MILITARY VETERANS AND THEIR ROLE IN REVOLUTION: A brief history and consideration of practical applications.
The resistance movement in the United States is notable for many things; not the least of which is our embrace of non-violence, and our willingness to conform to State pressure. We do this not because we lack the will to resist oppression, but because we feel that to use force is against our collective morality and civilized aversion to violence. The problem is that many people confuse force with violence.
Our groups become bogged down in endless discussion about “diversity of tactics” the current euphemism for violent responses to State violence. Whether it is smashing windows, or using inflammatory language, there is always someone eager to elevate their status by decrying any aggressive behavior as violence. We have seen how the State treats “peaceful” demonstrators; the provocateurs will initiate disorder in the crowd, initiating chaos and the police will beat the protesters down. When people in the movement begin to defend themselves, fighting back, lashing out at property through vandalism and sabotage, they become stigmatized and disenfranchised from the movement.
We must project a credible threat to the state, we must meet force with equal, if not overwhelming force. What types of force do the people possess? And perhaps more importantly, how do we harness that force into something which does not alienate people from the movement? We do not need , nor can we ever hope to best the State in a contest of arms. We must be able to protect our selves in the streets and we must protect our Movement from becoming weakened by the sheer attrition of low morale and time. The State has not been in the game any longer than we have, and indeed, discussions as to whether or not the State was formed as a response to revolution or if the reverse may be the case has consumed too much of our time.
State repression wears us down, most of our people are generally unused to such a long and seemingly pointless struggle, and furthermore, many are unaccustomed to the rigors of constant struggle. Our country has indeed, melted into the sofa and the soda pop. But there is a meta-class of people who are accustomed to struggle, who have spent more time “in the field” of State custodianship or repression than many of our more benign comrades. Everyone involved in the struggle for liberation has a part to play. Our participation is relative to our resources and our willingness to engage the police at street level.
The State is extremely threatened by the movement; not by our ability to beat them militarily speaking, but by our stubbornness and our ability to reach the “average citizen” by embarassing the State. By exposing their projection of control and dominance as cowardice and an inability to govern, we gain some confidence from the public; they must come to trust us and so long as the revolution isn’t in their backyard or smashing their cars’ windows, we can rest assured that most people will not interfere with us. They will not help the State either.
Sure most folks will continue to consume all the shit the Establishment is feeding them, but the mistrust in the System grows as we expose more and more of the Establishments lies and the brutality of the State, the abuses of corporations and our declining prosperity.
Of course all the rich guys magazines are proclaiming growth and success and what it means to be cool and powerful, financially stable and what clothes to buy, what to smell like, how to shave your chest and all manner of nonsense. The attitude is generally something like: I'm okay, you're okay. Or: I'm okay, fuck off. Or: It Could Be Worse. Yes, it could be worse. It will get worse. Military veterans and homeless people have had it worse. They have seen what worse looks like, and we of all people should be doing everything in our power to slow it down if not halt it altogether. Ever since the first army was mustered, soldiers have borne the brunt of a nations poor choices. The nation suffers whether in victory or defeat, every victory brings more problems, new enemies.
Every defeat gives birth to more suffering and discontent. There is no escaping the fact that warfare is the sad, slow, suicide of humanity.
Throughout history, soldiers have mutinied, rebelled against the chain of command,and have killed their leaders; particularly when the army is getting its ass handed to them and it seems the war is lost. Juxtapose this with our earlier problem with the protesters. People give up the fight, they surrender, they turn, they go over to the other side, they hedge their bets with the opponent and cross their fingers. Some of the better known instances of military veterans participating in acts of civil disobedience or even outright revolt, are Shay’s Rebellion and the Bonus Army, the GI Resistance Movement during Viet Nam, and the Occupy movement.
In 1786, Daniel Shays, a wounded veteran of the War of Independence returned home to his small Massachusetts farm only to find a mountain of bills and notices, and his neighbors had been losing their properties to the banks, who needed to collect debts incurred by the war. Now our man Shays was already steamed about not being paid to fight in that war, plus there was all this lead stuck in him. Sounds familiar, yes?
My how some things never change.
Faced with “homelessness” Shay organized a group of other veterans and some pissed off farmers to seize the armory in Springfield, Massachusetts and storm Washington to confront the recently formed “government” and their cronies, the bankers. Shays’ group conducted Direct Actions such as shutting down courts and banks, throughout the state, and began to plan the march to Washington. The “rebellion” was crushed by a private army hired by the bankers and businessmen who had been preying on the people of Massachusetts.
Here we have one of the first examples of military veterans, (NOT active soldiers) taking a role in the revolutionary process; Shays’ rag tag group of wounded, un paid soldiers and grubby farmers protesting against the elite of their day and ready to string ‘em up if need be.
Ironic G-Man Samuel Adams (yeah him, the shit disturber, the "American Robespierre" and later author of the Riot Acts) was put in charge of the private army that put down the rebellion, hanging two of Shays’ men, yet pardoning old Dan Shays himself, whom it is said to have moved to New York and died penniless, reviled as an anarchist and cast into the dustbin of history.
Shays’ autonomous direct action was an inspired piece of work; it was very ballsy and he managed to recruit thousands of people to his cause. (4,000 people signed confessions to the plot in exchange for amnesty) His ad-hoc comittee of screwed over veterans and farmers had ran the gamut of tactics; from petitions to blockades, boycotts and rallies-protest marches-until there was no other available option than to attempt to overthrow the government. (which a guy could still do back then).
Shays’ daring raids and his entire operation were essentially an urban guerilla act; he and his people finally deciding that only by storming an armory for weapons with the intent of using those weapons against the people who they felt had been responsible for looting the country and destroying peoples’ lives , could any significant change occur.
Yet ultimately the lessons learned from Shays' Rebellion only served to highlight the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation; which alerted the Establishment and prompted the state governments and businessmen to draft even tighter restraints on the people while loosening the bonds of the young corporations. Shays' actions had exposed weaknesses in the System, and this is an important thing to be doing in tandem with the creation of a defensive wing of your movement.
One hundred and forty-six years later, in 1932, nearly 43,000 people—18,000 veterans and their families and supporters¬¬-- led by a former Marine sergeant name of Walter Waters, marched on Washington and began occupying the Mall. They set up a huge encampment (Hooverville, so named after president Herbert Hoover) demanding payment for bonuses promised to them in 1924 that were not payable until 1945. This became the Bonus Army, popularized by Maj. General Smedley Butler’s “War is a Racket”.
Americas’ pre-eminent war hero, the intrepid Major General Smedley Butler wrote a book entitled “War is a Racket”; a scathing indictment of the fledgling military industrial complex and the on-going collusion of the financiers and politicians who keep America embroiled in conflict both at home and abroad. A showman and whistle-blower ahead of his time, the General laid out the entire scheme of Imperial domination via the agency of economic and military force, as well he exposed a military coup that was using the protest occupations as a cover, and in his book he named names. In this period between the wars, and after the crippling 1929 crash, Americans were extremely disenfranchised from their political leadership, which had been busy cementing the bonds between Big Business and Government.
They had come to question the Governments’ abuse of military power; and indeed they had always done so. From the 1863 Draft Riots in New York to the massive opposition to US involvement in the First World War, the American people were reluctant to accept the massive cost of foreign entanglements and the use of tax dollars to suppress our civil liberties here at home. Again, veterans had taken to the streets, among them active duty service members to assert their rights and demand what was due to them. Getting your “benefits” 30 years later was not an appealing proposition, especially when your family just got kicked off the farm and you needed a break now.
Again the people used righteous civil disobedience tactics and occupations until enough pressure had been applied and the President resorted to calling in the Army. This time, up and comer General Douglas MacArthur used 6 tanks, an infantry division and the calvary to utterly destroy an encampment filled with impassioned poor people who had gathered together to seek relief from the crisis sweeping America. No fewer than four veterans were killed and over 1000 injured in the crackdown, while 69 police were injured.
Almost 40 years and two major wars later, Americans were again protesting military intervention; this time it was in southeast Asia and Ohio.
Amidst a growing concern over the use of force on civilian populations, whether it was the Marines in ‘Nam or the Ohio National Guard gunning down civilians protesting the afore-mentioned “conflict”, an awareness among the soldiers and the civilians began to grow, whereby they started to question the moral and legal arguments for the use of military force. Concurrently with this trend arose a demand for clarification from military leaders and public officials to be held accountable for their actions and pronouncements and to accept responsibility for the effects of their policies.
Soldiers in the field began to disobey orders, entire companies mutinied, and officers began to fall like flies in friendly fire incidents and fraggings. There had always been stories of unpopular officers catching a tossed cannonball in the forehead back in 1812 or funny little tales of a British officer having a saucy little grenade deposited into one of his ridiculous ornamental pockets during the Boer War, and with the advent of much more technical warfare it became easier to get away with acts of resistance and outright assassination within the military order.
They couldn’t cop to a fragging, but would be awarded medals for committing atrocities against civilians. This war on southeast Asia is arguably the defining moment of 20th century warfare. There is little I can add to the voluminous work done on Viet Nam and its’ aftermath other than it was the war that heralded my birth, and some 40 years later it is still being fought on the streets of America. Viet Nam brought the war home. An ex-soldier in the 1960’s or 70’s had a much, much different cultural landscape to confront than his father, or even his older brother had to contend with.
Everyone comes home knowing the war is fucked, but few ever stand up to say it. The young men and women coming home from southeast Asia were locking arm with some of the hippies and taking it to the presidents’ doorstep. It began to work so well that in 1970 the President called in the National Guard to suppress the growing anti-war demonstrations taking place at the university in Kent, Ohio. When the smoke cleared, 4 students lay dead and another 9 were wounded. After this horror, the movement began to slide into a decline with the introduction of hard drugs into the counter culture.
The veterans carried on, though; it was they who still had friends and lovers back in country. It was they who had to endure the Kafka-esque mess of the VA and the difficulties of re-adjustment into civilian life. The veteran has a vested interest in ending the war (Now) and as the General had stated in his book the problem was that the average American civilian “…has no skin in the game.” America’s wars had increasingly come to be fought by other peoples’ children. During a draft, people are much more into stopping a war. But when the military is composed of volunteers, there is a collective sigh of relief, because at least somebody else has to do the war.
There is so much to this topic that it could warrant its’ own discussion. Suffice it to mention that the basis of this idea is that war is for poor people. It is fought by poor people commanded by rich people to do their bidding and then kill each other.
The Vietnam Veterans Against the War were, and remain the vanguard of the anti-war movement. When Veterans for Peace was formed as an off-shoot of the VVAW (endless discussions about “diversity of tactics” split the movement. ) in 1985, America was gripped in economic splendor and Cold War night sweats. The movement that kicked Nixon out of office and ended the war retired into their own “Golden Years” and things seemed relatively quiet here in ‘merica.
The growth of new industries and the rise of the Yuppie quietly folded the idea of outright war making into covert wars, proxy wars, drug wars, wars on hunger, wars on cancer, wars on everything. Gently grooming the public mind into accepting that “war is normal”, and quietly setting the stage for the next wars we could be proud of.
Fifteen years after the last trembling human being was “rescued” from Saigon, we rolled our tank battalions through the deserts of Iraq, crushing the heart of the Persian Empire in two weeks.
This whole nuclear disarmament scheme by the softies on the hill gave the hawks in the Pentagon room to explore different weapons systems and discover new markets. The CIA creates the market, in essence providing opportunities for GOVCORP to keep its’ millions of wage slaves gainfully employed in the business of killing everyone and stealing everything. Things had developed to the point in America where once again, Americans were asking themselves “What the fuck just happened, and why does it keep happening every 20 years?”
And they noticed that they were broke, and they shouldn’ta been, and a few already rich people are incredibly richer. It is larceny to steal $1000 from one man, but to steal ONE dollar from a THOUSAND men is very petty indeed, is it not? Particularly if this theft was consensual, as in the disaster of 2008, whereby the sound of a million simultaneous forehead slaps roused our over worked and under employed people from their slumber to once again slouch towards Bethlehem as a new leader promised us a new Nation.
There had been opposition to these latest wars, but the anti-war movement did not really gain a foot hold in the public eye until the Occupy movement captured the nation’s attention during the late months of 2011. During the formative months of the Occupy, every encampment had its share of homeless veterans; spanning the generations. It was possible to share a bottle of cheap liquor with 4 generations of veterans standing in the driving rain.
The veterans basically self organized, and many were instrumental in the establishment of camp infrastructure such as medical tents, field kitchens and security patrols. They trained people in the use of radios and taught basic first aid classes in public parks. When it came time to interface with the State (a sad inevitability, as we have seen thus far) they lined up between the police and the protestors, ready to defend them against our opponents in the Class War.
During one such encounter in Oakland California, a veteran was targeted and shot in the head by a 40 gram bean bag fired from the grenade launcher of an Oakland cop. The wounded man fell to the ground and the street medics rushed to his aid. With the scene engulfed in tear gas, the police fired a flash bang grenade and more tear gas into the group of medics trying to evacuate the fallen brother.
Veterans had been coming into the camps and to the demonstrations and rallies; and this incident opened a floodgate of media attention, making the police departments around the country reconsider many of their own rules of engagement.
It also became a call to arms for many veterans who would not tolerate the fact of a kid who made it through Iraq 3 times unscathed becoming brain damaged from a crushed skull courtesy Oakland PD simply for protesting the wars his friends were still fighting.
The resistance movement in the United States is notable for many things; not the least of which is our embrace of non-violence, and our willingness to conform to State pressure. We do this not because we lack the will to resist oppression, but because we feel that to use force is against our collective morality and civilized aversion to violence. The problem is that many people confuse force with violence.
Our groups become bogged down in endless discussion about “diversity of tactics” the current euphemism for violent responses to State violence. Whether it is smashing windows, or using inflammatory language, there is always someone eager to elevate their status by decrying any aggressive behavior as violence. We have seen how the State treats “peaceful” demonstrators; the provocateurs will initiate disorder in the crowd, initiating chaos and the police will beat the protesters down. When people in the movement begin to defend themselves, fighting back, lashing out at property through vandalism and sabotage, they become stigmatized and disenfranchised from the movement.
We must project a credible threat to the state, we must meet force with equal, if not overwhelming force. What types of force do the people possess? And perhaps more importantly, how do we harness that force into something which does not alienate people from the movement? We do not need , nor can we ever hope to best the State in a contest of arms. We must be able to protect our selves in the streets and we must protect our Movement from becoming weakened by the sheer attrition of low morale and time. The State has not been in the game any longer than we have, and indeed, discussions as to whether or not the State was formed as a response to revolution or if the reverse may be the case has consumed too much of our time.
State repression wears us down, most of our people are generally unused to such a long and seemingly pointless struggle, and furthermore, many are unaccustomed to the rigors of constant struggle. Our country has indeed, melted into the sofa and the soda pop. But there is a meta-class of people who are accustomed to struggle, who have spent more time “in the field” of State custodianship or repression than many of our more benign comrades. Everyone involved in the struggle for liberation has a part to play. Our participation is relative to our resources and our willingness to engage the police at street level.
The State is extremely threatened by the movement; not by our ability to beat them militarily speaking, but by our stubbornness and our ability to reach the “average citizen” by embarassing the State. By exposing their projection of control and dominance as cowardice and an inability to govern, we gain some confidence from the public; they must come to trust us and so long as the revolution isn’t in their backyard or smashing their cars’ windows, we can rest assured that most people will not interfere with us. They will not help the State either.
Sure most folks will continue to consume all the shit the Establishment is feeding them, but the mistrust in the System grows as we expose more and more of the Establishments lies and the brutality of the State, the abuses of corporations and our declining prosperity.
Of course all the rich guys magazines are proclaiming growth and success and what it means to be cool and powerful, financially stable and what clothes to buy, what to smell like, how to shave your chest and all manner of nonsense. The attitude is generally something like: I'm okay, you're okay. Or: I'm okay, fuck off. Or: It Could Be Worse. Yes, it could be worse. It will get worse. Military veterans and homeless people have had it worse. They have seen what worse looks like, and we of all people should be doing everything in our power to slow it down if not halt it altogether. Ever since the first army was mustered, soldiers have borne the brunt of a nations poor choices. The nation suffers whether in victory or defeat, every victory brings more problems, new enemies.
Every defeat gives birth to more suffering and discontent. There is no escaping the fact that warfare is the sad, slow, suicide of humanity.
Throughout history, soldiers have mutinied, rebelled against the chain of command,and have killed their leaders; particularly when the army is getting its ass handed to them and it seems the war is lost. Juxtapose this with our earlier problem with the protesters. People give up the fight, they surrender, they turn, they go over to the other side, they hedge their bets with the opponent and cross their fingers. Some of the better known instances of military veterans participating in acts of civil disobedience or even outright revolt, are Shay’s Rebellion and the Bonus Army, the GI Resistance Movement during Viet Nam, and the Occupy movement.
In 1786, Daniel Shays, a wounded veteran of the War of Independence returned home to his small Massachusetts farm only to find a mountain of bills and notices, and his neighbors had been losing their properties to the banks, who needed to collect debts incurred by the war. Now our man Shays was already steamed about not being paid to fight in that war, plus there was all this lead stuck in him. Sounds familiar, yes?
My how some things never change.
Faced with “homelessness” Shay organized a group of other veterans and some pissed off farmers to seize the armory in Springfield, Massachusetts and storm Washington to confront the recently formed “government” and their cronies, the bankers. Shays’ group conducted Direct Actions such as shutting down courts and banks, throughout the state, and began to plan the march to Washington. The “rebellion” was crushed by a private army hired by the bankers and businessmen who had been preying on the people of Massachusetts.
Here we have one of the first examples of military veterans, (NOT active soldiers) taking a role in the revolutionary process; Shays’ rag tag group of wounded, un paid soldiers and grubby farmers protesting against the elite of their day and ready to string ‘em up if need be.
Ironic G-Man Samuel Adams (yeah him, the shit disturber, the "American Robespierre" and later author of the Riot Acts) was put in charge of the private army that put down the rebellion, hanging two of Shays’ men, yet pardoning old Dan Shays himself, whom it is said to have moved to New York and died penniless, reviled as an anarchist and cast into the dustbin of history.
Shays’ autonomous direct action was an inspired piece of work; it was very ballsy and he managed to recruit thousands of people to his cause. (4,000 people signed confessions to the plot in exchange for amnesty) His ad-hoc comittee of screwed over veterans and farmers had ran the gamut of tactics; from petitions to blockades, boycotts and rallies-protest marches-until there was no other available option than to attempt to overthrow the government. (which a guy could still do back then).
Shays’ daring raids and his entire operation were essentially an urban guerilla act; he and his people finally deciding that only by storming an armory for weapons with the intent of using those weapons against the people who they felt had been responsible for looting the country and destroying peoples’ lives , could any significant change occur.
Yet ultimately the lessons learned from Shays' Rebellion only served to highlight the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation; which alerted the Establishment and prompted the state governments and businessmen to draft even tighter restraints on the people while loosening the bonds of the young corporations. Shays' actions had exposed weaknesses in the System, and this is an important thing to be doing in tandem with the creation of a defensive wing of your movement.
One hundred and forty-six years later, in 1932, nearly 43,000 people—18,000 veterans and their families and supporters¬¬-- led by a former Marine sergeant name of Walter Waters, marched on Washington and began occupying the Mall. They set up a huge encampment (Hooverville, so named after president Herbert Hoover) demanding payment for bonuses promised to them in 1924 that were not payable until 1945. This became the Bonus Army, popularized by Maj. General Smedley Butler’s “War is a Racket”.
Americas’ pre-eminent war hero, the intrepid Major General Smedley Butler wrote a book entitled “War is a Racket”; a scathing indictment of the fledgling military industrial complex and the on-going collusion of the financiers and politicians who keep America embroiled in conflict both at home and abroad. A showman and whistle-blower ahead of his time, the General laid out the entire scheme of Imperial domination via the agency of economic and military force, as well he exposed a military coup that was using the protest occupations as a cover, and in his book he named names. In this period between the wars, and after the crippling 1929 crash, Americans were extremely disenfranchised from their political leadership, which had been busy cementing the bonds between Big Business and Government.
They had come to question the Governments’ abuse of military power; and indeed they had always done so. From the 1863 Draft Riots in New York to the massive opposition to US involvement in the First World War, the American people were reluctant to accept the massive cost of foreign entanglements and the use of tax dollars to suppress our civil liberties here at home. Again, veterans had taken to the streets, among them active duty service members to assert their rights and demand what was due to them. Getting your “benefits” 30 years later was not an appealing proposition, especially when your family just got kicked off the farm and you needed a break now.
Again the people used righteous civil disobedience tactics and occupations until enough pressure had been applied and the President resorted to calling in the Army. This time, up and comer General Douglas MacArthur used 6 tanks, an infantry division and the calvary to utterly destroy an encampment filled with impassioned poor people who had gathered together to seek relief from the crisis sweeping America. No fewer than four veterans were killed and over 1000 injured in the crackdown, while 69 police were injured.
Almost 40 years and two major wars later, Americans were again protesting military intervention; this time it was in southeast Asia and Ohio.
Amidst a growing concern over the use of force on civilian populations, whether it was the Marines in ‘Nam or the Ohio National Guard gunning down civilians protesting the afore-mentioned “conflict”, an awareness among the soldiers and the civilians began to grow, whereby they started to question the moral and legal arguments for the use of military force. Concurrently with this trend arose a demand for clarification from military leaders and public officials to be held accountable for their actions and pronouncements and to accept responsibility for the effects of their policies.
Soldiers in the field began to disobey orders, entire companies mutinied, and officers began to fall like flies in friendly fire incidents and fraggings. There had always been stories of unpopular officers catching a tossed cannonball in the forehead back in 1812 or funny little tales of a British officer having a saucy little grenade deposited into one of his ridiculous ornamental pockets during the Boer War, and with the advent of much more technical warfare it became easier to get away with acts of resistance and outright assassination within the military order.
They couldn’t cop to a fragging, but would be awarded medals for committing atrocities against civilians. This war on southeast Asia is arguably the defining moment of 20th century warfare. There is little I can add to the voluminous work done on Viet Nam and its’ aftermath other than it was the war that heralded my birth, and some 40 years later it is still being fought on the streets of America. Viet Nam brought the war home. An ex-soldier in the 1960’s or 70’s had a much, much different cultural landscape to confront than his father, or even his older brother had to contend with.
Everyone comes home knowing the war is fucked, but few ever stand up to say it. The young men and women coming home from southeast Asia were locking arm with some of the hippies and taking it to the presidents’ doorstep. It began to work so well that in 1970 the President called in the National Guard to suppress the growing anti-war demonstrations taking place at the university in Kent, Ohio. When the smoke cleared, 4 students lay dead and another 9 were wounded. After this horror, the movement began to slide into a decline with the introduction of hard drugs into the counter culture.
The veterans carried on, though; it was they who still had friends and lovers back in country. It was they who had to endure the Kafka-esque mess of the VA and the difficulties of re-adjustment into civilian life. The veteran has a vested interest in ending the war (Now) and as the General had stated in his book the problem was that the average American civilian “…has no skin in the game.” America’s wars had increasingly come to be fought by other peoples’ children. During a draft, people are much more into stopping a war. But when the military is composed of volunteers, there is a collective sigh of relief, because at least somebody else has to do the war.
There is so much to this topic that it could warrant its’ own discussion. Suffice it to mention that the basis of this idea is that war is for poor people. It is fought by poor people commanded by rich people to do their bidding and then kill each other.
The Vietnam Veterans Against the War were, and remain the vanguard of the anti-war movement. When Veterans for Peace was formed as an off-shoot of the VVAW (endless discussions about “diversity of tactics” split the movement. ) in 1985, America was gripped in economic splendor and Cold War night sweats. The movement that kicked Nixon out of office and ended the war retired into their own “Golden Years” and things seemed relatively quiet here in ‘merica.
The growth of new industries and the rise of the Yuppie quietly folded the idea of outright war making into covert wars, proxy wars, drug wars, wars on hunger, wars on cancer, wars on everything. Gently grooming the public mind into accepting that “war is normal”, and quietly setting the stage for the next wars we could be proud of.
Fifteen years after the last trembling human being was “rescued” from Saigon, we rolled our tank battalions through the deserts of Iraq, crushing the heart of the Persian Empire in two weeks.
This whole nuclear disarmament scheme by the softies on the hill gave the hawks in the Pentagon room to explore different weapons systems and discover new markets. The CIA creates the market, in essence providing opportunities for GOVCORP to keep its’ millions of wage slaves gainfully employed in the business of killing everyone and stealing everything. Things had developed to the point in America where once again, Americans were asking themselves “What the fuck just happened, and why does it keep happening every 20 years?”
And they noticed that they were broke, and they shouldn’ta been, and a few already rich people are incredibly richer. It is larceny to steal $1000 from one man, but to steal ONE dollar from a THOUSAND men is very petty indeed, is it not? Particularly if this theft was consensual, as in the disaster of 2008, whereby the sound of a million simultaneous forehead slaps roused our over worked and under employed people from their slumber to once again slouch towards Bethlehem as a new leader promised us a new Nation.
There had been opposition to these latest wars, but the anti-war movement did not really gain a foot hold in the public eye until the Occupy movement captured the nation’s attention during the late months of 2011. During the formative months of the Occupy, every encampment had its share of homeless veterans; spanning the generations. It was possible to share a bottle of cheap liquor with 4 generations of veterans standing in the driving rain.
The veterans basically self organized, and many were instrumental in the establishment of camp infrastructure such as medical tents, field kitchens and security patrols. They trained people in the use of radios and taught basic first aid classes in public parks. When it came time to interface with the State (a sad inevitability, as we have seen thus far) they lined up between the police and the protestors, ready to defend them against our opponents in the Class War.
During one such encounter in Oakland California, a veteran was targeted and shot in the head by a 40 gram bean bag fired from the grenade launcher of an Oakland cop. The wounded man fell to the ground and the street medics rushed to his aid. With the scene engulfed in tear gas, the police fired a flash bang grenade and more tear gas into the group of medics trying to evacuate the fallen brother.
Veterans had been coming into the camps and to the demonstrations and rallies; and this incident opened a floodgate of media attention, making the police departments around the country reconsider many of their own rules of engagement.
It also became a call to arms for many veterans who would not tolerate the fact of a kid who made it through Iraq 3 times unscathed becoming brain damaged from a crushed skull courtesy Oakland PD simply for protesting the wars his friends were still fighting.
OCCUPY VETERANS SAN FRANCISCO POSITION STATEMENTS
Occupy Veterans San Francisco began in September 2011 as a response to the large number of homeless and un-connected veterans coming through the encampments during the Occupy Wall Street protests. There was a need to accommodate these men and women as well as the younger vets returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. All of these veterans had been stuck in a holding pattern after their deployments, homeless and often suffering from common military ailments such as MST, PTSD and bureaucratic negligence. In some cases for as many as 30 years, and in others just a year or two.
Occupy Veterans San Francisco began in September 2011 as a response to the large number of homeless and un-connected veterans coming through the encampments during the Occupy Wall Street protests. There was a need to accommodate these men and women as well as the younger vets returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. All of these veterans had been stuck in a holding pattern after their deployments, homeless and often suffering from common military ailments such as MST, PTSD and bureaucratic negligence. In some cases for as many as 30 years, and in others just a year or two.
The Establishment remains unrealistic in their expectations of the cases they manage, and must be more patient and thorough in understanding the nature of the individuals' needs and capabilities. Service Providers are often perceived by the veteran as an extension of the very systems they have come to disdain and mistrust. “Clients” may be garrulous or intoxicated, missing vital appointments or a host of other complications that create a great deal of stress and self imposed blockages that frustrate the efforts of many lower echelon and civilian employees of the Establishment.
There must be a reduction of middle men in the path between the veteran and their stated goals and desires. The time honored and familiar buddy system, as illustrated by classical mentor ship and apprenticeship models works very well in the rough and tumble environment of the streets.
Many of these people should have never been admitted into the Armed Forces to begin with.
There must be more stringent efforts at comprehensive screening of recruits for preexisting conditions that may be exacerbated by military service, and to reduce the number of negative discharge outcomes. As we have seen, these are numerous and all too common. Military recruitment would be focused on personalities and skill sets appropriate for military usage and no longer focused on filling quotas with gullible young people.
Younger veterans have different conceptions regarding Authority and Patriotism than the more homogeneous and conventional ideas of the Pre and Post Atomic generation of Americans. The pool of young people from which the Military has to draw from is diverse, and constantly shifting. Pre-enlistment screening of potential recruits must reflect this diversity and be adaptable to changing socio-dynamic trends in education, entertainment and cultural norms. It must remain sensitive to the possible effects of service on an individual based on definitive data and research conducted with the aim of preventing post deployment personality disintegration. This would be achieved through demographic research and progressive pre-enlistment counseling by qualified individuals without any militaristic agenda.
The Working Class families of America provide the bulk of military age children, and we would like to see the minimum eligible age for military service be raised to 21 in order that young people may have the opportunity for reflection and mature to an appropriate age before considering service.
It is also imperative to get the military out of Public Schools, and by extension, Public Education. We must insure against covert corporate dominance or control of educational agendas by prohibiting military recruitment and propaganda on campus by not allowing recruiters to approach or petition young people under the age of 18. Defense and Arms manufacturers will not be allowed to participate in job fairs or provide “educational tools” to Public Schools through any of the diverse corporate entities attached to these firms.
We demand an end to the cross-pollination of the Military-Industrial Chief Executive Officer and our Federal Employees, known as law makers, Senators, Governors and particularly within the Executive Branch of the United States government, and that term limits and restrictions on office be enforced to insure against crony policy making. This can be encouraged by removing the self aggrandizing incentives that in every case, has led to the waste of untold billions of dollars and countless squandered lives. Civilian oversight groups will report and if necessary restrain and punish government or corporate abuse of power by using social media, organized labor strikes, and industry lockouts.
Essentially, domestic embargoes of various design and the imprisonment of individual persons who have proven themselves counter productive to the National Health, and are therefore treasonous criminals deserving of harsh punishments such as the confiscation of wealth and status.
By economic collateral damage, as the base-line citizen has his creature comforts threatened or removed at the whims of various agents of the Establishment, the workers will come to realize that they control the boss.
Similarily, we must come to understand that we the people have more control over our government than they allow us to realize. We "control" our government just as we control our "economy" with our purchasing power. That is, by supporting or boycotting the various commodities and agendas made available to us. We are not commodities of the Establishment, we are not here to support a system which in our view has failed. Rather it is the Establishment or system that is to support us.
This is not the reality. The reality is that we are exploited by the system, and we shall exploit whatever power or tools we possess, namely our productive and intellectual potential. Our bodies and our voices belong to us!
We will not be used or silenced.
The veteran no longer fights for corporate interests, but instead against corporate interests.
We demand the immediate withdrawal of all troops abroad with the exception of a limited number of troops attached to a global Peace Keeping force such as the UN coalition. The number of which is to be determined by realistic need and kept at minimum levels.
Local Stand Downs must be encouraged and their durations lengthened to suit local conditions, each month. Veterans should receive twice as much financial benefit, with controlled allocation, and tailored to the Veterans' lifestyle and stated needs. There will be an abandonment of the “one size fits all” models of treatment and rehabilitation, and men and women will discover new paths to follow in life as determined by themselves after a period of time that engenders trust and sympathy in themselves and others.
Compliance and Authority have become anathema to many veterans, and guidance and care must be seen as having come from a non exploitative base, with a minimum of restrictions and to instead encourage conditions that lead the individual to self motivate and become pro active in reassuming the responsibilities of self care, and self love. It is hoped that this in turn would lead to a renewed appreciation for ones' society and a desire to reengage life from a position of confidence and satisfaction.
Veterans must not be made to feel like clients or customers, nor must they be handled with “kid gloves” and made to feel incompetent or inadequate. They must feel that they are more than a number in a bed that needs to be filled in order to get funding.
Humans must be given what they need in secure surroundings, so that they may indulge the prerogative of the Individual without undue harm to themselves or others. If we can take that journey with the person, as opposed to dictacting it to them, if we can share an appropriate amount of our own personality and experience with some one, to give just as much as we ask of them, we become equally vested in the exchange, and prepare a foundation for deeper work than just isolated dates with people who are incapable of grasping our experience.
This peer to peer counseling and close involvement with elder veterans can help soothe younger veterans, anxious about having become part of a continuum of militarism and war culture, disillusioned and disappointed by the military experience and the consequent post deployment reality. Exactly how much of that is Uncle Sam's fault? And how much damage can the vet own for themselves?
Can we compost a repudiation of authority and crippled sense of pride back into a healthy love for community and respect for Our Nation?
And how can young veterans get back on their own track with a minimum of authoritative interactions or mandatory compliance?
We must let them give us the answers.
There must be a reduction of middle men in the path between the veteran and their stated goals and desires. The time honored and familiar buddy system, as illustrated by classical mentor ship and apprenticeship models works very well in the rough and tumble environment of the streets.
Many of these people should have never been admitted into the Armed Forces to begin with.
There must be more stringent efforts at comprehensive screening of recruits for preexisting conditions that may be exacerbated by military service, and to reduce the number of negative discharge outcomes. As we have seen, these are numerous and all too common. Military recruitment would be focused on personalities and skill sets appropriate for military usage and no longer focused on filling quotas with gullible young people.
Younger veterans have different conceptions regarding Authority and Patriotism than the more homogeneous and conventional ideas of the Pre and Post Atomic generation of Americans. The pool of young people from which the Military has to draw from is diverse, and constantly shifting. Pre-enlistment screening of potential recruits must reflect this diversity and be adaptable to changing socio-dynamic trends in education, entertainment and cultural norms. It must remain sensitive to the possible effects of service on an individual based on definitive data and research conducted with the aim of preventing post deployment personality disintegration. This would be achieved through demographic research and progressive pre-enlistment counseling by qualified individuals without any militaristic agenda.
The Working Class families of America provide the bulk of military age children, and we would like to see the minimum eligible age for military service be raised to 21 in order that young people may have the opportunity for reflection and mature to an appropriate age before considering service.
It is also imperative to get the military out of Public Schools, and by extension, Public Education. We must insure against covert corporate dominance or control of educational agendas by prohibiting military recruitment and propaganda on campus by not allowing recruiters to approach or petition young people under the age of 18. Defense and Arms manufacturers will not be allowed to participate in job fairs or provide “educational tools” to Public Schools through any of the diverse corporate entities attached to these firms.
We demand an end to the cross-pollination of the Military-Industrial Chief Executive Officer and our Federal Employees, known as law makers, Senators, Governors and particularly within the Executive Branch of the United States government, and that term limits and restrictions on office be enforced to insure against crony policy making. This can be encouraged by removing the self aggrandizing incentives that in every case, has led to the waste of untold billions of dollars and countless squandered lives. Civilian oversight groups will report and if necessary restrain and punish government or corporate abuse of power by using social media, organized labor strikes, and industry lockouts.
Essentially, domestic embargoes of various design and the imprisonment of individual persons who have proven themselves counter productive to the National Health, and are therefore treasonous criminals deserving of harsh punishments such as the confiscation of wealth and status.
By economic collateral damage, as the base-line citizen has his creature comforts threatened or removed at the whims of various agents of the Establishment, the workers will come to realize that they control the boss.
Similarily, we must come to understand that we the people have more control over our government than they allow us to realize. We "control" our government just as we control our "economy" with our purchasing power. That is, by supporting or boycotting the various commodities and agendas made available to us. We are not commodities of the Establishment, we are not here to support a system which in our view has failed. Rather it is the Establishment or system that is to support us.
This is not the reality. The reality is that we are exploited by the system, and we shall exploit whatever power or tools we possess, namely our productive and intellectual potential. Our bodies and our voices belong to us!
We will not be used or silenced.
The veteran no longer fights for corporate interests, but instead against corporate interests.
We demand the immediate withdrawal of all troops abroad with the exception of a limited number of troops attached to a global Peace Keeping force such as the UN coalition. The number of which is to be determined by realistic need and kept at minimum levels.
Local Stand Downs must be encouraged and their durations lengthened to suit local conditions, each month. Veterans should receive twice as much financial benefit, with controlled allocation, and tailored to the Veterans' lifestyle and stated needs. There will be an abandonment of the “one size fits all” models of treatment and rehabilitation, and men and women will discover new paths to follow in life as determined by themselves after a period of time that engenders trust and sympathy in themselves and others.
Compliance and Authority have become anathema to many veterans, and guidance and care must be seen as having come from a non exploitative base, with a minimum of restrictions and to instead encourage conditions that lead the individual to self motivate and become pro active in reassuming the responsibilities of self care, and self love. It is hoped that this in turn would lead to a renewed appreciation for ones' society and a desire to reengage life from a position of confidence and satisfaction.
Veterans must not be made to feel like clients or customers, nor must they be handled with “kid gloves” and made to feel incompetent or inadequate. They must feel that they are more than a number in a bed that needs to be filled in order to get funding.
Humans must be given what they need in secure surroundings, so that they may indulge the prerogative of the Individual without undue harm to themselves or others. If we can take that journey with the person, as opposed to dictacting it to them, if we can share an appropriate amount of our own personality and experience with some one, to give just as much as we ask of them, we become equally vested in the exchange, and prepare a foundation for deeper work than just isolated dates with people who are incapable of grasping our experience.
This peer to peer counseling and close involvement with elder veterans can help soothe younger veterans, anxious about having become part of a continuum of militarism and war culture, disillusioned and disappointed by the military experience and the consequent post deployment reality. Exactly how much of that is Uncle Sam's fault? And how much damage can the vet own for themselves?
Can we compost a repudiation of authority and crippled sense of pride back into a healthy love for community and respect for Our Nation?
And how can young veterans get back on their own track with a minimum of authoritative interactions or mandatory compliance?
We must let them give us the answers.
A Program to Reduce and Eliminate Homelessness in the Veterans Population
Prepared for the Green Shadow Cabinet by Michael Clift, Occupy Veterans San Francisco.
The homeless situation in the United States is spiraling out of control, and nowhere is this more shameful to our Nation, and an indictment against our current economic system than in the Veterans'
Community. There are several ways to address this issue, and I hope in this paper to explore various options we have both as communities and a nation to mitigate the situation.
To begin with, we must recognize, as I am sure most of us are aware, that until we eliminate WAR as policy we will always have the matters of PTSD and “re-integration” to contend with. The only sure way to eliminate “homeless veterans” is to eliminate war abroad, and until we can do that, we must catch the vet before they become ensnared in post deployment depression and addictions. That means we must build a platform within the Active Service Term for the individual on a case by case basis.
Let me illustrate what this might look like.
A group of counselors would begin a series of interviews with the individual with the goal of discerning the individuals’ talents and aspirations. The desired result must be calibrated to the ambitions and abilities of the individual. For example, if a person really wanted “to become a guitar player, but joined the army to get college money” then we must convince that individual to use the GI Bill to enroll in music academy, as opposed to trying to become a business major.
The reason we are seeing such large numbers in the drop out rate is that we cannot reasonably expect a young person, having returned from a combat zone, to simply pick up where they left off in high school and have the “college experience”.
What must be done is to allow people to pick up where they left off, to re-integrate that person with the one they were “before the Army”.
It begins with pre-enlistment screening assuming that the person will live through the military experience, and to return that individual to a comfortable psychological state.
Ultimately, no one must be admitted into military service under the age of 21.
Secondly, individuals of a “sensitive nature” must be made thoroughly aware of the risks and dangers of exposure to military life, particularly deployment in “hostile territories”.
One need not have experienced combat to have been traumatized during ones’ term of service. Sexual assaults, waste and corruption on behalf of the chain of command, and interaction with locals, all have a profound effect on ones' post deployment outlook on life, and there must be mechanisms in place to secure the mental integrity of the individual.
Peer counseling with veterans integrated into active units six months before the person gets out of the military may prepare the young person for post deployment life better than fielding job offers from corporate headhunters or compulsory sessions with Military Guidance Counselors.
To summarize, vets coaching kids on the rigors and challenges of post deployment life. And, it would be preferred that vets were able to conduct “interventions” with the goal of funneling the right types of people into service, and prevent the entry of individuals not suited for service.
We cannot trust the military recruiters to do this, because they all are just working for quotas and the military. It must be civilians with military experience, even family members of vets, that do this outreach.
As for the homeless veteran who is presently suffering, they must be made aware of the improvements in VA services and care. They do not want to be cajoled or conned into seeking treatment. Once again, peer to peer models seem to be fairly effective, such as Swords to Plowshares “Veterans Commons” program in San Francisco, or the Vet Hunters in Los Angeles, Veterans First! in Orange County and other community based relief programs.
With Occupy Veterans San Francisco, I was able to connect veterans of similar culturo-generational affinities through informal discussion and organized activities that drew on the strengths of our experiences and skills gained during service, and develop friendships. When these new relationships are fostered, a buddy system emerges that allows trust and support. The idea being that a couple of vets, or a group would act collectively for the benefit of any member of the group (“All for One, and one for All”). Thus, veterans would be pooling their “benefits” checks and getting apartments together, collectively sharing responsibilities and providing mutual support. The veterans need to be calibrated to one another in only a few areas; drug preferences, political orientation, age and gender, etc.
Think of it as a “match making” project.
Some veterans prefer to live out of doors, and this is fine. With OVSF, we have been able to provide younger veterans who still need the rush of tactical excitement with a “syndicate” of vacant buildings and outdoor spaces where they can bivouac.
This latter option entails varying degrees of legality: however it provides us with a crucial political point, as well as keeping the veteran in what I term an “operational mindset”.
The bottom line is that younger veterans just coming home have different wants than the older veterans, that the needs of food and shelter are common, and that veterans have to be able to feel liberated at all times.
At the neighborhood level, there would appear to be some organizations that do “good work”, for example the established VFW Halls, Am Legion, etc.
At the city level, populations and administrations need to be pressured through Direct Actions to provide SPACE, any space to homeless veterans.
A forcible building take over if one will not be donated to us. An occupation to liberate land. Impeachment of City Officials. Boycotting of businesses, or in extreme cases, property damage. The variety of ways that Direct Action in tandem with political pressure such as petitions and rallies can influence public opinion is considerable.
If we are to mitigate the effects of this problem, we must determine what levels of compliance or resistance the veteran is willing or able to engage in.
Identify Veterans
Confirm status and calibrate personality to action plan
Stage the Veteran up, provide stability or track the Vet
Support holding pattern
Placement
Maintenance and Sustainability
Obviously one of the biggest challenges we face as a nation is the abolition of wars of imperial conquest. Everyone has a part in the machinery of global dominance, and workers, students and the homeless must band together in solidarity to stand up to the Government.
But how do we erase the inherent class differences that prevent people from coming together?
There must be an educational campaign aimed at each of these demographics through appropriate messaging and the presentation of that message.
Wounded or homeless veterans speaking in factories and schools.
“Crowd funding” in communities or cities to purchase buildings for vets to clean up and live in.
Massive public outreach programs with the aim of securing property that has gone fallow.
This author feels there are only limited means and funds available to us to fix this problem.
Purchasing or taking space. If we “take it 3 times,lose it 3 times…burn it down.”
Not many absentee land lords would be willing to risk this. It would behoove them to consider the option of doing some good instead of sheltering taxes instead of people.
Buying a farm would be great, but we have Defense Contractors to feed, so we know where Public Money is going. We must divert war funds into vet funds, and to do that we must present a credible threat to the entities responsible for war making.
Short of armed insurrection by vets and patriots, we can only keep pressing for a 40 day general strike and boycott of our Government.
I hope I have made this paper clear enough.
Until we reach a point where our people are compassionate enough to let some of us live for free and freely live, veterans who are able bodied enough to defend the interests of their comrades must do so, or we will be struggling for the rest of our lives.
Until every vet who is able to liberate themselves and live their lives as they see fit in secure surroundings with adequate food and services…this country will hang its head in shame.
WAR causes homelessness so obviously, so terribly, that this remains our top priority.
Respectfully submitted,
Michael Clift
Prepared for the Green Shadow Cabinet by Michael Clift, Occupy Veterans San Francisco.
The homeless situation in the United States is spiraling out of control, and nowhere is this more shameful to our Nation, and an indictment against our current economic system than in the Veterans'
Community. There are several ways to address this issue, and I hope in this paper to explore various options we have both as communities and a nation to mitigate the situation.
To begin with, we must recognize, as I am sure most of us are aware, that until we eliminate WAR as policy we will always have the matters of PTSD and “re-integration” to contend with. The only sure way to eliminate “homeless veterans” is to eliminate war abroad, and until we can do that, we must catch the vet before they become ensnared in post deployment depression and addictions. That means we must build a platform within the Active Service Term for the individual on a case by case basis.
Let me illustrate what this might look like.
A group of counselors would begin a series of interviews with the individual with the goal of discerning the individuals’ talents and aspirations. The desired result must be calibrated to the ambitions and abilities of the individual. For example, if a person really wanted “to become a guitar player, but joined the army to get college money” then we must convince that individual to use the GI Bill to enroll in music academy, as opposed to trying to become a business major.
The reason we are seeing such large numbers in the drop out rate is that we cannot reasonably expect a young person, having returned from a combat zone, to simply pick up where they left off in high school and have the “college experience”.
What must be done is to allow people to pick up where they left off, to re-integrate that person with the one they were “before the Army”.
It begins with pre-enlistment screening assuming that the person will live through the military experience, and to return that individual to a comfortable psychological state.
Ultimately, no one must be admitted into military service under the age of 21.
Secondly, individuals of a “sensitive nature” must be made thoroughly aware of the risks and dangers of exposure to military life, particularly deployment in “hostile territories”.
One need not have experienced combat to have been traumatized during ones’ term of service. Sexual assaults, waste and corruption on behalf of the chain of command, and interaction with locals, all have a profound effect on ones' post deployment outlook on life, and there must be mechanisms in place to secure the mental integrity of the individual.
Peer counseling with veterans integrated into active units six months before the person gets out of the military may prepare the young person for post deployment life better than fielding job offers from corporate headhunters or compulsory sessions with Military Guidance Counselors.
To summarize, vets coaching kids on the rigors and challenges of post deployment life. And, it would be preferred that vets were able to conduct “interventions” with the goal of funneling the right types of people into service, and prevent the entry of individuals not suited for service.
We cannot trust the military recruiters to do this, because they all are just working for quotas and the military. It must be civilians with military experience, even family members of vets, that do this outreach.
As for the homeless veteran who is presently suffering, they must be made aware of the improvements in VA services and care. They do not want to be cajoled or conned into seeking treatment. Once again, peer to peer models seem to be fairly effective, such as Swords to Plowshares “Veterans Commons” program in San Francisco, or the Vet Hunters in Los Angeles, Veterans First! in Orange County and other community based relief programs.
With Occupy Veterans San Francisco, I was able to connect veterans of similar culturo-generational affinities through informal discussion and organized activities that drew on the strengths of our experiences and skills gained during service, and develop friendships. When these new relationships are fostered, a buddy system emerges that allows trust and support. The idea being that a couple of vets, or a group would act collectively for the benefit of any member of the group (“All for One, and one for All”). Thus, veterans would be pooling their “benefits” checks and getting apartments together, collectively sharing responsibilities and providing mutual support. The veterans need to be calibrated to one another in only a few areas; drug preferences, political orientation, age and gender, etc.
Think of it as a “match making” project.
Some veterans prefer to live out of doors, and this is fine. With OVSF, we have been able to provide younger veterans who still need the rush of tactical excitement with a “syndicate” of vacant buildings and outdoor spaces where they can bivouac.
This latter option entails varying degrees of legality: however it provides us with a crucial political point, as well as keeping the veteran in what I term an “operational mindset”.
The bottom line is that younger veterans just coming home have different wants than the older veterans, that the needs of food and shelter are common, and that veterans have to be able to feel liberated at all times.
At the neighborhood level, there would appear to be some organizations that do “good work”, for example the established VFW Halls, Am Legion, etc.
At the city level, populations and administrations need to be pressured through Direct Actions to provide SPACE, any space to homeless veterans.
A forcible building take over if one will not be donated to us. An occupation to liberate land. Impeachment of City Officials. Boycotting of businesses, or in extreme cases, property damage. The variety of ways that Direct Action in tandem with political pressure such as petitions and rallies can influence public opinion is considerable.
If we are to mitigate the effects of this problem, we must determine what levels of compliance or resistance the veteran is willing or able to engage in.
Identify Veterans
Confirm status and calibrate personality to action plan
Stage the Veteran up, provide stability or track the Vet
Support holding pattern
Placement
Maintenance and Sustainability
Obviously one of the biggest challenges we face as a nation is the abolition of wars of imperial conquest. Everyone has a part in the machinery of global dominance, and workers, students and the homeless must band together in solidarity to stand up to the Government.
But how do we erase the inherent class differences that prevent people from coming together?
There must be an educational campaign aimed at each of these demographics through appropriate messaging and the presentation of that message.
Wounded or homeless veterans speaking in factories and schools.
“Crowd funding” in communities or cities to purchase buildings for vets to clean up and live in.
Massive public outreach programs with the aim of securing property that has gone fallow.
This author feels there are only limited means and funds available to us to fix this problem.
Purchasing or taking space. If we “take it 3 times,lose it 3 times…burn it down.”
Not many absentee land lords would be willing to risk this. It would behoove them to consider the option of doing some good instead of sheltering taxes instead of people.
Buying a farm would be great, but we have Defense Contractors to feed, so we know where Public Money is going. We must divert war funds into vet funds, and to do that we must present a credible threat to the entities responsible for war making.
Short of armed insurrection by vets and patriots, we can only keep pressing for a 40 day general strike and boycott of our Government.
I hope I have made this paper clear enough.
Until we reach a point where our people are compassionate enough to let some of us live for free and freely live, veterans who are able bodied enough to defend the interests of their comrades must do so, or we will be struggling for the rest of our lives.
Until every vet who is able to liberate themselves and live their lives as they see fit in secure surroundings with adequate food and services…this country will hang its head in shame.
WAR causes homelessness so obviously, so terribly, that this remains our top priority.
Respectfully submitted,
Michael Clift