First Published: Revolution, Vol. 3, No. 14, November 1978.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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The ever-sharpening contradictions between the superpowers, the U.S. and the Soviet Union, the continuing acts of imperialist aggression and the very real possibility of world war is a fact which cannot be ignored. As our Party has summed up, without prior revolutions in both superpowers, prospects for which are not immediately on the horizon, we will be facing a situation of world war probably within the next ten years. This is a very sobering fact. The bourgeoisie, of course, is very aware of their necessity in this regard and is preparing militarily and politically.
A key part of their preparations includes an ever-increasing effort to sway public opinion in favor of their future war plans. Particularly since their crushing defeat in Indochina and the tremendous upsurge in this country of anti-war sentiment, the ruling class is acutely aware of the need to reinforce, and to some extent rekindle, the fires of nationalism, patriotism, and plain old red-blooded Americanism.
To accomplish this they are waging an ideological and political campaign which takes many forms. Beyond the more obvious saber-rattling and ranting and ravings that go on back and forth between the U.S. and the Soviet Union and the open threats of troop interventions to protect “our” interests, there are many more subtle ways the bourgeoisie tries to prepare the masses for war. More and more frequently we see recruiting posters which no longer show pictures of idyllic overseas vacations but have GIs driving tanks and training for combat, and there has been a veritable avalanche of books and movies summing up the Vietnam war–“sure it was a dirty war, and maybe even a mistake, but it was the patriotic and manly thing to do.” Then there is the more straight-up patriotic holidays, like Veterans Day and Memorial Day, with Marine Corps marching bands, pom-pom girls and air shows.
One of the key elements in many of these propaganda efforts is the veteran. Reactionary veterans get their books published, chauvinist veterans’ organizations play central roles on patriotic holidays and around critical questions. For both positive and negative reasons, veterans enjoy a certain amount of respect in the eyes of the masses who grant them some authority on many questions, particularly those related to war, the military and foreign policy. As a result veterans often play a crucial role in many public debates around these questions. The ruling class recognizes this fact and for over a hundred years has attempted, and often succeeded, in organizing; cultivating and using the voice of the veteran in its class interests and in opposition to the interests of the masses of people.
Every imperialist war, however, has produced veterans who opposed these reactionary schemes and fought back militantly. The massive “Back Home” movement to force withdrawal of U.S. troops from Asia and Europe at the end of WWII and the tremendously powerful demonstrations of veterans led by Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) at the height of the Vietnam war are two outstanding examples. The proletariat and its vanguard, the Revolutionary Communist Party, has a vital responsibility to organize this sentiment and aim it directly at the imperialist enemy.
This question of veterans in relationship to war came out very sharply in struggles within VVAW against the political views of a small band of former RCP members who leapt into the political garbage heap with the Jarvis-Bergman clique. Despite a pathetic attempt to use the positions they held in the national office of VVAW to take over the organization, they were officially “discharged” from office last July by an overwhelming majority of the organization. (See “The High Road in Vets Work,” in the February 1978 Revolution for more on this struggle.)
Within VVAW the subject of imperialist aggression and war preparations has always been a pivotal question. As veterans returned home from Indochina they stood up against the way they had been used as instruments of oppression and exploitation and against the lies of fighting for the “defense of democracy.” They played a crucial role in helping to bring millions to oppose the U.S. imperialist plunder of Indochina. VVAW grew from these struggles and as the organization developed, its support for just wars and opposition to unjust wars became a cornerstone of principle. In more recent years VVAW has taken a clear stand on the mounting danger of a new imperialist world war, and the organization has broadly exposed its source, the contention between the U.S. and the USSR. It has consistently been at the forefront of battles against imperialist acts of aggression and war moves, especially those of the U.S. bourgeoisie.
To the Mensheviks, this proud history was only so much capital to build their careers on. Over the last few years in VVAW there has been a tendency, championed by the Mensheviks and fed by spontaneity, to downplay the powerful political role that organization can play around the questions of war, the military, patriotism and other related issues. While VVAW is not a communist organization, it does have an important revolutionary role to play in our movement and it is instructive to note in contrast what role these reformists, who claim to be communists, would have for VVAW.
Since splitting from the RCP the dethroned Menshevik vets, who are still running around calling themselves VVAW, have shown their full colors to the disgust of all genuine revolutionaries. They have totally liquidated the revolutionary role veterans can play. Around the question of war they have stopped seriously taking up and exposing acts of imperialist aggression, the contention between the superpowers and the danger of another world war. While sometimes paying lip service to these questions they have taken the revolutionary heart out of them claiming that this is not an “immediate concern” of vets. Even when they do raise the possibility of imperialist war, they argue that vets should be opposed, not on any political basis, but to save their skin, to avoid becoming “cannon fodder” again. According to them VVAW should focus its work primarily on battles that “we can also win,” and of course they mean this in the most narrow way possible. In fact, according to them, fighting when you can’t win immediate palpable results is “mindless fighting.”
Agent Orange, a chemical warfare gas used in Indochina, which has been in the news recently as more and more veterans have come down with the poisoning, has been the major campaign of the Menshevik vets this year. Did they take it up in such a way as to expose the barbaric nature of a system that would drop poison on millions of people in Indochina during an imperialist war, to expose a system that would just as consciously poison many of its own troops, or to explain why that same system would then frantically attempt to cover these grotesque crimes? Absolutely not.
Why take this up? According to their internal newsletter: “more than an organizing or exposure device, the campaign around Agent Orange is one which vets can and will win.” In the myopic view of these Mensheviks, Agent Orange became a battle cry for medical testing and treatment for vets, and in reality, even this battle cry was more like a limp snivel with not a hint of a revolutionary line. It was reduced to begging the Veterans Administration for help. One of the “single sparks” they were popularizing was the day they militantly marched into the VA and demanded to fill out the paperwork–they won!
It is of course not wrong to take up the issue of medical treatment for Agent Orange victims, but it must be done in the overall context of exposing and battling the imperialist system, and Agent Orange provides fertile ground for this. The only fertile ground the Mensheviks found was the well known revisionist swamp.
African Liberation Day for them this year became a mockery of support for the just struggles of the African People. According to them, the “most important” part of their so-called ALD activities was collecting fatigues which they claimed was providing “concrete aid to the struggle of the people of south Africa.” This is a flagrant violation of Marxism and reduces proletarian internationalism to a Salvation Army care package. Lenin minced no words on this question:
There is one, and only one, kind of real internationalism, and that is working whole-heartedly for the development of the revolutionary movement and the revolutionary struggle in one’s own country, and supporting (by propaganda, sympathy, and material aid) this struggle, this and only this, line in every country without exception. (Vol. 24, 75, Lenin’s emphasis.)
Concretely around the situation in Africa, this means politically and materially undermining the imperialist aggression on that continent, especially that of the two superpowers, and particularly, for us, our own rulers. This means battling our own bourgeoisie in a way to weaken and expose them both for their actual role in Africa and by exposing the imperialist contention and maneuvering internationally.
Gathering material aid for the liberation fighters in Africa can aid this struggle if placed in the context of internationalism as defined by Lenin. In fact, the majority of VVAW, in organizing veterans to take part in ALD this year, did give material aid to the liberation fighters with the clear understanding summed up from the previous year that “the primary success of our fatigue drive last year was in its building of political support and the strong symbol of internationalism that it represented–certainly not in the five or ten boxes of fatigues, that were given...” (VVAW internal newsletter, Vol. 6, No. 2.)
These efforts to take the heart out of VVAW are all part and parcel of our Mensheviks’ retreat from fighting the imperialist system and preparing the masses for eventual overthrow of the bourgeoisie and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat. According to them the bourgeoisie and their agents aren’t so bad after all. Listen to what they have to say about the reactionary veterans’ organizations:
Groups like the Legion and VFW are dying. They have their halls for social gatherings, but in the political arena they are limited by the views of their leadership who have closed their ears to the needs of veterans and closed their eyes to U.S. involvement in wars and potential wars around the world.
This is the exact opposite of the truth. These organizations were created by the capitalist class for the express purpose of using the “right to speak” of veterans in the service of the bourgeoisie. The American Legion was even specifically created as an “Anti-Bolshevik” organization after WWI. They play a central role in drumming up public sentiment for national chauvinism and imperialist aggression–they sure didn’t have their “eyes closed” last year when they launched a national petition campaign around the Panama Canal claiming “There is no Panama Canal, only an American canal in Panama.” Far from “dying,” these organizations will play a useful role for the bourgeoisie until they are swept away like all things reactionary.
VVAW is continuing to play an important role in the ongoing battles with the bourgeoisie around the questions of war, patriotism and other related issues. The organization has made significant political advances in the course of defeating the Menshevik line and in struggling against spontaneous tendencies towards rightism and pragmatism. It is now even more firmly committed to waging the extremely important political and ideological battles against imperialist aggression and war that face our movement in the period ahead and to which a veterans’ organization is particularly suited.
It is in this spirit that VVAW is approaching the upcoming Veterans Day fanfare. Veterans Day, November 11, will be a scene of sharp class struggle in a number of cities. The bourgeoisie will be attempting to glorify and justify past imperialist wars and pave the way for future ones. In opposition to this VVAW will be out there saying “TO HELL WITH YOUR NATIONAL HONOR, WE WON’T BE USED AGAIN!” and exposing the acts of aggression and war moves of both super-powers particularly our own bourgeoisie. As the leaflet of the Chicago chapter of VVAW put it: “To hell with their traditions, we have a fine tradition of our own–a tradition of resistance to the Vietnam War, a tradition of throwing our medals at their White House, a tradition of common rebellion with the oppressed and working classes the world over. We’re not afraid of war–our war is against this capitalist system and all the wars and torment that it breeds. Veterans Day is a day to tell the truth about what our rulers so-called ’national honor’ really means.” In addition to the overall slogan of ”TO HELL WITH YOUR NATIONAL HONOR, WE WON’T BE USED AGAIN,” the Veterans Day actions will be raising the following demands:
DOWN WITH U.S. AND SOVIET WAR MOVES! FROM IRAN AND THE MIDDLE EAST TO AFRICA TO CENTRAL AMERICA–U.S. IMPERIALISM OUT! SUPPORT THE JUST STRUGGLES OF THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD! UNIVERSAL AND UNCONDITIONAL AMNESTY FOR ALL WAR RESISTERS! SINGLE-TYPE DISCHARGE FOR ALL GI’S AND VETS! JOBS OR INCOME FOR ALL! STOP THE ATTACKS ON VETERANS BENEFITS!