WE ARE EVERYWHERE

By VVAW

From "The 1st Casualty" - Volume 2, number 1 (July 1972)

WE ARE EVERYWHERE

New York

With our developing consciousness and our clearer understanding of events and situations that lead up to and initiate war, we in New York have begun to reach out to the people in the local communities throughout the state. While acknowledging the importance of large scale demonstrations and the necessity for headline-grabbing actions, we feel that the true strength of VVAW is the fact that we as veterans have first-hand knowledge of war and its consequences. This knowledge must be passed on through a person-to-person contact.

In line with this premise we have begun to set up storefronts and community centers where we can be visible to the people of our neighborhoods and can talk to them about the war and at the same time provide services that are lacking because of the gross expenditures of the federal government for the war in Southeast Asia. Our first storefront is located in Brooklyn. There the vets have begun draft and military counseling, health care programs, an information center on services provided by the city and in general a place in which neighbors can drop in to talk about the war. Other programs are in the process of being set up.

There are now veterans working in community centers in Oneonta and Albany and a storefront is being set up in Potsdam. The veterans in Buffalo are looking for a storefront and are in the meantime offering military counseling and job referrals in addition to setting up veteran caucuses in steel factories. Many chapters are working from schools such as Syracuse, Suffolk County, Binghamton and Rockland County where there are great concentrations of veterans. A chapter of VVAW is now being set up in Harlem-South Bronx which will deal with the particular problems of third world and poor white vets. Throughout the state we have begun the awesome job of trying to get positive results and programs that are acceptable to Vietnam-era veterans from the Veterans Administration and hopefully a complete shakeup of that bureaucracy. Planned for August 2 and 3 are hearings that will bring to the public's attention the plight of the addicted veterans and the lack of concern of the federal government for treating these victims of the war. In New York City the three VA hospitals have only 417 beds for drug addicts when there are an estimated 10,000 addicted veterans in the five boroughs.

And most importantly we are dedicated to ending the genocidal slaughter of the Indochinese peoples. This job becomes more and more difficult as time goes by due to the fact that the current administration tries its best to deceive the American people as to what their real interests are. We aren't fooled and we will continue to speak to people in their communities for as long as is necessary.

Washington-Alaska

After hearing of the blockading of North Vietnamese seaports, VVAW members from the Western Washington State College chapter mined the harbor at Bellingham, Washington with 100 multicolored balloons.

On May 11th, 8 brothers and sisters took over the King County Republican Headquarters in downtown Seattle. During their occupation of the building, from which they were finally evicted by 23 Seattle policemen, they distributed leaflets to the employees of the fascist party in power, stating that they were Vietnam Veterans Against the War. The Seattle Vet Cong were all charges with criminal trespass.

Two days later, a crowd of 1,000 demonstrators marched from the U.S. courthouse in protest of the mining. The demonstration's organizers, Seattle Peace Action Coalition (yes they are), had intended the march to end at the Westlake Mall in downtown Seattle. VVAW had other intentions, however. The Seattle Times described what transpired: "The demonstration was marked by factionalism with a more radical coalition carrying the march beyond its intended destination -- the Westlake Mall -- (to) the King County Republican Convention at the Seattle Center...As the last scheduled speaker was talking, some in the crowd shouted: 'We want the Vets.'" Finally, a VVAW representative was allowed to speak. He called for the march to the Republican convention. At the Westlake Mall, an SMC sound truck told marchers, 'Thanks for your participation.' But most followed the Vietnam Vets and SDS coalition on to the Seattle Center. The group marched through the children's ride section of the Fun Forest chanting: 'One, two, three, four, we don't want your fuckin' war.'

New Mexico-Arizona

As soon as the news of the mining of the North Vietnamese ports was heard by students of the University of New Mexico, they poured out into the streets, 500 strong, to demonstrate their protest. The pigs fired into the crowd with shotguns, wounding three students, one of them very seriously. The next day the pigs shot 12 more students. The shootings might have continued and more people might have been wounded or killed had not VVAW members placed themselves between the demonstrators and the pigs and said, "If you're going to shoot at the students, you're going to have to shoot us first." Flesh is a very thin armor, and the line between anger and love is a very thin line.

Colorado-Utah-Wyoming

2000 people in Boulder, after hearing Nixon's speech on the blockade, took to the streets and held Highway 36 for 24 hours. The police forced them with tear gas to relinquish one side of the highway but the demonstrators just crossed over to the other side of the highway and held that. Civil disobedience, leafleting, barricades and silent vigils marked the activities for the VVAW in Denver and Lowry AFB. The Greeley VVAW held a forced-march of 40 miles from Greeley to Denver to join the vigil on the Capitol steps. In Wyoming, 35 VVAW members held a silent vigil on the steps of the Capitol in Laramie.

California-Nevada-Hawaii

Two members of VVAW, along with five other persons, were arrested when Pat Nixon came to dedicate a Camellia Festival in Sacramento. The two veterans were charged with interfering with a "peace" officer and battery. Their bail was set at $2,000 each.

Monterey

Brothers and Sisters from the Monterey chapter of VVAW joined the Santa Cruz Anti-Imperialist crew at Fort Ord, California April 29th in the protesting of the intensified bombing by the U.S. government. The demonstration lasted approx. 2 1/2 hours blocking traffic on Hwy. 1. Repeated trips by two trucks delivered approx. 400 demonstrators to the rally. They were also instrumental in organizing discussions of U.S. war policy at Monterey College in conjunction with the county-wide student strike called in April.

San Francisco

In the middle of an organized protest of the increased bombing by the U.S., 16 members of VVAW liberated the Air Force recruiting office, downtown San Francisco. While over 2,000 demonstrators gathered around outside the building, acting as a buffer between the tac squad and the Fed. building, the vets watched recruiting films.

The vets issued a statement which stated: "We took over the recruiting office to recruit for life, not death...." The action was called a "protective reaction strike against Nixon's bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong." The statement went on to say that "the Air Force had no right to recruit people to continue this racist, aggressive war. Business as usual is over for today...." It was.

San Diego

On Friday, April 21st, 15 VVAW brothers turned themselves in at the 11th Naval District Headquarters for war crimes committed while in the service of the Imperialist U.S. government. It took the federal pigs 2 1/2 hours to figure out what law VVAW had broken and under whose control they were to fall. As it worked out, five brothers were busted on federal charges, the charges being of conspiracy to deface government property (a felony) and trespassing on federal property. Bail was set at $2,000 per brother.

Orange County

Orange County has Disneyland, the Western Whitehouse, the John Birch Society and now it has VVAW. Their first major action was on Armed Farces Day. They led a march from El Toro Marine Base to Memorial Park in Orange County. They co-sponsored the march with MDM and the Orange County Anti-Imperialism Coalition.

VVAW in Orange County has been working with the Vietnamese Students For Peace in California and will provide security at their cultural nights and speaking engagements.