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VVAW-WSO Demos Demand End To Indochina War

By VVAW

Two years ago, January 27, 1973 the US was forced to sign the Paris Peace Agreement which led to the removal of most US combat troops from Indochina and supposedly ended the Vietnam war. The signing of the Paris Agreement marked an incredible victory for the Vietnamese people, as well as for peace-loving people all over the world. VVAW/WSO chapters around the country held demonstrations celebrating this victory and, since the wars in Vietnam and Cambodia still rage on, demanded that the US government actually implement the agreement that is has signed. Because the war in Indochina goes on solely due to the massive military and economic aid the US pours into the pockets of its puppet governments in Saigon and Phnom Penh, VVAW/WSO also demanded that the US end all aid to the corrupt Thieu regime in S. Vietnam and the Lon Nol regime in Cambodia.

The January demonstrations varied from place to place in terms of what actions were undertaken, some being solely VVAW/WSO organized and others being coalitional efforts. They were all aimed at mobilizing people to organize and fight back against this lousy system of imperialism we live under--a system that's run by and for the large business interests in this county at the expense of the people in the US and around the world. The massive unemployment, runaway inflation and vicious police repression we face in the US today are every bit as much a result of the same cause as the ongoing war in Indochina: US imperialism. As was pointed out in the chants of many of the demonstrations, it is the "Same Struggle, Same Fight--People of the World Unite!"

No better example of how we must organize ourselves to fight back against the conditions we face in the US can be found than in the determined and heroic struggle of the Indochinese people. It was in this spirit that VVAW/WSO chapters built for the Jan. 27th actions; towards the end of actually organizing people to fight back--not to idly sit by and complain about them.

All totaled, over 15 actions were held, including cities such as Seattle; Portland and Eugene, OR; Mountain Home, ID; San Francisco, San Jose, Riverside and San Diego, CA; Minneapolis, MN Dayton, OH; Houston, TX; Buffalo, NY; Washington, DC; and Burlington, VT. In the single largest action, a rally was held in San Francisco; after the rally, about 750 people marched to the Saigon Consulate where 13 VVAW/WSO members had seized the office. While the 13 people inside were arrested, the San Francisco tactical squad attacked the demonstrators outside and a major brawl erupted with one elderly man being thrown through a plate glass window. Other demonstration were smaller in number, with anywhere from 50 to 200 people turning out. But it was in many of these small actions that VVAW/WSO made perhaps the most significant gains--initiating activity in cities that it hasn't been organized in and reaching out to many new people who had previously never actively been involved in the fight to end the war in Indochina.

In places like Houston, Texas, where comparatively little activity of this nature has gone on in recent years, they demonstration was jointly built by a number of groups: the Iranian Students Association, the African Liberation Support Comm, the Revolutionary Union and a local anti-imperialist worker's paper, the Houston Worker, among them. There, 90 people, including many veterans and GIs from nearby Ft Hood, marched in a very militant, spirited demonstration through the center of town. Many onlookers along the route of march cheered on the demonstrators with a number joining in the action. In an area where there is "supposedly" little sympathy for such activity, the response the demonstrators received from the people of Houston was over-whelmingly positive. The work that went into building for this action was a significant success in and of itself. The coalition managed to get out thousands of leaflets to the major factories in the area and thus, reached many workers who couldn't actually attend the demonstration themselves. The reception they got from the workers was typified by one who like the leaflet so well that he took a handful and passed them out to the rest of the workers in his section.

Elsewhere, as in Sand Diego, the January 27th actions similarly were successful in drawing many new people in to the struggle and sparking new VVAW/WSO organizing work. The San Diego demonstration, called by VVAW/WSO, drew over 65 veterans and non-vets to demand "Jobs or Income for All" at the state unemployment office. From there, the demonstrators marched to the regional Veterans Administration office raising a demand for "Decent Benefits for All Vets." By tying these demands into the ongoing war in Indochina, showing how the war is directly related to the rising unemployment figures and the many problems vets face from the VA, the action drew a concrete link between the struggle of the Indochinese and the same struggle veterans and all people face in the U.S. The San Diego action was characterized by a lot of militant chanting and a solid fighting spirit. A good two-thirds of the participants in the action were people taking part in a demonstration for the first time--most having heard about it from the work the chapter had done at the unemployment center.

More than anything else, the Jan. 27th actions point to the increasing militance and number of people who are coming forward to join the struggle and fight back against the ongoing war in Indochina. Our task is to continue to build on these gains and draw in ever larger numbers of new people to fight with us; given the experience of Jan. 27, 1975 that's exactly what's happening. For information on how you can get involved, contact your local chapter of the National Office of VVAW/WSO.

IMPLEMENT THE AGREEMENT--END ALL AID TO THIEU & LON NOL!
SEIZE THE TIMES--UNITE TO FIGHT!