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Vets Bring New Meaning to Old Day!

By VVAW

"TO HELL WITH THEIR NATIONAL HONOR, WE WON'T BE USED AGAIN!"

On Veterans Day, 1977, VVAW chapters and vets from coast to coast took a real shot at the band of thugs who run this country--them same bunch that tried to use Veterans Day to push their version of "national honor" and "national pride." Proclaiming "TO HELL WITH THEIR NATIONAL HONOR, WE WON'T BE USED AGAIN," VVAW took the battle around how vets are used--to fight wars for the profits of the rich and now again on days like Vets day to push for future wars--right into the home park of the class that rules this country.

A couple of major points emerged from the VVAW actions. First, the American Legion, the VFW, and other traditional veterans organizations which faithfully serve the interests of the rich do not speak for 'all" veterans as they claim. All their glorification of war, their upside-down concept of "patriotism" just does not get over with large numbers of vets. And despite the attempts of the media in many places to set up a conflict between "older" and "younger" vets, or World War II vets and Vietnam vets, this was not the case either. Vets from all eras marched with VVAW. There is a conflict but it is between veterans who stand with working people, who see how we were used once and thrown away, and vets who support the schemes of the rich to set us up for their next war.

Second, VVAW found that when we run up the banner saying "Fight the Rich, Not their Wars" people eagerly respond. Not just veterans, though many vets from all wars can appreciate the experience which has led VVAW members to this stand, but non-veterans who are eager to learn from the experience of vets. This response comes from people as different as the chanting highschoolers in San Francisco (see article on Bay Area), to a middle-aged businessman with a briefcase who stopped by the VVAW banner across the street from the American Legion ceremony in Chicago and said "Keep up the good work," to the 70-year-old woman who read a VVAW leaflet in the Cincinnati public library and told members of the chapter, "I'm with you 100%."

The class of people who run this country don't like what's happening--not one bit! And they react in a number of ways which characterize their rule; they try to ignore, harass, intimidate those who stand in battle against them. Because the ruling class owns and controls the media (though not the many sympathetic reporters) they can try to keep information out of their press or gut the political message in the process of covering it. But when thousands of people see a group like VVAW marching in the midst of a Legion parade (as in the Bay Area) the media are forced to cover what went on. Or they can trot out the police arm of their government, whether it's the one-on-one cops at the American Legion ceremony in New York City of the cordon of police giving protection to the Legion in Chicago like any band of hired thugs. When people united and refuse to be intimidated, and when large numbers of people support what is happening, the rulers can't operate as they might like.

Our theme, "To Hell With Their National Honor, We Won't Be Used Again" says what many people want to say ?no matter how many Legion or VFW hacks the rich can display on Veterans Day, we're not about to be duped into another of their wars. Around Panama, particularly, the capitalists try to get out one position (though they try to make it sound like two positions). The flip sides of their coin are the Legion's "Keep 'Our' Canal in Panama" and send off as many troops as necessary to defend it, or the Carter position which says "Keep 'our' Canal in Panama until the year 2000" and send off as many troops as necessary to defend it with the consent of the Panamanian government. Whether you choose heads or tails, it's still the same bad penny that the rich are trying to pawn off on us, since we're the ones who are supposed to go off and fight their rotten war. What they're looking for is "Heads, they win; tails, we lose." On Veterans Day VVAW countered this confusion with the simple and correct position, U.S. OUT OF PANAMA NOW--Panama belongs to the Panamanians, they sweated and died to build the Canal, and it belongs to them. The U.S. has no more right in Panama than it did in Vietnam. The statement, FIGHT THE RICH, NOT THEIR WARS turns the situation rightside up and points directly at who our enemy is--not the people of Panama or the people of South Africa, or the people of the Soviet Union, for that matter, anymore than our enemy was the people of Indochina.

Hundreds of thousands of thousands of Vietnam-era veterans see, from our own experience, how we were once used and then thrown aside with no jobs, bad benefits, stinking hospital care. Treatment of Vietnam vets is a national scandal with the media running consistent stories, President Carter talking about the situation, and even the Legion nodding in the direction of saying there should be jobs for vets. So they come up with a couple of sham programs, they'll talk a lot, and put out movies to show they have sympathy with the Vietnam veterans; but, in the real world, they'll continue to hope that Vietnam vets and the lessons of Vietnam vets and the lessons of Vietnam will all somehow disappear. When VVAW took out JOBS OR INCOME NOW, and DECENT BENEFITS FOR ALL VETS during Veterans Day, there was great unity around the demands.

Across the country Veterans Day was a real triumph. Though VVAW held activities in only 8 cities (in addition to those with articles on this page, actions took place in New York City, Cincinnati, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Los Angeles and San Diego) we found even more popular support than we had more popular support than we had anticipated. This came both from veterans of all eras and from broad numbers of non-vets. In several of the cities (see articles on this page) the ruling class and their stooges like the American Legion were clearly on the run--and running scared. VVAW, with our campaigns for the future, will keep the heat on!

BAY AREA VETS DAY

(The following article was written by members of the Bay Area VVAW Chapter)

Just the other day we talked to a couple of Vietnam combat vets. They were mad because we'd all been through Hell over there for the rich man and now we were getting screwed by the rich man's system. Now, we were about to pass in front of the Reviewing Stand of the Veterans Day parade. We were organized and disciplined, and angry at the way they try to use vets on Veterans Day to glorify war. We carried our banner proclaiming: "To Hell With Their National Honor--We Won't Be Used Again!"

Suddenly the crowd burst into applause, then into cheering! A group of kids raised their fists, chanting: "Hell No, We Won't Go!" A photographer ran to tell us that VVAW was the only contingent in the whole parade the crowd cheered like this for!

The day before, delegations from VVAW chapters in San Diego and Los Angeles arrived; we put out a call for vets in the Bay Area to assemble at Third and Market (in San Francisco) to join us. As the time approached, vets wearing their old battle fatigues, some with medals and campaign ribbons, at least three World War II vets, Korean War vets and Vietnam vets gathered for a short rally. Then, moving out five abreast, we marched 70 strong to the start of the parade six blocks away. (By the time we were to reach the Reviewing Stand, we would number 100 strong!) We passed by high school drill teams and marching bands, ROTC cadets and the glaring eyes of parade officials.

The parade began. As we rounded the corner on to Market Street, we were determined to tell the world that we veterans will not be used again! We will not be used to fight another rich man's war, and we certainly won't be used on Veterans Day or any other day to glorify the rich man's blood soaked rule around the world. That's why they celebrate Veterans Day, and we were there to turn that around. We were there to demand jobs, decent benefits, and that the United States get the Hell out of Panama Now!

And turn it around we did! We were cheered by people all along the parade. More vets joined our ranks. One donated $100 worth of printing to VVAW. We were greeted with clenched fists from passerby. The solidarity we felt with the people was overwhelming.

As we counted cadence and sang out "Fight the Rich and Not Their Wars, It's the Working class We're Fighting For!," we like we'd never marched before. In the service, marching is one way they keep you in line. Here, marching and being organized made sense--it reflected our determination to fight the rich for what we need!

The crowd knew this and joined us in our demands. We marched by the Reviewing stand victorious! The hacks on the stand (made up of VFW and American Legion leadership, military brass and assorted politicians) announced to us over the PA system, "Alright, you've had your little fun. We've given you more time than any other group. Your time is up, now move on." The crowd booed them down! Someone from the back of our contingent yelled at the officials: "No! Your time is up!" We chanted U.S. out of Panama Now! Fight the Rich and Not Their Wars! We marched on, leaving the parade officials looking pretty damn silly and alone. We had come to "slap the system in the face," and we left stealing the whole show!

The hacks on the Reviewing Stand and the rich class they represent did not want us there on that day. They did everything they could to keep us out. Last year they flat out denied VVAW entrance into the Vets Day parade. This year, we built a whole campaign around Veterans Day. Huge posters and two leaflets went out all over calling on vets from all wars to join us. We held an organizing meeting and a VVAW Pancake Breakfast. We took a slide show and vets history photo display around to show how vets from the Revolutionary War to the Vietnam War have always come home angry at being used and thrown away by the rich class, and have always organized to fight for what we need! VVAW was on over 14 radio and TV stations in the weeks before Veterans Days. We debated the American Legion and held a number of talk shows ranging from 30 minutes to two hours long. It was the kind of campaign that added up to victory in the "Battle of Veterans Day" in the Bay Area. On the weekend before the parade, almost 50 vets from the West coast region marched in a demonstration for the International Hotel on the day before the parade. That night, we had a chow mein and fried chicken dinner, then saw the "Battle of the Bicentennial" film.

Our strength was in the thousands of people who knew and supported what we were fighting for. That was the real honor that veterans received this Veterans Day. And like we told the hacks on the Reviewing Stand: The time is up!

CHICAGO VETS DAY

(The following article is from Chicago VVAW)

Veterans Day in Chicago actually began with the "federal" Vets Day in October when members of VVAW went to the "Eternal Flame," Chicago's monument to veterans, and burned discharge papers. Because word of our action got out across the city, veterans who had heard about our plans suited up in fatigues and joined in. Challenging a system which would give us a "day" but wouldn't give us jobs, a decent GI Bill, decent healthcare--and one which was gearing up to use us or our sons in another rich man's war--VVAW announced our intention to be party of the city's traditional ceremony on November 11th.

True to our word, we went to the Mayor's office and, after we were turned down there, to the American Legion to demand a part in the traditional ceremony. Standing squarely with the system, they refused; the Legion representative informed VVAW members that "You're all dead--you burned your discharges!"

A couple of days later, VVAW was back at the flame in the midst of Chicago's Loop to hand out bad discharges to the Legion representative, Chicago's mayor and the governor of the state. For the third time the press kept the campaign out in front of the people of the city.

On November 11th none of the advertised dignitaries--the mayor, the governor, the secretary of state--showed up for the Legion's ceremony. And, running scared, the Legion actually moved its ceremony up and hour so that, by the traditional hour of 11 o'clock, VVAW had the entire Plaza area surrounding the "Eternal Flame" for our ceremony. Not only did the city surround the Legion ceremony with a phalanx of cops to protect them, but when one VVAW member tried to unroll our banner with the VVAW demands for the day was hauled off by 6 undercover cops. When a middle-aged businessman quietly told the cops, "I'm watching; you'll get in trouble," they released him and he returned to our ceremony.

In the face of all these attempts to divert and put off confrontation with VVAW, we didn't slow down for a moment. When 11 o'clock came, we stepped off, marching to the "Eternal Flame" and laying a ceremonial wreath (carrying the motto "We Won't Forget, We Won't Forgive") at the Flame to hold a ceremony which actually honored our comrades who had died in the service of the rich. Veterans spoke to how we were used once and then thrown away; they spoke in anger about how we will not forgive the rich who used us--that criminal class which needs wars to increase their rotten profits. A member of Youth Action talked about how that same class will try to get working class youth to bleed for them in the next war--and how they are determined not to do it.

Then, banners held high and singing to much improved military cadences, the demonstration marched through downtown Chicago. Fists were held high, horns honked, pedestrians hurried over to shake hands with the veterans as the people of Chicago showed that they supported an action which said Fight the Rich, Not their Wars!

VETERANS DAY IN MILWAUKEE

(The following article comes from Milwaukee VVAW)

On November 11, the ruling class, represented by their bootlicking servants of the American Legion and VFW thought they would have a relatively clear field to preach "National Honor," to glorify how great an "honor" it is to fight and die for their bloodsoaked rule.

At the Milwaukee War Memorial there are granite slabs with the names of men who died in the nation's wars--World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam. The Legion's great "tribute" to the dead was to consist of unveiling four mosaics representing the four military services. All in all, it was a disgusting spectacle.

The Milwaukee Chapter of VVAW had built for a contingent to go and make sure there was no "business as usual." On Veterans Day, 1977, their voice was not going to be only voice of veterans.

On the morning of the 11th VVAW met for breakfast and could see our strength. Among the people there were Vietnam vets of all nationalities, Korean and World War II vets, and a 68 year old widow whose husband had died at the Veterans Administration Hospital.

When the Legion and their cohorts came outside from their indoor program in order to unveil the mosaics, we were there to greet them. Banners proclaimed VVAW's slogans and demands for Veterans Day. Whose interests the Legion serves was graphically shown when a big, pot-bellied jerk wearing an American Legion State Commander's hat pulled out his badge and walkie-talkie and announced that he was a Milwaukee police officer.

Our response was "So what? We're vets and this is our day." He threatened to call in reinforcements and we chanted, "Fight the Rich, Don't Fight Their Wars!" When the 21-gun salute was fired, we all stood silent, clenched fists raised in angry defiance. Then, one at a time, we threw our medals and discharge papers into the reflecting pool while a local high school band played the "Star Spangled Banner."

It was a day that raised a lot of controversy--and it was a day that made us more determined to fight!