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Hard Times Are Fighting Times: Demonstrate on Vets DayBy VVAWVeterans Day, November 11, has traditionally been a National holiday devoted to parades sponsored by a few national veterans groups that march once a year to show support for the US government's current policies. A major portion of these parades has gone to mobile exhibitions of marching troops and shiny new military hardware. The public response to these Veterans Day farces has been increasingly smaller attendance with, in many cases, only relatives and friends of the marchers on the sidelines. Conspicuously absent from the "approved parades" have been the Vietnam-era vets. Refused entrance to the official parades, Vietnam-era vets, often led by VVAW/WSO could be found in large froups, marching before and after the parades, along the sidewalks with the parades, picketing the VA and Federal buildings, and often seizing the official reviewing stands, embarrassing the hell out of the VIPs and military brass there. Under banners calling for an end to US aggression in Indochina and the world, and Decent Benefits for All Vets, these actions have been punctuated by widespread public approval and police attacks. Veterans Day 1975 will be no exception to this recent history. Massive cutbacks in the benefits promised Vietnam-era vets, coupled with a growing rate of unemployment among vets as well as all working people in the US have added to the growing vets movement in this country. Vets have demonstrated and struggled in cities across the US for "Decent Benefits for All Vets," and "Jobs Or Income For All." Militant campaigns are now underway in many cities, focusing on the poor healthcare and treatment in VA hospitals, cutbacks in VA employees, late or non-existent checks and payments under inadequate GI Bill and the many battles to cut through the VA red tape and bureaucracy. Vets Day this year will be a day of struggle that will focus on these and other demands around vets' benefits and unemployment. Facing a crumbling economy, with the bitter taste of the Indochina defeat still in their mouths, the Ford administration (and the rich who pull their strings) is forced to look for another war to stall the crisis. Vets Day is one of the opportunities that the ruling class uses to build support for widening military activities with sham patriotism and new killing machines. VVAW/WSO has consistently said that wars like Vietnam will bring working people of the US more suffering by forcing them to once more accept the financial burden of the war and send their children off to the war as cannon fodder. Recently Secretary of Defense Schlesinger announced plans to do away with most US Reserve and National Guard units and replace them with all military veterans up to the age of 28. These vets will be continually eligible for immediate recall to the military "in times of crisis." VVAW/WSO and many other people have made it clear that "We Won't Fight Another Rich Man's War" nor will we serve as strikebreakers or riot cops. If the people that now run this country think that they an use us up in one war, treat us like trash as GIs and vest, and then re-cycle us into another war for profit in Asia or the Middle East, they're living in a dream world. Vietnam-era vets and active duty GIs will be among the first to step forward and burst their bubble. Veterans Day isn't another day to rehash well-worn war stories or show off new hardware for future wars, but a day to show the rats that rule this country that we refuse to accept the conditions and treatment given Vietnam-era and other vets in the US today, and that we won't be used for their wars again. Join us! DEMONSTRATE ON VETERANS DAY!!!
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