Cancel Rimpac-Reach Out to Rank and File Troops here ♦ Veteran Remembers Vietnam Era Sailors’ Rebellions here ♦
On November 9, 1972, during the US War on Vietnam, 132 sailors, mostly Black, refused to reboard the ship USS Constellation in San Diego. They were protesting racist practices on the ship, part of a Pacific-wide rebellion during the US War on Vietnam.
Cancel RIMPAC and Imperialist War: Communist Outreach to Rank-and-File Troops Around the World
USA, June 17— “It’s crucial to reach out to soldiers and sailors,” said B, a Red Flag distributer.
“Ignoring the troops is a big weakness,” added a Philippine activist in the US.
After discussing and demonstrating against the war plans of the imperialists for months, most of our base agreed.
Our everlasting enemy is global capitalism. There is never freedom under capitalist governments, no matter who runs them.
We need communist revolutions around the world that will end this system and its ceaseless imperialist wars. In short, there is no capitalist armed force—and never will be —that serves the masses.
But how do we build a party that can organize these communist revolutions around the world? That’s where the rank-and-file troops come in.
Emphasizing revolutionary work among rank-and-file troops puts us on the right track. But it is controversial among the masses.
For example, a high school teacher and Iraq war veteran is currently dealing with the presence of the US Army’s Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps in his high school. Should teachers allow recruiters to visit their classrooms? Some teachers believe that we should stop the effort of recruiters to visit classrooms. The Army veteran teacher has pointed out the need for us to maintain close political relationships with students who join the military.
“These students who join the army are part of the working class,” he told a colleague. “We must politicize our students and encourage them to join the army to turn the guns around.”
The army will recruit soldiers no matter what. They will persuade our students that they have no choice but to enlist, follow orders, and possibly die for their country.
We must convince our students that if they are to enlist, they must never break the alliance they have with the international working class. Workers and soldiers need each other to wage a revolution against the capitalist oppressors around the world.
Among the masses, many view all soldiers and sailors as unwinnable fascists. The reality is that the capitalists-imperialists face an inescapable contradiction. They send the most oppressed members of our class to do their fighting and to build their weapons. It is these very troops and industrial workers who can be won to lead the broader masses to communist revolution.
Hidden History Shows How Rank-and-File Troops Can Spread Communist Ideas
“We’ve forgotten our own history,” B continued. He did not refer only to winning troops to communist revolution in a particular country like the US.
Military history is filled with examples of fraternization with “enemy” troops. Politicized troops have spread revolutionary and even communist ideology around the globe. The potential for international communist revolution expands when troops start to fraternize.
In 1918, fourteen imperialist militaries invaded the newly formed Soviet Union. They quickly retreated.
The Soviet soldiers and sailors launched a massive ideological campaign to explain their communist ideas. Rank-and-file soldiers in every invading force were won over. Some troops rebelled and others became revolutionaries themselves. Military officers couldn’t pull out their troops fast enough. Revolutionary ideas spread around the world.
During the ten years of the US War on Vietnam, fraternization also became a problem for the US military, especially among those rank-and file troops who considered themselves leftists or communists. Any rank-and file soldier that learned to speak Vietnamese was suspect. Many were quickly sent back to the US.
After our talk about fraternization, B ended the discussion with a warning.
“We cling to anti-imperialist movements that think everything will be all right if we are militant enough and resist only US imperialism. What about the other imperialist countries and their allies? They care nothing about workers’ needs; only their own power and profits.”
The capitalist butchers are intensifying their war plans to murder millions in search of profits and power. Led by veterans, the ICWP contingent at the Cancel RIMPAC events in San Diego aims to invigorate the revolutionary work among the rank-and-file troops around the world. Let’s win the rank and file of all capitalist armies to Cancel Capitalism and its never-ending imperialist wars.
Veteran Remembers Vietnam Era Sailor Rebellions
The call to San Diego (and Hawai’i) to “Cancel RIMPAC” brought back memories of Pacific-wide sailor rebellions during the Vietnam war.
I was stationed at Fort Lewis, near Seattle, when the USS Constellation erupted in San Diego on November 3-4, 1972. The New York Times aptly described it as “the first mass mutiny in the US Navy.” About a month earlier, the Navy had lost control of the USS Kitty Hawk. Black sailors gave leadership to both revolts.
On November 21, our new Vietnam Veterans Against the War chapter led 50 soldiers to the office of Congressman Floyd Hicks. He chaired the sub-committee investigating the Kitty Hawk and the Constellation rebellions. We demanded that “the investigation be fair and not a whitewash” and that it “probe racism at Ft. Lewis, neighboring McChord Air Force Base, and throughout the military.” We handed our petition signed by 150 soldiers to Hicks’ aide.
Hicks immediately turned over the names on the petition to the Fort Lewis Commanding General. The Army’s Criminal Investigation Division harassed the soldiers, but nobody would rat on the organizers.
Hicks concluded his hearings with the insulting claim that “The riot on the Kitty Hawk was caused by a very few men, most of whom were below-average mental capacity…all of whom were black.” A multiracial group of over 60 soldiers marched back to his office. This time we hung him in effigy.
These demonstrations were only the beginning. Over the next year and a half, our collective led many mass uprisings involving thousands of soldiers. We learned that racism and genocidal war could never be separated.
Several years later, the US Army and Navy admitted that 47% of rank-and-file troops were either resisting orders or in outright rebellion. The commander of US forces in Vietnam, General Westmoreland, pleaded with President Nixon to withdraw immediately. “Otherwise, we will lose the Army,” he warned.
Their loss must become our gain. Winning rank and file troops in all imperialist-capitalist armed forces is not only doable, but also essential.
This time let’s keep our eyes on the prize. Workers and soldiers can free our class to build a communist society based on collective production for our needs, never for profit. Join us!
See “Revolutionary Role of Soldiers and Sailors: History We Need to Know” here
See our pamphlet:
“Soldiers, Sailor and Marines: Crucial to a Communist Workers’ Revolution” here