[Marxism] On the GI organizing discussion

["Greg Butterfield" <gregb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm forwarding this message to the list at John
Catalinotto's request.
Greg Butterfield

--------------------------------

I read with interest some of the exchange over the
organizing in the military and among military families,
since that was my strongest emotional and most dynamic
experience in progressive organizing, when I was a
civilian organizer with the American Servicemen?s Union
from 1967-1970. Now I?m an editor of Workers World
newspaper -- I?ve been a WWP member since the end of 1962.
The discussion over ?Heretic? reminded me of the first
time we got an inkling of what was happening inside the
U.S. Armed Forces.

At the beginning of 1967, WW newspaper received a letter
signed by three soldiers at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. I still
have an image of the comrade who handled the mail leaning
over the table as he pointed out the letter to me. It
seemed outrageously ultra-left, ending with something like
?Long live the National Liberation Front [of Vietnam]? and
?For the world revolution.? We didn?t know whether to be
suspicious it was a provocation, amused, or to treat it
seriously. The comrade decided to treat it as if it was
serious; after all, it was signed by three soldiers
complete with their ranks: Sp. 4?s Dick Wheaton and Paul
Gaedtke, and Pvt. Andy Stapp.

It was good that we did. A few months later Stapp was up
on charges of refusing orders to open his footlocker and
we (in Youth Against War and Fascism) were defending him.
By the end of 1967, the ASU had started; the three GIs
above were its early members. I won?t try to retell the
ASU story, but the moral of this story is that you can be
surprised by how rapidly political development takes place
when people are faced with life-and-death choices.

This was not only in the area of words, by the way. There
were plenty of times that the young troops took action
that, while foolish and dangerous for themselves, was not
a provocation in the sense that it wasn?t provoked by
police agencies. This wouldn?t necessarily be an act by
the same people who declared solidarity with the NLF; it
might be by someone who considered himself a patriot but
against this stupid war, or someone who hated his ?pig of
the month? non-com officer.

The troops and their families share the same ideas that
are foisted on 99+% of the working class in this country
by the powerful media and educational system under control
of the imperialist bourgeoisie. Is there any wonder very
few of them will sympathize with Iraqi resistance fighters
or Palestinian revolutionaries? We should be aware of what
they are thinking, how they see the world. That doesn?t
mean, however, that political organizers should mistake
these thoughts for something that people come to from
their own experiences or that accomodating to these ideas
is more democratic than some other way of dealing with
them.

The GIs are thrown into a horrible situation in Iraq. As
Stan Goff wrote (was it a year ago?) in his excellent open
letter to the troops, they are being almost forced to kill
civilians, to commit war crimes. And they are themselves
in terrible danger. The news this week ? the lip they gave
to Rumsfeld, the suit against stop-loss tactics, the
relatively mild punishment for the 343rd Quartermaster
Company that refused to drive their trucks ? show that
something is happening inside. Then there are the
individual cases like Jeremy Kinzman?s applying for asylum
in Canada or Carlos Mejia or the sailor in San Diego
refusing to go.

It starts to add up. Now I think the Military Families
organization was a great idea and has connected with the
families and made a contribution to the movement. I think
GI Special and SNAFU have both made excellent attempts to
reach the troops ? yet it?s true that they haven?t
connected the way Vietnam GI and The Bond did in 1968.
That doesn?t necessarily mean they are doing something
wrong. The situation might just not have matured yet.

It seems closer to maturity now. And I think the people
working on all these fronts should be thinking: ?Is there
some way we can cooperate to assist the struggle of the
troops and their families against this war, to get them
home safe and without turning them into murderers?? If the
answer is no, the groups can keep working separately and
wish each other well. If the answer is yes, the organizers
should figure out how, because this area of the struggle
against imperialist war may be the first ? as the late
Dave Dellinger said in the fall of 1967 ? to move from
?dissent to resistance.?

John Catalinotto
jcat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

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