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National Campaign Builds: Free Ashby Leach

By VVAW

Around the country, VVAW chapters are taking up the campaign to Free Ashby Leach. In Norfolk, Virginia, there have been two marches to Chessie facilities in order to leaflet and talk with Chessie employees. In Veteran's Day marchers and demonstrations from Philadelphia to San Francisco, there were banners demanding "Free Ashby Leach," and speeches which pointed out how Ashby is an example both of how veterans are used once by the rich to fight their wars and then thrown away once the use has been sucked out of them, and of how vets refuse to take this treatment lying down. Petitions demanding that Leach be freed, that Chessie honor its promises to veterans, and that the GI Bill be extended and expanded are being signed in cities across the nation. And chapters and individuals are raising funds to pay Ashby's bond and help to finance his legal defense.

"While I was in the 'Nam picking up the bodies of my slain and mutilated countrymen, the Chessie system was picking up the profits from a stimulated economy. Then when I and the other survivors of that bloody tragedy in Vietnam ask for the benefits we are entitled to under the GI Bill, the Chessie System's corporate policy makers say no."

After a give-year-long struggle to get his veteran's benefits from the Chessie system (a corporate conglomerate which took over the old Chesapeake and Ohio, and the Baltimore and Ohio railroads), Ashby Leach took direct action on August 26th of this year by going to Chessie headquarters in the Terminal Tower building in Cleveland, Ohio seizing one of the officers and holding 13 hostages (including one Chessie vice-president) for 9 hours. In the bright light of national media, the Chessie system agreed to Ashby's demands--that Chessie extend all benefits of the GI Bill to its vets and that past employees who have been cheated of these benefits be reimbursed. Once these promises were made, Ashby surrendered; outside the Terminal Tower a crowd of thousands had gathered, many raising clenched fists and cheering. Ashby Leach had made a statement by his actions that not just vets but everyone else who's been pushed around and messed over by the system could take as their own.

"The corporate policy makers of the Chessie system deplore violence, and most people do, myself included. But they (the railroad policy makers) will use their lawyers, lobbyists, political power, and financial power to squash you and beat you legally when you know you're right. Sometimes a person must fight back."

As soon as Ashby Leach was arrested, however, Chessie immediately reneged on all its promises. Working hand in hand with the State of Ohio, Chessie made sure that Ashby was arrested, charged with 16 felonies (13 kidnapping charges) and that bond was set at an astronomical $450,000. To avoid further exposure of the way they had been treating vets, Chessie is now working with the state again in trying to have Ashby declared "incompetent" or "insane," and prevent his case from coming to trial.

Ashby Leach has hurt no one. He is certainly angry, and justifiable so; he's not crazy, but is a proud man determined not to be shoved around by the big corporations like Chessie. His demands are just. And that's what Chessie and their hired politicians and courts can't stand; that their filthy lies and promises have been exposed. What happened to Ashby Leach, the abuse he got from Chessie and the whole system, is typical of what's happening to vets as the GI Bill comes under attack and thousands of vets are denied their benefits one way or another.

"In 1974 when they fired me after they told me that I could have a leave of absence to go to school on the GI Bill. I was mad and I was writing letters and protesting stuff. I wrote Sen. Vance Hartke just practically begging him to do something about this and he didn't even answer my letters even as he is all the time getting up in Congress saying how important it is to give the railroads more money, how they are the backbone of the nation and economy, sending nerve gas across Indiana on the railroads, giving his daughter a job with the railroads--I didn't know nothing about this stuff about politics, campaigning, and stuff, but after running into this fight with Chessie I've got a much better perspective on what's going on in this country today because it's not just Chessie..."

And this is exactly why the ruling class has come down so heavy on Ashby; they want to turn his fighting example of resistance into negative example, to say that if you stand up against the system, you'll be crushed; if you speak up for your right, you'll be declared "crazy." Ashby Leach isn't crazy and he isn't crushed. A movement is growing that will further expose the abuses of this system against veterans, build on the fighting spirit that Ashby Leach showed in Chessie headquarters, and fight like hell to get him out of jail--and keep him out. (For further information about the long struggle of Ashby Leach against the Chessie system, see the October issue of The Veteran.)

The Chessie system, its treatment of vets and the lies that are behind that is hanging out all over the place. And, the capitalist are everywhere, they have to try to cover up their rotten act. The most recent tactics have been twofold: since they found that they couldn't just stick Ashby away in the Cuyahoga Country jail and wish him to disappear, they are trying to help the courts prove that he is a "schizoid paranoiac," hoping that if they can "prove" that they can see him put away in an asylum for the criminally insane and that people will forget about Ashby and his fight.

Their second tactic is to counterattack; in their publication "Chessie News" (subtitled "For the Whole Family") the front two pages are devoted to an article entitled "Disgruntled Ex-Apprentice Quit Job With Another Railroad Before Harassing Chessie Hostages." And the next three pages are devoted to interviews with Chessie's "happy vets," all of whom, according to the publication, are delighted with their jobs and with the way Chessie is treating its veterans. As icing on the cake, Chessie arranged with the West Virginia VFW, long a faithful parrot of the ideas and politics of the ruling class, to give Chessie an award for its exceptional record in hiring vets.

Some of what the Chessie system says in its publication is distorted; some is simple lies. They quote Ashby Leach's wife as saying that "He believes he is doing it for all the other Vietnam veterans." Chessie comments, "Although Leach has claimed that his ?campaign' was on behalf of his fellow veterans, there is no evidence that he has ever spoken for anything other than himself." And how about the 2000 people who supported him outside the Terminal Tower? And what about vets all over the country who feel the effects of the economic crisis as the government tries to push the burden on us with cuts in the GI Bill, wretched VA healthcare, no jobs. The "happy and contented vets" who love the Chessie system? Well, maybe some of them do. But it's also true that the 13 hostages originally said that had been treated well; only after the Chessie officers had talked with them (no doubt pointing out who had the power to fire them) did a couple of them discover that they had been mistreated by Ashby Leach.

The media has also been used by Chessie; Cleveland papers have been consistently attempting to portray Ashby as crazy. The fact that the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the largest paper in the city, is owned by Cyrus Eaton, Chairman of the Board Emeritus of Chessie is never mentioned, of course.

"It's not our fault (vets) that the war was such a bloody bummer. It's not our fault. And if people want to take it out on somebody...well then they should take it out on those who profited from the conflict and that was corporations like Eaton and...that was those who had political power--not big dummies like me and the millions of people who went into the military and did what they were supposed to do."

And the courts, which have always responded when their strings are pulled by the rich and powerful, appointed as attorney a corporate lawyer with offices in the Terminal Tower.

After being "counseled" by the court-appointed attorney to take any "deal" that the prosecution might offer, Ashby Leach during a pre-trial hearing on November 17th, requested his own attorney. Since there was no way to deny this request, a new attorney was appointed and immediately asked for reduction in the ridiculously high $450,000 bond. And found that the court-appointed attorney had never bothered to make that simple legal request, but was instead carrying out the desires of the Chessie system to make sure that Ashby did not get out on bond. As a result of the new attorney's request, bond was reduced from $450,000 to $100,000; working through a bondsman, it is now possible for Ashby Leach to be out of jail pending trial for $5000.

The immediate tasks facing VVAW are to raise the money for bond so that Ashby can be out of jail, to continue to build nationwide support for his defense, and to raise the money needed to pay for his legal defense. Already the Milwaukee chapter of VVAW is asking people who sign the Ashby Leach petition to contribute a dollar toward his bond, and other chapters of VVAW will be doing similar fund-raising. Contributions can be mailed to the Ashby Leach Defense Committee, PO Box 09100, Cleveland, Ohio 44109. To get copies of the petition or for more information on how you can help to build the defense, contact the Defense Committee, the VVAW National Office, or the local VVAW chapter.

ON THANKSGIVING DAY ASHBY LEACH WAS FREED FROM THE CUYAHOGA COUNTRY JAIL WHEN HIS FAMILY RAISED THE $5000 FOR HIS BOND. WHILE THIS IS A GREAT BEGINNING, MORE FUNDS ARE DESPARATELY NEEDED TO BUILD ASHBY'S DEFENSE.