Military Resistance:
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5.29.11
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Military Resistance 9E23
AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS
Soldier From Centennial Killed In
Afghanistan
Brandon Kirton was killed in Afghanistan during a firefight with insurgents.
May 20, 2011 By G. Jeff Golden, Colorado Community Newspapers
A soldier from Centennial who was killed in Afghanistan during a firefight with insurgents
is being remembered for his devotion to family, selfless service and sense of humor.
Cpl. Brandon M. Kirton, 25, died of wounds incurred when his unit was attacked with
small-arms fire and mortar rounds in the Kandahar province May 18, according to the
Department of Defense. He was posthumously promoted to corporal from the rank of
specialist May 20.
Kirton is survived by parents Robert and Kathleen Kirton of Parker and his infant
daughter, Heaven Kirton.
A public memorial Facebook page devoted to Kirton, a 2004 graduate of Englewood
High School, had more than 300 fans by the afternoon of May 20. Friends and
community members weighed in on his life, most often citing his penchant for laughter
and his love for his family.
“He was somebody that could always make you laugh and a great person,” said former
Englewood High classmate Stephanie Bowen-Klish.
An infantryman with the 101st Airborne Division, Kirton joined the Army in January 2008
and had since earned a Purple Heart, a Bronze Star and several additional medals and
ribbons. He was a member of the 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade
Combat Team stationed in Fort Campbell, Ky. The base will be holding a service in his
honor at 4 p.m. June 8, and an additional memorial is scheduled in Afghanistan.
“We are deeply saddened to hear of the loss of Brandon Michael Kirton, who was killed
in Afghanistan,” Centennial Mayor Cathy Noon said. “We should take nothing for
granted and be so thankful to all of the soldiers that sacrifice their lives every day for our
freedom. My condolences to his family and especially his daughter, Heaven.”
Kirton’s passing brings the death toll of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan to
1,232, according to Department of Defense documents. An additional 11,411 soldiers,
Marines and contractors have been wounded in the conflict.
POLITICIANS CAN’T BE COUNTED ON TO HALT
THE BLOODSHED
THE TROOPS HAVE THE POWER TO STOP THE
WARS
Great Moments In U.S. Military
History:
“Fourteen Women And Children Are
Dead After An Airstrike Flattened Two
Homes In Southwestern Afghanistan”
May. 29, 2011 CTV.ca News Staff & CNN
Fourteen women and children are dead after an airstrike flattened two homes in
southwestern Afghanistan, a government official said Sunday -- an incident that stands
to add to the strain between foreign military forces and Afghan officials over civilian
deaths.
The attack in Helmand province, which was targeted at insurgents in retaliation for an
earlier attack on a nearby U.S. Marine base, instead hit two houses, killing five girls,
seven boys and two women, according to provincial spokesperson Dawood Ahmadi.
The death toll, if confirmed, would make it the largest loss of civilian life this year as a
result of an airstrike.
Residents, according to Ahamadi, said an U.S. helicopter conducted the airstrike, which
hit the two houses where women and children were staying.
In a statement, Afghan President Hamid Karzai strongly condemned the airstrike, saying
he was warning the U.S. military and government "for the last time" on behalf of the
Afghan people about civilian deaths.
After repeatedly calling on coalition forces to cut down on error-prone night raids and
airstrikes, Karzai on Saturday ordered that only government troops should conduct night
raids and that raids should be cleared in advance with the Afghan authorities.
It wasn’t immediately clear what impact, if any, his orders would have. [Sure it is. The
impact will be zero. The U.S. Imperial government runs the war in Afghanistan,
and Karzai is nothing but a thieving, opium dealing piece-of-shit clown who has
nothing to say about it. T]
As U.S. Troops Die:
Thieving, Opium Dealing Piece-Of-Shit
Karzai To Decide Who Gets Prosecuted
For Looting Bank His Brother Looted
May 29 By Associated Press [Excerpts]
KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan government commission blamed regulators for
financial mismanagement at the nation’s largest private bank, saying Sunday that
monitors should have kept Kabul Bank from making hundreds of millions in questionable
loans that forced the bank into receivership.
The bank has been in turmoil since this past fall when it was discovered that
shareholders — some of them relatives or backers of President Hamid Karzai — had
lent themselves millions to invest in luxurious mansions in Dubai, United Arab Emirates,
and risky prestige projects like an airline and shopping malls in Kabul.
Many of the loans were “undocumented,” so there was no system to ensure they were
paid back.
About $467 million of outstanding loans were made without appropriate documentation
or collateral, said Azizullah Lodin, the head of Afghanistan’s anticorruption office and
one of four commissioners investigating the Kabul Bank misconduct.
“These are loans made to people without regard to any formal banking system,” Lodin
said.
Karzai’s administration has previously blocked attempts to go after his close
associates for corruption or misconduct.
The commissioners said the report included a list of 207 people who had
outstanding loans from Kabul Bank, including a number of ministers and
parliamentarians, but that President Karzai would decide who should be
prosecuted.
Commissioners declined to provide names but those that have previously been
announced include one of President Karzai’s brothers, the former Kabul Bank
chairman who raised money for Karzai’s election campaign and a brother to one
of his vice presidents.
Following Tradition, Hysterical German
Reichskanzler “Shocked” Afghans Fight
Back When German Soldiers Invade
Their Nation And Kill Them
Am 30. Januar 1933 wurde Adolf Hitler als Reichskanzler vereidigt. Photo: AP
May 29, 2011 AFP
BERLIN - GERMAN Defence Minister Thomas de Maiziere on Saturday said two
German soldiers were killed in a Taleban bombing, contradicting local officials who said
three of the seven dead were German soldiers.
The minister also confirmed that the commander of Nato forces for northern Afghanistan,
German general Markus Kneip, who was in the targeted building but survived, had been
‘slightly injured.’
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a statement she was ‘shocked and sad
at the deaths, and the injuries inflicted on German soldiers, as well as the Afghan
victims.’
‘This terrorist attack is a illustration of a murderous inhumanity,’ she said, adding
that she hoped the Afghan authorities would lead a painstaking investigation so
that those ‘responsible are held to account as quickly as possible.’
[For those who missed it, the attack discussed above took place in Taloqan, a
town where German troops killed 12 civilians last week who were demonstrating
against the killing of civilians by foreign troops. T]
THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO COMPREHENSIBLE
REASON TO BE IN THIS EXTREMELY HIGH RISK
LOCATION AT THIS TIME, EXCEPT THAT THE
PACK OF TRAITORS THAT RUN THE
GOVERNMENT IN D.C. WANT YOU THERE TO
DEFEND THEIR IMPERIAL DREAMS:
That is not a good enough reason.
A U.S. soldier arrives at the site of an explosion in Kandahar city May 19, 2011. A bomb
hidden in a bag exploded near shops and a shrine in southern Kandahar city.
REUTERS/Ahmad Nadeem
U.S. soldiers fight Taliban insurgents who have taken over a government building in
Khost province May 22, 2011. REUTERS/Stringer
MILITARY NEWS
Iraq Veteran Eddie Falcon Speaks
Out Against The War:
“It Just Didn’t Make Sense To Me
That We Were Sending So Many
People There”
“And Like So Many People Were Dying
And It Just Didn’t Seem Justified For
What Happened”
[Thanks to Mark Shapiro, Military Resistance Organization, who sent this in.]
May 25 2011 By Erica Mu, KALW News
In the ‘60s and ‘70s, the Bay Area was a center for activism against the war in Vietnam.
Some of those protestors happened to be returning veterans, and many of those vets
are still protesting for peace today.
Joining them are some servicemembers coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan people like Eddie Falcon. Shani Aviram has this profile.
********************************************************************
EDDIE FALCON: I was pretty young. I didn’t think I understood, really, how things
worked in the world.
SHANI AVIRAM: Eddie Falcon is an Air Force veteran who served in Iraq and
Afghanistan. He enlisted when he was 18, after growing up east of Los Angeles, in a
community plagued by drugs, gangs, and crime.
FALCON: I enlisted in the first place to get money for school and to get out of, you know,
like harsh socio-economic situations that I was living in. So, what people call that is the
"economic draft."
Growing up in West Covina and La Puente in the Southern California desert, he says he
had only two paths to choose from.
FALCON: La Puente is a really crazy neighborhood to live in. There’s a lot of gang
violence around. It’s a really tough area. And then over when I was living in the desert
there was nothing to do there but drugs. So those were just, like, my two options: get
addicted to drugs or keep running around with gangs.
In 2001, he enlisted in the Air Force with the goal of using the GI Bill to pay for college.
But, he found that he didn’t quite fit in. He was one of the few Mexican-Americans in a
mostly white unit.
FALCON: A lot of people did say things like "beaner" or "spik" or something like that, but
there’s also really subtle things that you don’t notice that I’m starting to notice now. They
were always surprised at how smart I was. "I didn’t expect you to know that" or "you’re a
smart Mexican." Like stupid shit like that.
Falcon served as a Loadmaster Journeyman on a C-130 aircraft. His job was to load
cargo and passengers - passengers who were sometimes prisoners.
FALCON: You would take all the seats out of the plane...
...in order to make room to lay the Iraqi detainees on the floor like cargo. According to
Falcon, the procedure was to handcuff and blindfold the prisoners...
FALCON: ...and then you put them on the floor, and then you put them in rows of five
and then strap them down to the floor with cargo straps. I mean, there’s not really too
much. They wanted you to do all this other stuff too. Like, inside the kit there’s like these
gloves so like ... because they wanted you to feel disgusted by them, by the people or
something, and people will tell you that they’ll piss or they’ll shit or stuff like that, so they
want you to put like a tarp under them. I think the kit even comes with diapers. It’s, like,
really weird. It comes with a face mask and like all this stuff.
I didn’t use any of it and I never had any prisoners shit or piss any where or spit at me or
nothing like that. They were all really scared that they were there.
The "detainee runs," as Falcon calls them, left a lasting impact on him.
FALCON: When I was there in Iraq and did the prisoner runs, people were blindfolded
and when I took the blindfolds off of them and they saw me, they actually thought I was
Iraqi.
Falcon deployed four times to Iraq and Afghanistan. As the wars went on and violence
escalated, he started questioning the military operation.
FALCON: It just didn’t make sense to me that we were sending so many people there.
And like so many people were dying and it just didn’t seem justified for what happened.
Like having to tie people down to the floor of the plane and take them to prisons and like
getting shot at and running from rockets. That shit gets old, you know?
In 2005, after he was discharged, Falcon enrolled at San Francisco City College. He
started sharing his military stories with student groups to raise awareness of what’s
going on overseas. That’s when he first met members of Iraq Veterans Against the War.
It’s March 19, the 8th anniversary of the Iraq War, and ANSWER Coalition is holding its
annual march. It’s pouring rain, but the energy on the streets is high. Falcon has been
coming every year since he left the military.
FALCON: One time I was out of town, I was in Europe, but I still was in Paris on a corner
holding a "U.S. Out of Iraq" sign by myself.
Falcon is now the acting president of Iraq Veterans Against the Wars’ Bay Area chapter.
Only a handful of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have come out to march today. They
explain that many veterans feel discouraged by the government’s lack of response to
their issues. Others are still dealing with the psychological scars of war, like PTSD, and
just want to put their war experiences behind them. But for Falcon, sharing his story making connections with people - is a way of dealing with his past.
FALCON: Sharing my story with other people and I hear how other people’s stories were
in the military or whatever, and like it starts to bring out other things for me too, so I think
it’s good to keep talking and to keep sharing your stories with people because that’s how
you end up making connections and really analyzing things and finding out you got more
in common with people than you thought
Some try to portray the anti-war movement as anti-American. But, Falcon says,
protesting a war doesn’t mean you hate your country.
FALCON: It’s not that I don’t like America. I love America. That’s why I live here. I grew
up here. I’m culturally American. We have really cool shit. Everybody likes our music,
everybody likes our style. We’re cool. I like us. And I’m willing to defend the people
who are around me against any outsiders.
Falcon is currently a student at UC Berkeley using the GI Bill to pay for his education.
Despite his views of the military and government policies, he isn’t conflicted about using
state money to pay for college.
FALCON: I think it makes even more sense. Whatever, people can say whatever they
want.
I feel like the government has taken away a lot of things away from me. It’s taken away
my youth, it’s taken away my mental stability, the state has taken away members of my
family.
So I’ll take some money from them to get by and do what I gotta do. I got no problem
with that. It’s the least that they can fucking do for me is pay me to go to school after all
the shit that they put me through.
It has been six years since Falcon left the military, and he says he is still dealing with the
aftermath of his service. That’s why he is sharing his own story with as many people as
he can.
FALCON: I want to talk to kids because kids are going into the military from high school.
The people who really need my help or need to hear this are people who are going to go
through the same struggle that I went through. Like, people over here, college students
aren’t going to go through the same things I went through. They’re going to go through
something different. So, I want to talk to kids that are going to be enlisted.
Falcon’s voice of opposition might be rare among new veterans, but his need to heal is
shared by many of them. Talking about his experiences has been Falcon’s way of doing
so.
For Mills College, I’m Shani Aviram
FORWARD OBSERVATIONS
“At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Oh had
I the ability, and could reach the nation’s ear, I would, pour out a fiery stream of
biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke.
“For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder.
“We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.”
“The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they
oppose.”
Frederick Douglass, 1852
Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on youYe are many — they are few
-- Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1819, on the occasion of a mass murder of British
workers by the Imperial government at Peterloo.
Memorial Day 2011
Vietnam veteran in wheelchair
Oregon Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Portland, Oregon 1998
Photograph by Mike Hastie
From: Mike Hastie
To: Military Resistance
Sent: Sunday, May 29, 2011
Subject: Memorial Day 2011
Memorial Day 2011
Every year Americans honor their veterans
on Memorial Day and Veterans Day.
Everyone is a hero...
Great speeches...
Jets flying over...
Flags and more flags...
21 gun salute...
Taps...
Thank you for your service...
The only problem with this tradition,
is that the American people don’t want to
know a god damn thing about what really
happens in war.
18 American veterans commit suicide everyday.
I can’t tell you how many Vietnam veterans I have
met in my life who would have one simple message
to the American people:
Go Fuck Yourself!
Don’t trust a veteran who isn’t angry...
Mike Hastie
U.S. Army Medic
Vietnam 1970-71
Memorial Day 2011
Photo and caption from the I-R-A-Q (I Remember Another Quagmire) portfolio of
Mike Hastie, US Army Medic, Vietnam 1970-71. (For more of his outstanding work,
contact at: (hastiemike@earthlink.net) T)
One day while I was in a bunker in Vietnam, a sniper round went over my head.
The person who fired that weapon was not a terrorist, a rebel, an extremist, or a
so-called insurgent. The Vietnamese individual who tried to kill me was a citizen
of Vietnam, who did not want me in his country. This truth escapes millions.
Mike Hastie
U.S. Army Medic
Vietnam 1970-71
December 13, 2004
“Strategy Was Torpedoed By A
Massive Antiwar Movement
Among The Sailors”
“In San Diego On November 10, I
Found Five Aircraft Carriers Tied Up,
All Forced Out Of Combat In The Gulf
Of Tonkin By Their Crews, Each Of
Which Was Publishing An Antiwar —
And Increasingly Revolutionary—
Newspaper On Board”
“Not Since Pearl Harbor Had The U.S.
Navy Been So Crippled”
Excerpts from Vietnam And Other American Fantasies; H. Bruce Franklin; University Of
Massachusetts Press; Amherst, 2000
Meanwhile, the United States poured even more massive amounts of money and arms
into South Vietnam, giving the Saigon government overwhelming superiority in numbers,
firepower, and modern weapons, including the world’s fourth-largest air force.
But in the spring of 1972, “Vietnamization” took a body blow when the DRV [North
Vietnam] launched a major offensive that routed Saigon’s army, despite all its numerical
and technological advantages, and captured large sections of South Vietnam. All that
saved Saigon’s forces from total collapse was U.S. airpower.
But with no reliable army on the ground, U.S. strategy was forced to shift almost entirely
to aerial technowar.
One main component was to be a flotilla of Seventh Fleet aircraft carriers (twice as many
as in 1971) massed in the Gulf of Tonkin, bringing warplanes closer than the fighterbombers based in Thailand and the B-52s on Guam to targets all along the narrow land
of Vietnam.
This strategy was torpedoed by a massive antiwar movement among the sailors,
who combined escalating protests and rebellions with a widespread campaign of
sabotage.
The actions of these sailors cannot be written off the way some revisionist
historians have tried to explain away the fraggings, sabotage, and mutinies of the
ground troops as merely attempts at self-preservation.
The sailors could not be motivated by any desire to avoid wounds or death
because their ships were not in any danger of enemy attack.
So what were their motives?
Many of them shared the same revulsion that had inspired those first antiwar actions by
hundreds of merchant seamen in 1945, a revulsion now immeasurably intensified by the
kind of war being waged by the United States against the people of Vietnam.
In 1970 and 1971 ships had been sporadically forced out of action by outbreaks and
even sabotage by crew members.
Occasional inconspicuous newspaper articles allowed perceptive members of the
general public to get inklings of what was happening to the fleet.
An early example was the destroyer Richard B. Anderson, which was kept from sailing to
Vietnam for eight weeks when crew members deliberately wrecked an engine.
Toward the end of 1971, the sailors’ antiwar activities coalesced into a coherent
movement called SOS (Stop Our Ships/Support Our Sailors) that emerged on three of
the gigantic aircraft carriers crucial to the Tonkin Gulf strategy: the USS Constellation,
the USS Coral Sea, and the USS Kitty Hawk.
(One early act was a petition by 1,500 crew members of the Constellation demanding
that Jane Fonda’s antiwar show be allowed to perform on board.)
On these three ships alone that fall, thousands of crew members signed antiwar
petitions, published onboard antiwar newspapers, and supported the dozens of crew
members who refused to board for Vietnam duty.
In March 1972 the aircraft carrier USS Midway received orders to leave San
Francisco Bay for Vietnam.
A wave of protests and sabotage swept the ship, hitting the press when dissident
crewmen deliberately spilled three thousand gallons of oil into the bay.
In June the attack carrier USS Ranger was ordered to sail from San Diego to Vietnam.
The Naval Investigative Service reported a large-scale clandestine movement
among the crew and at least twenty acts of physical sabotage, culminating in the
destruction of the main reduction gear of an engine; repairs forced a four-and-ahalf-month delay in the ship’s sailing.
In July the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal was prevented from sailing by a major fire
deliberately set by crewmen, which caused millions of dollars of damage to the
captain’s and admiral’s quarters of the ship.
In September and October the crew of the Coral Sea, which had been publishing
the antiwar newspaper We Are Everywhere for a year, staged renewed protests
against the war, with over a thousand crewmen signing a petition to “Stop Our
Ship.”
It was forced to return to San Francisco Bay, where crew members held a national
press conference and helped organize support rallies and other demonstrations.
Almost a hundred crew members, including several officers, refused Vietnam service
and jumped ship in California and Hawaii.
In September crew members of the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga organized their own
“Stop It Now” movement, and navy intelligence tried unsuccessfully to break up the SOS
movement on the showpiece carrier USS Enterprise, home of the antiwar paper SOS
Enterprise Ledger.
A bloody September battle between groups of marines on the amphibious landing ship
USS Sumter in the Gulf of Tonkin off Vietnam was not made public until the following
January.
One of the most serious outbreaks took place in October on the Kitty Hawk, where
organized antiwar activities (including publication of the antiwar paper Kitty Litter)
had continued during its eight-month tour off Vietnam.
When the ship was ordered to return to Vietnam from Subic Bay instead of
continuing its voyage home, African American members of the crew led a major
rebellion, fought hand-to-hand battles with the marines sent to break up their
meeting, and reduced the ship to a chaos of internal fighting for several hours.
Four days later, fighting spread to the Kitty Hawk’s oiler, the USS Hassayampa. The
Kitty Hawk was forced to retire to San Diego, whence it sailed to San Francisco in early
January, where it underwent a “six-month refitting job.”
The sailors’ movement had thus removed this major aircraft carrier from the war.
Especially damaging were the synergistic effects of the protests, sabotage, and
rebellions on the aircraft carriers central to Pentagon strategy.
For example, when the House Armed Services Committee investigated the
hundreds of reports of “successful acts of sabotage,” one conclusion reached in
their report was that the rebellion on the Kitty Hawk had been precipitated by the
orders to return to Vietnam, orders mandated because two other aircraft carriers
had been disabled: “This rescheduling apparently was due to the incidents of
sabotage aboard her sister ships U.S.S. Ranger and U.S.S. Forrestal”
In October and early November, incidents of sabotage and an open revolt brewing
on the Constellation forced it to return to San Diego, where 130 sailors prevented
the ship’s departure for two months by refusing to reboard and staging a militant
demonstration onshore, resulting in their discharge from the crew.
The media called this a “racial outbreak,” but the picture in the San Francisco Chronicle,
captioned “The dissident sailors raised their fists in the black power salute,” shows
mainly white sailors with upraised arms and clenched fists.
When I went to speak in San Diego on November 10, I found five aircraft carriers
tied up, all forced out of combat in the Gulf of Tonkin by their crews, each of
which was publishing an antiwar — and increasingly revolutionary— newspaper
on board.
That night I addressed hundreds of these crew members in San Diego antiwar
movement centers, where men from the different aircraft carriers and their attendant
vessels were getting together to build a fleet-wide organization.
In December the Ranger, all repaired now, finally made it to the Gulf of Tonkin,
where it was immediately disabled by a deliberately set fire.
The navy admitted that this was the sixth major disaster on a Seventh Fleet carrier since
October 1.
Meanwhile, the internally embattled Constellation was not even able to sail from
San Diego for Vietnam until January 5, 1973, three weeks before the signing of the
Paris Peace Accords; the rebellious crewmen had in effect permanently removed
another major aircraft carrier from the war.
Not since Pearl Harbor had the U.S. Navy been so crippled, and then the damage
had been done by an enemy defeated in combat.
“During The Work Stoppage There Were Cheers Whenever A B-52 Was
Shot Down”
Individual pilots — one with more than two hundred previous combat missions —
refused on moral grounds to participate in the bombing.
After the first nights of heavy losses, many of the B-52 crews voiced their opposition to
the kinds of risks they were being asked to take in a conflict that had obviously been
decided.
The most serious actions took place among air crews of the supersecret 6990th Air
Force Security Service based on Okinawa, whose mission was eavesdropping on North
Vietnamese air defense communications in order to give timely warnings to the B-52
crews.
Because they had firsthand knowledge of the DRV’s [North Vietnam’s] preparations for
peace and were outraged by the nature of the bombing, they staged a work stoppage
verging on open mutiny.
According to Seymour Hersh, who interviewed at least ten members of the unit in early
1973, during the work stoppage there were cheers whenever a B-52 was shot down.
Some of the men were later court-martialed under stringent security.
“Feeling The Futility Of Demonstrating
And Of Working Within A Rigged
Electoral System, The Movement And Its
Press Turned Increasingly Toward The
One Group Capable Of Ending The War
With Direct Action: The People Forced
To Fight It”
Excerpts from Vietnam And Other American Fantasies; H. Bruce Franklin; University Of
Massachusetts Press; Amherst, 2000
Feeling the futility of demonstrating and of working within a rigged electoral
system, the movement and its press turned increasingly toward the one group
capable of ending the war with direct action: the people forced to fight it.
Liberation News Service’s “Special Issue on Soldiers” gave prominence to stories from
Vietnam GI and The Bond.
And the summer of 1968 became the “Summer of Support” for the GI antiwar movement.
The main focus was on coffeehouses, which were already centers for active-duty and
other resisters near major bases in Missouri, Texas, South Carolina, and Washington
state, while new ones were being opened in California and New jersey.
When the manager of the Oleo Strut, the coffeehouse near Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas,
“stood up before the G.I.s and announced that the Oleo Strut was part of the Summer of
Support,” LNS reported, the soldiers “responded with a standing ovation” because “this
was their coffee-house, and, should trouble come, many of them will defy the army.”
Indeed, within weeks the Oleo Strut proved to be a center of the insurrection that led to
dozens of soldiers refusing to go to Chicago to suppress the antiwar demonstrations
taking place outside the Democratic convention.
Simultaneously there emerged at Fort Hood itself The Fatigue Press, an underground
paper published by the GIs, whose editor was arrested by base authorities two weeks
after the Chicago confrontation.
As the underground press threw itself into the Summer of Support, there was a
noticeable shift away from civilians leading soldiers toward soldiers providing
leadership for the entire antiwar movement.
Before long, this trend would dramatically change the form and content not just of
opposition to the Vietnam War but of the war itself.
The reversal of roles was aptly symbolized by a teach-in held in Berkeley’s Provo Park
on August 10, 1968, chaired by ex—Green Beret Donald Duncan. Students now came
not to teach soldiers about the war, but to learn from them.
The Ally, a GI newspaper whose first issue in February had explained the profound
significance of the Tet offensive, now reported the lessons brought to the teach-in by
vets and active-duty GIs from the army, navy, coast guard, and marines.
The underground press, especially the rapidly proliferating papers published by military
personnel, were filled with stories of the insurrections, mutinies, and fraggings that were
crippling U.S. combat potential in Vietnam.
SDS criticized itself for not having taken previous work within the military seriously
enough and emphasized that “showing that the Left supports the soldiers” is no less
important than showing “that the soldiers support the left.”
Perhaps the most compressed fantasy projecting what America’s war against
Vietnam was doing to America is a fourteen-line poem by Steve Hassett, who
served as an infantryman and intelligence analyst in Vietnam:
And what would you do, ma,
if eight of your sons step
out of the TV and begin
killing chickens and burning
hooches in the living room,
stepping on booby traps
and dying in the kitchen;
beating your husband and
taking him and shooting
skag and forgetting in
the bathroom?
would you lock up your daughter?
would you stash the apple pie?
would you change the channels
DO YOU HAVE A FRIEND OR RELATIVE IN THE
MILITARY?
Forward Military Resistance along, or send us the address if you wish and
we’ll send it regularly. Whether in Afghanistan, Iraq or stuck on a base in
the USA, this is extra important for your service friend, too often cut off
from access to encouraging news of growing resistance to the wars, inside
the armed services and at home. Send email requests to address up top or
write to: The Military Resistance, Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y.
10025-5657. Phone: 888.711.2550
“I Have A Neighbor Who Insists On
Working On The Sabbath”
“Am I Morally Obligated To Kill Him
Myself, Or Should I Ask The Police To Do
It?”
[Thanks to Ward Reilly, Veterans For Peace, for passing this one along.]
Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God’s Law. I have
learned a great deal from you and understand why you would be for banning same
sex marriage.
As you said “in the eyes of God marriage is based between a man a woman.” I try to
share that knowledge with as many people as I can.
When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind
them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination... End of debate.
I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of
God’s Laws and how to follow them.
1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female,
provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims
that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify?
Why can’t I own Canadians?
2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In
this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?
3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of
menstrual uncleanness - Lev.15: 19-24. The problem is how do I tell? I have tried
asking, but most women take offense.
4. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor
for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is, my neighbors. They claim the odor is not
pleasing to them. Should I smite them?
5. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2. clearly
states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or
should I ask the police to do it?
6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination - Lev.
11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don’t agree. Can you settle
this? Are there ‘degrees’ of abomination?
7. Lev.21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in
my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be
20/20, or is there some wiggle-room here?
8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their
temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev.19:27. How should they
die?
9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me
unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?
10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev.19:19 by planting two different crops in
the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds
of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot.
Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town
together to stone them? Lev.24:10-16. Couldn’t we just burn them to death at a
private family affair, like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev.
20:14)
11. And one of my real concerns is that gay lobsterman who wears clothes made
of two or more fabrics and hauls lobsters on the Sabbath....Four abominations in
one day....Wow......
I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise
in such matters, so I am confident you can help.
Thank you again for reminding us that God’s word is eternal and unchanging.
Bible Readers of America
ANNIVERSARIES
May 30, 1937:
The Memorial Day Massacre:
Chicago Police Cowards Murder
Striking Steel Workers:
“All But Four Of The Fifty-Four Gunshot
Wounds Were To The Side Or Back And
One Victim Was Shot Four Times”
Carl Bunin Peace History May 28-June 3
1000 striking steel workers (and members of their families), on their way to picket at the
Republic Steel plant in south Chicago where they were organizing a union, were stopped
by the Chicago Police.
In what became known as the “Memorial Day Massacre,” police shot and killed 10
fleeing workers, wounded 30 more, and beat 55 so badly they required hospitalization.
**********************************
The Memorial Day Massacre of 1937
uhigh.ilstu.edu [Excerpts]
The 1930s was a period of economic unrest for the United States. Following the
prosperous “roaring twenties”, the Great Depression hit the general population hard.
Many employees were fired and those who were not lost much of their former salary.
Then, in 1933, as part of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, the National Recovery Act
was passed. One of its most important concessions to laborers was the right to organize
and bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing.
The number of strikes nationwide grew to the highest amount in American history.
When the National Recovery Act was declared unconstitutional in 1935, Congress was
still sympathetic to the young labor unions that had been formed under it. They soon
passed the Wagner Act, or National Labor Relations Act, to reassert the rights of the
laborers.
By the 1930s the steel industry had survived much adversity, yet there were still
changes to come.
The Committee for Industrial Organization, (CIO), was founded in November 1935.
Encouraged by the CIO, the steel industry became one of the first to begin organizing
under the Wagner Act. Accordingly, on June 17, 1936 The Steel Workers Organizing
Committee, (SWOC), was created.
The industry itself did not accept this movement.
Many companies began to stock up on tear-gas, firearms, and ammunition as well
as, refining their espionage and police systems.
After a long struggle for further organization and acceptance within the steel industry, the
United States Steel Corporation, (the leading producer of steel, dubbed “Big Steel”),
signed an agreement recognizing SWOC. This contract allowed for five dollar a day
wages in addition to a 40-hour week with time-and-a-half for overtime. By May 1937,
there were 110 firms under contract.
Still, some companies refused to sign. In response, SWOC called its first strike involving
25,000 workmen against Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation. Thirty-six hours later,
the corporation agreed to a Labor Board election. The union won 17,028 to 7,207.
Despite this enormous victory, a combination of “Little Steel” companies including
Bethlehem Steel, Republic Steel, Inland Steel, and Youngstown Sheet & Tube, refused
to sign.
Their leaders had strong anti-union attitudes and felt that the U.S. steel decision to
“surrender” to SWOC was a betrayal. Tom Girdler, chairman of the Board of Republic
Steel, was one particularly influential anti-union spokesperson.
The company anticipated a strike so they placed a stockpile of industrial
munitions at various plants of Republic Steel.
Then, on May 26, 1937, SWOC decided to strike three of the “Little Steel” companies:
Republic, Youngstown Sheet & Tube, and Inland. Most of the plants ceased production
during the strike; they were willing to wait it out because the steelworkers’ union strike
benefits were meager.
Picket lines were set up at these plants to prevent any attempt to reopen them.
However, Republic Steel remained defiant and refused to close all of its plants. They
even housed non-union workers in the plant, so they could continue working without the
hassle of picket lines outside.
One of these plants was the Republic Steel South Chicago Plant.
One half of this plant’s 2,200 employees had joined the strike. When the walkout began
on May 26, the police interfered in an attempt to prevent other non-committed workers
from joining the cause.
The SWOC organizers attempted to form a picket line in front of the gate.
Police Captain James Mooney, despite the fact that the picketers were peaceful, broke
up the line and arrested 23 people who refused to move. The rest were forced to 117th
Street, 2 blocks from the plant.
Because of this action, the police no longer played an impartial role in the strike.
Instead, they were clearly supportive of Republic.
Strike headquarters were established in Sam’s Place, at 113th and Green Bay Avenue.
Chicago mayor, Edward J. Kelley, announced in the Chicago Tribune that peaceful
picketing would be permitted.
In response to this article, the strikers attempted to establish pickets, but were turned
away.
On the next day, at around 5:00 PM, another attempt was made to picket. The marchers
marched from Sam’s Place to 117th Street. There were a few policemen present, but
the marchers continued west towards Burley Avenue.
Once the marchers reached Buffalo the police line had strengthened a great deal. The
workers continued and fighting broke out. The police used clubs to fight the workers
back. A few had drawn revolvers without orders and discharged them in the air. No one
was killed, but there were several bloody heads.
May 28 was a quiet day, but the marchers were upset with police actions.
Nick Fontecchio, a Union leader, called for a mass meeting at Sam’s Place the next day,
Memorial Day Sunday. Captain Mooney received an anonymous report that on Sunday
an attempt would be made to invade the plant to drive out the remaining non-union
workers. He did not check the rumor, but proceeded to station 264 policemen on duty at
the Republic Steel Mill.
By 3:00 p.m. on May 30, 1937, a crowd of around 1500 strikers had gathered. It
was a sunny, warm day with the temperature at around 88 degrees.
Many of the union members and supporters had brought along their wives and
children to join in this almost festive gathering organized by SWOC leader Joe
Hunt. Several speakers addressed various labor issues most importantly, the
right to organize and picket.
Some resolutions were approved to send to government officials concerning police
conduct at the Republic plant. It was then moved to march to the plant and establish a
mass picket.
When this was approved about 1000 people went into formation behind two American
flags. Instead of marching south down Green Bay Avenue, they turned onto a dirt road
across a open prairie chanting, “CIO, CIO!”
When the police, saw this they moved their position from 117th street between Green
Bay and Burley Avenue to across the dirt road, just north of 117th on Burley.
The 200 police were in double file and watched the approaching marchers with their
clubs drawn. The Republic mill had armed some of the officers with non-regulation clubs
and tear gas.
The marchers met the police line and demanded that their rights to picket be recognized
by the police letting them through.
They were “commanded in the name of the law to disperse”, but the picketers persisted.
This continued for several minutes. While marchers armed themselves with rocks and
branches, foul language was passed between the two parties. Tension was mounting.
Recording all of this was cameraman Orland Lippert. Unfortunately, he was changing
lenses at the start of the actual violence. This has caused some dispute as to which
side initiated the fighting. The following account, determined at the hearings under
Senator Robert LaFollette, is generally accepted.
Police were trying to prevent marchers from outflanking their line.
As some strikers began to retreat a stick flew from the back of the line towards the
police. Instantaneously, tear gas bombs were thrown at the marchers.
The next few moments were total chaos.
More objects were thrown at the police by the marchers.
Acting without orders, several policemen in the front drew their revolvers and
fired point blank at the marcher’s ranks, many of whom were beginning to retreat.
The actual shooting only continued for fifteen seconds, but the violence did not
end there.
Using their clubs, the police beat anyone in their paths, including women and
children.
During this time, arrests were also made. Patrol wagons were filled to twice the
mandated capacity of 8 prisoners. The injured were not even taken directly to
local hospitals.
As a result of this atrocity, four marchers were fatally shot and six were mortally
wounded. Thirty others suffered gunshot wounds.
Thirty-eight were hospitalized due to injuries from the beatings and still thirty more
required other medical treatment.
It is noteworthy that all but four of the fifty-four gunshot wounds were to the side
or back and one victim was shot four times.
There were minor police casualties with thirty-five reported injuries, (no gunshot
wounds), but only three needed overnight hospital care.
After the riot, sympathetic strikers fervently protested the police brutality. On the other
hand, the press, especially the Chicago Tribune, portrayed the marchers as communist
conspirators who had essentially attacked the police and attempted to throw out nonunion workers.
The LaFollette Committee investigated this tragedy and came to four conclusions.
First, the police had no right to limit the number of peaceful pickets and that the march
was not aimed at freeing remaining plant workers.
Second, the police should have halted the march with limited violence, if this action is
even justifiable.
Third, the force used by the police was excessive and the marcher’s only methods of
provocation were abusive language and throwing of isolated missiles.
Fourth, the police could have avoided the bloodshed.
In addition to those killed in the Memorial Day Massacre, 6 other union members
lost their lives in pickets of the “Little Steel” strike of 1937.
In fact, the “Little Steel” strike is surpassed by few in the areas of viciousness,
press distortion, suppression of rights, and police brutality.
The strike was called off when the many hardships suffered began to demoralize union
workers. However, in August of 1941, under legal pressure, the Little Steel companies
agreed to cease the committing of unfair labor practices. A year later, they signed their
first contract recognizing the new union, United Steelworkers of America.
The massacre has been referred to as the “blackest day of modern labor history”,
but the sacrifices of these workers were not in vain. Little Steel had only delayed
the inevitable march of unionism in America.
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