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1945, Vets' History: The Back Home Movement

By VVAW

World War II, a just war, directly or indirectly affected every nation; left major portions of the world, like Europe in ruins and the people of the world in turmoil. The US late entry into the war came after much of the devastation was complete and their allies, though not defeated, and suffered immense hardship and casualties.

Before entering the war, American arms and munitions manufacturers stacked up incredible profits as well as every other sector of the US economy, benefiting from the temporary boom which accompanied the war.

The deserts of Africa, the bitter Italian campaigns, central and Eastern Europe, Asia, the steaming jungles of India and Burma, island hopping in the Pacific--these and other places witnessed the pain and suffering of the American GI. As the war came to an end, these same survivors, sick of war, looked forward to returning home. But the rich had other plans. They made a killing on the war but more importantly had scooped up much of the markets and territory of their allies as well as those of Japan and Germany.

During that period US Senator Tunnel stated the ruling class' position quite well when he stated, "It would be an anomalous position for the US to occupy, after putting up the men, the money and enduring all the sacrifices these men, to have our country precluded from the markets we have liberated." February 15, 1945.

Fortunately for Senator Tunnel and the ruling class he spoke for, "liberation" held a completely different meaning for millions of people in China, Vietnam, Korea and the world over. These people looked ahead to total independence after many years of subjugation by one major power after another. This ran in direct conflict with the plans of the US and other imperialist powers after the war.

The obvious answer for the US rich in this situation was to pack up their standing armies around the world and shift them to where they could best be used--again. They assumed that the WWII veterans would stand silently by and go where they were told, like "good" soldiers. The ruling class and military had made a mistake they would soon regret.

While GIs waited to go home the troop ships were carrying arms to the Dutch in Indonesia, to the French in Indochina and to Chiang KaiShek in China. On several occasions, homebound GIs were bumped off ships to make way for Asian arms shipments. The grumbling turned to real anger when GIs in Europe were notified that they were going to be transferred to Asian "occupation" duty. The sentiments of the GIs were summed up best by a pamphlet written by GIs in Manila in 1945-6. It read "According to war department spokesman, 'demobilization' is proceeding with alarming rapidity. Alarming for whose point of view? Alarming to the generals and colonels who want to go on playing war and not go back to being Captains and Majors? Alarming to business men who stand to make money having their investments rebuilt at Army expense? Alarming to the State Department, which wants an army to back its imperialism in the Far East?"

The GIs who were put on trains protested by hanging signs from the trains' windows reading "Why do we go from here?" and shanghaied for the Pacific." Huge letter writing campaigns by the GIs and their families to Congress, full page newspaper ads and endless appeals were of no avail. Gradually the GIs transferred their anger into action. The GIs at Camp Shelby, Miss. Booed down a general trying to explain the delay in demobilization. These GIs were from the all-Black 95th Division, and had suffered enough at the hands of racist officers to be highly supportive of the GIs overseas, suffering a similar repression.

In December, the GIs in Asia exploded. On Christmas Day, 1945, 4,000 men held a march carrying banners that read, "WE WANT SHIPS!" referring to a strike then going on in the States of some 225,000 General Motors workers, their commanding officer said, "you men forget that you're not working for General Motors. You're still in the Army," but the soldier could see the growing power of mass action. On January 6, again in Manila, several thousand GIs held two marches that were broken up by the MPs. On January 7, 2,500 men marched to the commanding general's headquarters once again demanding ships home. Their leaflet noted that "The State Department wants the Army to back up imperialism." That night as many as 20,000 GIs attended a mass meeting demanding the right to go home and supported the rights of the Asian people to self-determination, without coercion from the Army.

These actions sparked the flames of GI resistance around the world; January 7, 2000 GIs at Camp Boston, France; Jan 8 protests from 6,000 in Sampan; 3,500 GIs on Guam held a hunger strike. On Jan 9, 18,000 protested on Guam; 1,000 marched in Paris; 1,800 sent support telegrams from London; 5,000 marched in Frankfort with many arrests; 5,000 marched on Calcutta; 15,000 in Hawaii and there were smaller demonstrations in Maryland (Andrews Field), Yokohama, Japan and Rheims, France.

The brass became frantic threatening arrests and courts-martial, they gagged the GI newspapers and tried to cover up the news in the public press. Even Eisenhower himself recognized the seriousness of the Back Home Movement by labeling it "hysteria."

But it was too late. The GIs were moving on to higher forms of organization. In the Philippines, a Soldiers Committee was set up with delegates representing 139,000 GIs. The Soldiers Committee and continued to carry out plans and agitation against the Brass. On Jan 13, 1946, in Paris, another committee released one of the most famous documents in the history of GI resistance, the Enlisted Men's Magna Carta.

500 elected delegates for GIs around Europe met to write grievances against the military. On Jan 13 they released the Enlisted Men's Magna Carta to the press. It demanded that all officers serve a term of at least one year as enlisted men and that all the privileges including clubs, separate eating facilities be eliminated, that the court-martial boards include enlisted men and that the current Secretary Of War, Patterson be removed and the magna Carta be presented to the US Senate. The committee also established a "GI Liberation Committee" to fight for the demands of the Magna Carta.

Faced with open rebellion the US rich instructed the Army to give up to the GI demands to come home. Ships quickly appeared in Europe and Asia. In less than 6 months the Army dropped from 8 million to about 1 1/2 million. The GIs had won. The Chinese and Vietnamese would win later.

The Back Home Movement effectively stalled plans for an invasion of China and destroyed American plans for a war with the Soviet Union. For the second time, as in the Soviet Union in 1920, American GIs would refuse to fight against a popular revolution in another country, this time in China. Some 20 years later the spirit of GI resistance would once again surface as GIs, veterans and millions of people in the US took to the streets in protest of the war in Vietnam.

The Back Home Movement showed the power veterans and GIs had to bring the US ruling class, their legislators and military to their knees. The Back Home Movement won a tremendous victory. The Back Home Movement stands as a tribute to the enthusiasm and ability of GIs and veterans to organize and take control of their own lives in the enforcing arm of US imperialism-the military.