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From Battlefield to Battlefield

By VVAW

LESSON FROM WAR PUT TO USE IN THE MINES

Throughout the pages of THE VETERAN there are stories about veterans and unemployment, veterans whose disabilities are being cut, problems with the GI Bill--all the many ways in which the U.S. government and its rich bosses try to toss its veterans--on the garbage heap. But the vast majority of veterans, like the vast majority of men and women in this country, are out putting in their 8 (or, with speedups, 10 or 12) hours a day trying to scrape out a living and provide as best they can a decent life for themselves and their families.

For many of those veterans, however, the experience of fighting a rich man's was has not been forgotten, and some of the lessons learned in the rice paddies of Vietnam are now being transferred to their postwar lives and actions, all in a way far different from the much-publicized crazed and psychotic vets portrayed on TV.

A New York Times article about the "new breed" of coal fields talks at length about the number of miners, often involved deeply in the work of the union, who are Vietnam veterans. "Miners of the new generation are bolder and wiser not only because of the need for their labor but also because thousands of them were in combat in Vietnam and have had some college education." The average age of union local presidents is 35, the article continues, and one third of the working miners in the union are in their 20's. The article quotes a 30-year old union vice-president, a Vietnam combat infantryman, as saying, "I think about half the guys my age ended up in Vietnam--their daddies were poor and had not influence to keep them out."

The article was written at a time in early September when the "new breed" was in the front of the fighting around healthcare benefits (which the unions was trying to cut back), staging wildcats throughout the coalfields in support of the demand to restore full healthcare, and battling against the sell-out leadership of Arnold Miller and his cronies in the United Mine Workers Union.

At the same time, miners in the iron ore ranges of northern Minnesota and Michigan were on strike over wages and working conditions. There, too it was Vietnam vets who were deeply involved in the fight. One of the miners laid out what the experience of Vietnam meant to the miners: "They used the hell out of the youth of this country in that stinking Vietnam War. U.S. Steel and a lot of other companies made big money on it. Now we're going to make them give us what we deserve." The experience of Vietnam helped a lot of vets to see who the real enemy is.

The miner, Miles Surla, 24, was on the picket line at the time, wearing a fatigue jacket with the slogan, "I'm sure I'll go to heaven because I've served my time in hell. Vietnam '71-72."

A shop electrician also on the picket line laid out his feelings--"If Vietnam had not happened, I would not see things like I do now." This Vietnam vet served with the Army in 'Nam in '68 and '69.

The company, needless to say, saw things different. An anonymous management spokesman said, "The trouble with these younger guys is that they want everything in two weeks--a house, boat, cabin in the woods." To which one of the vets responded, "People are waking up. What's the point of buying a boat if each Sunday you are so tired from work and harassment that you cannot enjoy it?"

The strikers talked about wages and about working conditions. Tired of being treated like dirt--what they called the condescending paternalism of foremen and supervisors--the miners hit the picket line with a whole package of demands. While almost any veteran can talk about the treatment in the military, about the way the brass deals with the enlisted ranks, many Vietnam vets sere also a part of the experience of resistance inside the military. The experience of fighting against the Vietnam war led, in turn, to resisting all kinds of military Mickey-Mouse harassment (hundred of thousands of combat vets can recall the experience of coming in after weeks in the boonies and having some sparkling clean officer sound off about dirty boots or long hair). Often jumping off the perceptions that the reasons behind being sent to Vietnam were lies (we were not defending democracy or "helping" a loyal and dedicated ally--anyone who saw the ARVN perform knew better than that), GIs not only began to questions why we were there but also to question and finally united against much of the discipline of the U.S. military. And both the questioning and the fighting are being carried over into civilian occupations.

The lessons of having been a part of the U.S. military in Vietnam go deeper, however. Thousands of veterans came back from Indochina with the sense that they had been used. And when we looked around to see who had used us, it was clear that it went far beyond just the military brass. Instead, it was a government which lied to us and, even more important, a class which stood behind that government. That was the group making profits off the war, profits even off the tremendous expenditures (and equally tremendous waste) of supplies in Indochina, a group which didn't much care if a piece of equipment was used, blown-up, or captured just so long as they could make a profit selling the military another item.

This class, of course, had deeper interests than just profit from war materials--the oil off the coast of Vietnam was of-talked about as were the tin deposits. Almost any GI could see the way in which the Vietnamese were used at miserably low wages (women filling sandbags for the 1st Air Cav Division for 10 hours a day were paid $1 per day, yet because of the poverty of the country were still clammering for jobs). To continue to exploit the peasants and workers of Vietnam, the U.S. ruling class also had to maintain their political control over the country (which meant keeping it from being united into one country with its northern half) and that was the primary tasks of the U.S. military.

These were experiences, made real by the discomfort of rice paddies, the fear of mortar rounds, the grief at the death of friends which are impossible to forget. For many veterans--as illustrated by the statements from the miners--theses perceptions carry over, since the same class that sent us off to die for their profits in Indochina is now fully ready to have us die for them in their mines and mills. Just as in Vietnam, as many of us began to learn there and continue to learn in our workplaces, we have nothing in common with the bosses except to share the battlefield where we will fight them.

The wildcat strikes in the coalfields ended after ten weeks with the miners, though not winning all their demands gaining some real victories both against the companies and the attempts by union leadership to sell them out. In the Mesabi Range in Minnesota, the strike goes on with the miners vowing to stay out until they win. Because of the overwhelming support among the miners themselves, the union (United Steelworkers) was forced to authorize the strike. And, as the striking workers' anger becomes more organized and directed, their strength will grow.