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Unite To Fight G.I. Bill Cutbacks

By VVAW

In the continuing series of cutbacks and attacks upon the American people, the Ford administration has broadened its economic assault to include people soon to be active duty members of the Armed Forces.

If Ford's proposed legislation to Congress is approved, after June 30th, any GI entering the military will not be eligible for the benefits generally referred to as the GI Bill. The reason given the public for this cutback was the US military forces not engaged in combat are not historically given these benefits in time of "peace" -- this is a bold faced lie. On close examination, it is apparent that veterans of the military in the period between the Korean and Vietnam wars did in fact receive these benefits. The list of benefits denied as of June 30th is extensive. Some of the more important ones are: Education (including tuition for college, on-the-job training programs, vocational rehabilitation, tutorial assistance, and educational assistance for families of GIs killed while on active-duty, and VA loans (including those for business and homes).

The elimination of the GI Bill isn't an isolated action on the part of the people who run this country, but instead is an integrated part of a systematic attack on working and poor people of the US.

To over 92,000 active-duty GIs last year, the GI Bill represented the ability to afford education while still in the military. With this education, many GIs had hoped to avoid the 15-16% unemployment that faces them as veterans when they leave the military. The percentage runs even higher--up to 30-40%--for Black and other minority veterans. As jobs become fewer, more and more working class youth turn to the military as an alternative to hunger, regardless of whether the GI Bill benefits will be offered or not. These same GIs will then become the cannon fodder of the next inevitable war.

The history of the fight for the GI Bill and veterans benefits is a long one. On July 21, 1930, Congress established the Veterans Administration, which assumed the task of meeting veterans' needs--a process that quickly became one of establishing a monolithic bureaucratic apparatus and selectively passing out jobs and benefits to those vets demand acceptable by the VA. The GI Bill was initiated following World War II and resulted from the demands and growing unrest among vets following that war. The benefits were not merely something handed out to appease vets, but the outcome of a long and bitter struggle for decent benefits that had its roots in the vicious street battles in Washington, DC in 1932--better known as the Bonus March brought thousands of World War I vets into the streets demanding a right to a decent standard of living. As they grew more militant, the same military which had used and discarded them was called out to crush this movement. The Bonus March ended, but the struggle for decent benefits continued through WWII, Korea, and following the Vietnam War.

Now in 1975, the VA has become a sprawling monster of inefficiently and hostility to Vietnam-era vets. As the first line of defense for the government against thousand against thousands of angry vets, the VA now comprises the second largest federal agency in terms of employees, and the third largest in budget--with annual funding of 15 billion dollars.

The last few years have brought tremendous struggle by veterans against the VA, led in many places by VVAW/WSO, around the inability and outright refusal of the VA to deal with the problems of Vietnam-era and other vets. To counter this upsurge of vets demanding benefits promised them, the VA has allotted larger and larger chunks of its budget to security systems to combat the very people they supposedly serve. At the same time, the government has turned to the VA as one area that can be cut-back financially, with the hope that by elimination of services to vets, along with other nationwide cutbacks, they can try to bail themselves out of the current economic crisis. Part and parcel of this cutback is the elimination of the GI Bill, which attacks GIs and veterans simultaneously.

With the elimination of the GI Bill, Gerald Ford recently stated that as a result of this cutback, the VA will be able to free up an additional 1.5 bilion dollars. 1.5 billion dollars for what? Certainly not to expand the already shrinking social services, for example in the areas of education and health care. Perhaps the additional funds will raise the already sky-high salaries of VA administrators or double the number of guards at VA facilities. The rich punks pulling the strings of the country will certainly shed no tears for the thousands of GIs who will be denied the ability to raise their standard of living through the loss of the various educational programs once available on the GI Bill. After a couple of years in the military, these GIs will once again return to the job market, with even less chance of employment than before.

The elimination of the GI Bill and cutbacks in the VA are irrevocably linked with the struggle for decent benefits for veterans and GIs. Just as veterans were used to fight an unjust war of aggression in Indochina that wasn't in their interests and then slapped in the face by the VA, the government now expects GIs to sit idly by as they are subjected to deteriorating living and working conditions, racism, daily harassment and preparation for an impending war. For what! To be used once and thrown away like a roll of toilet paper? Hell, no! GIs haven't taken this shabby treatment and oppression in the past and they certainly won't have it handed to the in the future.

The struggle for decent benefits for future vets and all other veterans are inseparable. As the struggle around the GI Bill and other VA cutbacks sharpen, GIs and vets will be uniting to fight, not only for their own needs but for a decent standard of living for all working people.

THEY SAY CUTBACK; VET SAY FIGHT BACK!!