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Building Unity & Struggle: Vets' Day 1975

By VVAW

Veterans Day, 1975, came and went almost unnoticed by the majority of American veterans. The closest most vets came to celebrating "their" day was watching the traditional ceremonies and parades (where they still are held) on the evening TV news. In many cities and towns around the country, the city fathers paid their lip-service to vets--there were some parades, with a few American Legion posts, maybe a reserve unit, and a couple of high school bands; the watchers were mostly the relatives of the marchers. Or, as in the VA hospital in Detroit, there was a flag-raising ceremony in front of the hospital; few vets came out.

But in a number of cities across the land, VVAW did come out, and pointed to the reasons why most vets weren't interested in Veterans Day, 1975. Vets don't want parades--we want jobs. Vets don't want to glorify wars of imperialism, like in Vietnam--we want to fight like hell to prevent their next one. And we're not interested in the pious speeches of various politicians at wreath-laying ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetary--we want to see some of the promises made to vets carried out instead of being talked about.

Chants which echoed through the streets of New York City on November 11, Veterans Day, underlined the real demands of vets: "Jobs or income from the bosses/We're not paying for their losses." "VA says benefits, we say rights; they say wait awhile, we say FIGHT."

The New York City demonstration wasn't the largest that the chapter has held on Vets Day, but that did not lessen the anger of vets or dampen the spirits of the demonstrators. Since the bosses kept vets at work on the 11th, the chapter took the march to vets, into the NYC garment district where thousands of worker, many of them vets, were at their jobs.

There, hundreds of workers came out of the shops to greet the marchers, taking leaflets, joining in the chants, and some leaving work to join the march. Meanwhile, the American Legion was putting on its annual farce, telling the world that vets have "got it made," that vets and other workers should keep on carrying the crisis that the bosses have created, and rallying behind the "issue" of 1,800 MIAs who, according to them, are still unaccounted for in Indochina.

The New York Times tried to portray the two demonstrations as young vets vs. older vets by saying there was a noticeable absence of young vets in the Legion's farce; what they didn't dare tell was the high degree of unity between young and older vets, between vets and worker of all nationalities, on the VVAW march. One window washer said, "This is what I've been looking for," and left a store window half done to join in the march, bucket, pole and brushes and all!

The cops tried to intimidate the marchers by revoking the permit for their fally site the night before the demo (the original site was across from the Legion) and turning out a huge force of cops, but VVAW wasn't stopped. The rally was held at a different site, but with impact: truckers slowed down to listen to speeches, more workers came out of shops, and more people took leaflets telling the truth about the way this system screws over vets and how VVAW is organizing and fighting against these attacks.

A high point in the rally came when a worker from Outlaw, a rank-and-file organization of postal workers, talked about the formation of an area-wide workers' organization of workers from different industries, being formed to push forward and lead the fight in winning bigger and better victories over the rulers who are trying to vamp on us.

Following the speakers, the march moved toward the American Legion rally, where their speaker was babbling their particular brand of Americanism, but was met with a militant chant of "Ford, Ford, we say no, Middle East war, We won't go!" From there the marchers went to the regional VA building.

In Detroit, the chapter appeared at the official parade--a couple of reserve units, high school bands, and floats. In a leaflet handed out to the people watching the parade, VVAW, after talking about the danger of another rich man's war, said "If the people who now run this county think they can use us up in their wars, treat us like trash as GIs and vets, and then recycle us into another war for their profits in the Middle East, they are living in a dream world. Veterans Day to us is a day when we show the rats that rule this country that we refuse to accept the rotten conditions and treatment forced on veterans, and that we won't be murdered for their profits again."

Among the bystanders was a GI, recently returned from Germany; the following day he called the chapter to say, "I was in the Army--and I believe everything that that you say in the leaflet."

Actions took place in Long Beach, California, also at the VA hospital, and at the VA in Chicago, a picket line outside the Regional Office spoke to the VVAW demands. One vet coming out of the office took the chapter's bullhorn to tell the people how he is starving as result of waiting for his GI Bill check for four months. Expressing his anger and outrage, he joined in on the picket.

In Milwaukee, some 50 vets and supporters marched alongside the "traditional" parade on October 26th with banners and leaflets which exposed the way vets are used and then thrown away.

The demonstrations VVAW held on Vets Day 1975 were not as large as they have been in the past. The reason is that chapters did not fully understand the importance of taking out the demands of veterans in building for the actions. We should have gone to veterans by the thousands at work, at school or at the VA more consistently than we did. But, unlike the American Legion who shows its face once or twice a year, VVAW is in the streets all year round, building, fighting and winning, and the demonstrations should have reflected this.