From Vietnam to Iraq
Black resistance to racist war
By Monica Moorehead
Thirty-six years ago, on April 3, 1967, civil rights leader
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a powerful speech against
the U.S. war in Vietnam at Riverside Church in New York
City.
King raised the inseparable links between racist injustice
at home and U.S. military escalation against the
Vietnamese.
He said, "The greatest purveyor of violence in the world
today--my own government."
Today, millions upon millions of people around the world are
expressing a similar view in words and actions as the U.S.
leads a brutal aggression against the people of Iraq and
intensifies the violation of their sovereignty.
Inside the U.S., anti-war activities are being organized by
African Americans and other activists of color in Harlem,
Baltimore and elsewhere to coincide with the 35th anniversary
of King's assassination on April 4. These events will include
King's anti-war stance, which many believe led to his
government-sponsored assassination.
These protests reflect the fact that the overwhelming
majority of Black people across the United States are against
this war.
Sixty-four percent of African Americans voiced opposition to
the war in one sample poll conducted by the New York Times on
March 26. A New York City poll cited 78 percent against the
war. Some stated that they felt a strong sense of solidarity
with the Iraqi people because, like Black people here, the
Iraqis are victims of a racist war by the U.S. government.
There are many oppressed people in the United States who
view the police as unwanted armed occupiers in their
communities, similar to the armed occupation by the U.S. and
British imperialist military in Iraq.
And a number of those polled noted that the Bush
administration blatantly hijacked the 2000 elections from
African Americans and other working-class voters in Florida
.
Who's on front line of imperialist wars?
Fighting the racist character of the U.S. military has
always been a component of the struggle for social equality for
African Americans.
During World War I, many Black soldiers joined the military
and faced racism in every aspect of military life.
Black labor leader A. Philip Randolph threatened a march by
hundreds of thousands of Black workers in 1941 against racism
in the defense industries and the military. This threat forced
President Franklin Roosevelt to issue an executive order
reaffirming the desegregation of these institutions on the eve
of the U.S. entering World War II.
On July 26, 1948, President Harry Truman issued an executive
order calling for the full integration of the U.S. military.
Once the Korean War broke out in 1950, Black soldiers
constituted 13 percent of the U.S. military. Forty percent of
them were placed in combat units--meaning they faced a
significantly disproportionate casualty rate.
Like Black soldiers in World War I and II, soldiers involved
in the Korean War consciously hoped that by proving to be some
of the best fighters in the military, they would be seen as
equal in the eyes of whites after the war and that this would
result in either the reduction or eradication of racism. This
proved to be a pipe dream.
During the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s, Black people
were drafted into the military and were once again placed in
combat units in disproportionately high numbers.
Between 1961 and 1965, Black soldiers accounted for one out
of every five combat-related deaths in Vietnam. In 1965 alone,
Black soldiers accounted for one of every four combat-related
deaths. The overall U.S. Black population was about 13 percent
during this period.
The emerging anti-Vietnam War movement and national
liberation movements encouraged young people--Black and
white--to avoid the draft by fleeing to Canada and
elsewhere.
Although the leadership of the anti-war movement was
predominantly white and middle-class, the anti-war views of Dr.
King and former heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali had a great
impact, especially on the campuses.
Many soldiers became anti-war while in Vietnam. Some even
carried out acts called fragging. This means they refused
orders and turned their guns on their superior officers,
instead of the Vietnam ese. The spread of fragging played a
strategic role in the defeat of the U.S. military in Southeast
Asia.
In the early days of the new U.S. war against Iraq, fragging
has already appeared. Sgt. Asan Akbar, a young Black Muslim, is
accused of shooting at the top officers of the 101st Airborne
and throwing grenades into their command center.
Economic draft a means to escape poverty
Today, there are an estimated 1.4 million U.S. military
personnel. No matter what their nationality, the overwhelming
majority come from the working class.
The soaring cost of tuition means fewer families can afford
to send these youths to college. So many see the military as a
means to get a job skill, education and other benefits. Hardly
any youths from families of great wealth and privilege join the
ranks of the military.
Black people make up close to 13 percent of the overall U.S.
population in 2003, but comprise 22 percent of the enlisted
personnel. Half the enlisted women in the Army are Black.
Today a large number of Black women who join the military
are working-class single mothers like Shoshana Johnson, the
Army cook who is reportedly a prisoner of war in Iraq.
Dr. King's words still ring true today. "The pursuit of this
widened war has narrowed domestic welfare programs, making the
poor, white and Negro, bear the heaviest burdens both at the
front and at home," he stated in a Feb. 25, 1967, speech
entitled "The Casualties of the War in Vietnam."
He continued, "While the anti-poverty program is cautiously
initiated, zealously supervised and evaluated for immediate
results, billions are liberally expended for this
ill-considered war. The recently revealed mis-estimate of the
war budget amounts to ten billions of dollars for a single
year.
"The security we profess to seek in foreign adventures we
will lose in our decaying cities. The bombs in Vietnam explode
at home: they destroy the hopes and possibilities for a decent
America. ... Poverty, urban problems and social progress
generally are ignored when the guns of war become a national
obsession."
The disproportionate numbers of Black and other oppressed
peoples in the ranks of today's Pentagon military are not a
sign that they wanted to fight wars abroad.
It is economic factors that force many people of color to
join the armed forces.
Three million jobs have disappeared so far during the Bush
regime. There was the destruction of welfare under the Clinton
regime, along with the erosion of health care and other social
programs.
Two million people are in U.S. prisons, a hugely
disproportionate number of them Black and Latino, due to
drug-related convictions.
Half of African American children are still born into
poverty.
Organizing against racist wars of capitalist expansion
abroad and for money for jobs at home are important messages
that must reach oppressed and working-class youths--inside and
outside the military.
Two major sources for this article were the Web site
www.africanamericans.com and the March 30 New York Times
article, "Military mirrors working-class America."
Reprinted from the April 10, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
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