; and a kick-off is exactly what they got. The Detroit chapters of VVAW/WSO and the Revolutionary Student Brigade (RSB), organized a militant counter-demonstration raising the demands, "We Won't Fight Any Imperialist Wars," "End All Aid to Thieu and Lon Nol," and "Superpowers Hands Off the Middle East.:" Other slogans, banners and picket signs put forward demands for "Decent Benefits for All Veterans," "Total Amnesty for All War Resister," "No Tuition Hikes," and "No Cutbacks in Education."

The Army parade was made up of mostly Army reservists. Hardly anyone from Detroit came out to watch the parade, showing what most people thought of the event. The people who did attend said they were there because their sons were marching. Most of these people were sympathetic to the chants and the leaflets that were given out by the demonstrators.

The vet-student demonstrators began with a militant picket line at the Veterans Memorial Building and proceeded up Woodward Avenue in the opposite direction of the Army parade. The ended up, to the dismay of the cops and military Brass, right next to the reviewing stand just as the first troops came marching by. The demonstrators lined the parade route, holding banners and chanting, "Kick the Brass in the Ass, We Won't Fight for the Ruling Class" and "The Same Class that Puts us in the Squeeze Doesn't Give a Damn about the Refugees!"

After almost 15 minutes at the reviewing stand, the demonstrators went to Kennedy Square where the continued to chant and pass out leaflets. The Army reservists responded enthusiastically! One reservist in an armored vehicle raised his in support, while others in the parade did the same. At one point a vet shouted "Eyes Right." A whole platoon turned to face the people and responded with clenched fists in solidarity. As the reservists finished the march they came back past the demonstration. One GI said: "I wouldn't be here but I need the money; they had to drag us down here."

At the rally, held while thee troops were marching by, the VVAW/WSO speaker talked about the role of the US Army in Indochina and explained how the ruling class was using the Vietnam orphans, playing on the genuine sympathy of the American people. "After all the misery the ruling class had heaped upon the Vietnamese people, how can these hypocrites tell us they are concerned about refugees and orphans."

A leaflet handed out stated, "The refugees are being used as a human shield to cover the withdrawing South Vietnamese troops... What's really going on is that the US puppet, Thieu, and his army have deliberately forced thousands from their homes by ordering a scorched earth policy of 'burn all, loot all.'"

A speaker from the RSB summed up the Army's fiasco by saying: "How dare these generals come out here to 'celebrate' the US Army when what they're actually doing is training for desert warfare in preparation for Middle East. Well, we refuse to be dragged into their war. We, students, veterans, workers and others oppressed people have nothing in common with these henchmen for US imperialism. Victory to the Palestinian People and all liberation struggles!"