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GIs Struggle

By VVAW

USS MIDWAY: The Struggle Continues

(Yokosuka, Japan) Early in September, the USS MIDWAY was put into dry-dock in Yokosuka, Japan. Rumor has it that there was a crack in the hull, which is not surprising since this was the first time in 5 years that the ship was put in dry-dock for major repairs. It must have been serious since the dry-dock period caused the cancellation of a scheduled joint USMN-US Navy beachhead/air support exercise off the coast of South Korea. Such exercises are an important show of force for the US military in its mission of propping up shaky dictatorships in places like South Korea.

While the ship was in dry-dock, it was clear that the situation on the ship-bad working conditions and repression--haven't changed in the months since 40 crewmen walked off in protest last summer. One of the sailors working on the ship, SA Lefenebre, was killed while painting a mast without a safety harness and fell to the deck. Similar unsafe conditions have caused many accidents like this in the past.

Some of the black brothers on the ship have been receiving anonymous phone calls in the middle of the night threatening their physical well-being. Captain's Masts (Article 15) are continuing at an astounding pace--with the MIDWAY brig remaining the ultimate form of punishment resulting from Mast. Some people were saying that the brig guards began refraining from physical contact (i.e. beatings) with the prisoners. This "relaxation" of policy is only temporary, according to inside sources; but the change in policy, even if it is only temporary, can be attributed directly to the strength of the brothers who walked off the ship and used their court-martials as a forum for dissent. By and large, the unity of the MIDWAY brothers is still under attack. The brass's tactics of shipping out the more advanced and vocal brothers coupled with increased repression is meeting with temporary success on the boat.

The MIDWAY left dry-dock and sailed for Pusan, South Korea on September 26th. While the ship was out, the stories about nuclear weapons being brought to Japan on the MIDWAY and other ships came out in the Japanese press, after retired Admiral Larocque testified before Congress. The Japanese people were outraged and took to the streets in protest. Some of the sailors who walked off the MIDWAY had been, in part, protesting the nuclear weapons and it is likely that they will join the struggle of the Japanese people when they return to Yokosuka.

The MIDWAY is an important part of the US military's policy of maintaining US imperialism in Asia, as well as the oppression of GIs who are being used to do the military's dirty work. VVAW/WSO has been working with the MIDWAY brothers in their fight against the Navy and the military general. Their struggle did not end with the walk off; it will continue as long as they are used as tools of US imperialism.

FT. MEADE: GIs Support Base workers

(Ft Meade, MD) On October 2, workers belonging to Amalgamated Local Union 1231 went on strike to fight the contract offered them by Eastern Service Management, Inc. (which supplies base workers to Ft Meade). They work as janitors, buffing floors, and doing general clean-up at various Ft Meade buildings. In August, at the time of an election to recognize the union, the workers were scheduled for a raise to $2.92 an hour for general workers, and $3.07 an hour for waxers and buffers. But, since the recognition of the union, the company's wage offer sank to $2.56 an hour for all employees. The workers resisted this blatant attempt at union busting by striking for wage increases and decent benefits.

The union asked the post commander, Col. Patterson, for the right to picket the management office on base, but the request was denied. Col. Patterson claimed tat picketing would violate military regulations which say that the military must be neutral in labor disputes and that pickets would present a safety hazard on the base. Col. Patterson, however, is keeping open the management office to hire workers to break the strike. Further, the union charges that the Army is using active duty people in the meantime to do the work, thus using GIs as strikebreakers! This is just one more example of the military bosses using lower-ranking enlisted people to perform the jobs of striking workers. The military has a long history of strike breaking--GIs attacked striking miners in Ludlow, Colorado in 1914 all the way through GIs being used to sort mail during the postal strike in New York City in 1970.

The VVAW/WSO GI chapter at Ft. Meade HIGWAY 13 is calling on GIs to support the strikers who are picketing across the street from the base. Enlisted people have performed the job of suppressing people for the rich bosses for a couple of hundred years now--but GIs are organizing to fight being used as scabs by the military.