Download PDF of this full issue: v5n4.pdf (8.3 MB)

Vets Demand Better Living And Health Conditions

By VVAW

At Woods VA hospital in Milwaukee, about 750 patients live in quarters known as the domicilaries. Nicknamed the "doms" or the "graveyard," they provide utterly miserable living conditions. The doms were built around the Civil War and haven't been improved since. They are nothing but common open-bay military bar racks housing about 40 men each. As most of the men have been living in the doms for a number of years, supposedly to receive "rehabilitation therapy," putting up with these conditions is really hard. In addition to the century-old barns the men live in, they are subjected to strict military-type controls. There are nightly bedchecks in the the doms, regular shake-downs for "contraband material" and "restriction" to the domicilary area for disciplinary violations. This sort of crap is bad enough when you are in the military but when you're a civilian, it is utterly intolerable.

While the patients in the doms are supposedly there to receive rehabilitation therapy?many suffering from serious alcohol and drug problems?the truth is the so-called rehabilitation programs the VA offers are complete shams. One of the VA's rehab programs for the men in the doms is making artificial poppies which the American Legion then uses for fundraising. Working in a small shop called the "poppy hut," the patients receive 7 cents for every 1,000 poppies they make. Needless to say, this has zero to do with helping a guy trying to kick methadone or the bottle. Other patients in the doms are sent out to work at goodwill agencies like St. Vincent De Pauls for a whopping 80 cents an hour. Apparently, the VA feels this will help the patients overcome their problems by showing them what great "opportunities" life has to offer once they leave the hospital. The job referral setup for the vets once they are ready to leave the doms is even worse. One vet was recently sent by a VA social worker to apply for a job in one of the meat packing plants in Milwaukee. What the social worker didn't bother to tell the vet was that the plant was being struck by the local meatcutters union and that he would be scabbing on his brothers and sisters if he actually took the job. As soon as he found out what was going on, he told the social worker where to stick his "job" in pretty short order.

The whole setup in the Woods VA doms is lousy and everybody there know it. In this society the bosses use people for all they are worth and then, when they can no longer use them, toss them into the ashcan and forget them. The treatment the vets in the Woods VA doms are receiving is living testimony to this. But people don't like being treated like dogs and inevitably begin to fight back against it. The vets at the doms have been getting together with VVAW/WSO members to discuss the situation there. There are two basic demands they feel the VA has got to meet. One is for better living conditions, including modern, private 2-man rooms that will dramatically improve the health and safety in the doms; conditions as they are now insure that thefts and fights regularly occur. The other demand is for meaningful rehabilitation programs and an end to the jive nonsense the VA is now trying to pass off on the vets. Either the VA starts meeting these demands or it is going to be facing some mighty rough consequences right in its own backyard.