An interview with Larry Holmes
On Rangel's bill, the draft and organizing GIs
By Leslie Feinberg
President Richard Nixon abolished the compulsory military
draft in the United States in 1973. Tumultuous anti-war
struggles inside the ranks of the military and within the
society as a whole--inspired and bolstered by the resistance of
the Vietnamese people themselves--made a drafted army untenable
for the brass.
Rep. Charles Rangel, an African Amer ican Democrat
representing New York's 15th Congressional District, announced
in a Jan.8 opinion editorial that he had introduced legislation
to reinstate the draft.
Rangel noted the disproportionately high representation of
poor and oppressed nationalities in the enlisted ranks. He said
people of color make up 35 percent of the military--Black GIs
20 percent--which is well above their proportion of the general
population. They, along with poor and rural whites, Rangel
said, make up more than their share of ground forces.
Workers World newspaper talked with Larry Holmes about the
idea of reinstating the draft. When the Pentagon gun turrets
were aimed at the Vietnamese, Holmes was a GI resister. After a
brief stint in a military prison, he was kicked out of the army
in 1972 for anti-war organizing. In 1972-73 he became a leader
of the American Servicemen's Union, which tried to form a labor
union inside the ranks, and he has continued to be an
activist--leading many struggles against war and racism over
the last three decades.
Big firms get rich, GIs die
"There's no question that Rep. Charles Rangel's legislative
initiative to reinstate the draft has touched off a raw nerve
in the White House and in the ruling circles and the media,"
Holmes begins.
"It is clear that Rangel meant to draw attention to the fact
that today's ranks are from the working class, and more and
more they are largely Black and Latino," he continues. "They
are sent off to fight wars decided in the chambers of the
all-white and wealthy Senate and in the corporate boardrooms.
The sons and daughters of the rich and powerful are spared from
war."
Holmes explained that the composition of the troops spells
trouble for the ruling summits of war makers. "One of the
reasons why Bush and Co. are very nervous about this reality,
as they send tens of thousands of troops to the Gulf, is that
it has the potential of fracturing this false and thin sense of
'national patriotic unity' that they work overtime to inculcate
society with.
"Why should these youths be sent off to fight wars for Wall
Street?" Holmes asks rhetorically.
"And what happens to them when and if they come home?"
Holmes adds. "Too many of those who survived the Vietnam War
and the 1991 Gulf War had been killed but didn't know it
yet--from Agent Orange or Gulf War Syndrome. Too many came back
sick, their lives destroyed by post-war trauma, addiction,
domestic violence, inability to work or function, devastating
social side effects that linger for decades, if not
generations, in working-class communities and ghettos across
the country."
Discharged soldiers return to the war on the "home
front"--racism, police violence, inprisonment, cutbacks in
social services, poverty and low-paying jobs, too.
"Malcolm X raised this contradiction," Holmes recalls,
"Martin Luther King did, too, along with every other
progressive leader who thought seriously about the relationship
of Black and Latino young people to wars. They're sent to fight
the wars, but when they come home they face racist
discrimination in every aspect of their life."
'Hell, no! We won't go!'
"I don't think anyone really believes that Rangel, or Rep.
John Conyers of Detroit who co-sponsored the bill, is really
for reinstating the draft," Holmes says.
"No progressive person would vote to force more people to go
to war," he explains. "What Rangel, or other legislators who
may really be opposed to this war, could do as an alternative
way of opening up this question is to explain that many young
people join the military because they can't find any
jobs--creating what's often been called the 'economic
draft.'
"Therefore, because of the widespread opposition to the war,
these political figures could introduce legislation giving
enlisted personnel--including reservists--the right to refuse
to participate.
"That would really shake up the establishment," Holmes says
emphatically. "And it would energize the anti-war movement and
give it a way to be in solidarity with GIs."
Holmes took note of how narrowly the U.S. government defines
Conscientious Objector status. "They wouldn't give Muhammad Ali
that status when he spoke out against the war. CO status should
be broadened to include everyone who for whatever reason
doesn't want to fight in this war."
The struggle against the draft during the Vietnam War was a
dynamic component of anti-Pentagon activism, Holmes stresses.
He described massive, angry protests in the late 1960s that
shut down the Whitehall induction center in the southern tip of
Manhattan as fighting spilled into the heart of Wall
Street.
"The occupation of draft offices, the activist disposal of
draft files, burning of draft cards--it was a serious,
compelling demand to stop the war," Holmes recalls.
"However, Rangel has at least reminded the movement that
opposing the draft isn't enough."
Winning over workers in uniform
"We have to win the hearts and minds of those from the
working class who happen to presently be in uniform. We have to
have a thoughtful approach to engage them and organize the one
to two million enlisted personnel in the military, including
the hundreds of thousands of reservists." Holmes leans forward
to stress the importance of this point.
"When you really think about it, as serious anti-war
activists, a small, highly-paid, elite mercenary force that is
socially divorced from the mass of the population--like the CIA
and FBI, or the SWAT teams of the NYPD or the LAPD--couldn't be
appealed to."
But watch the footage of tearful families and reservists
saying their goodbyes on the news programs, wondering if
they'll ever be reunited, Holmes suggests. "There is tremendous
apprehension among enlisted personnel. Anti-war activists and
organizations like the International ANSWER coalition--Act Now
to Stop War & End Racism--are being contacted by GIs and
reservists wanting to know what can be done to help them take
an anti-war stand."
When full-scale war breaks out, Holmes cautions, a media
blitzkrieg marches alongside it. "They'll say we have to stop
all the debating and criticizing, all the marching and rallying
against the war because now we have to support our troops.
"It's a phony appeal meant to touch a chord in the hearts of
working-class people whose loved ones are in harm's way. But
it's cynical propaganda from those who are diverting attention
from the body bags being sent home and the Iraqi people being
slaughtered."
The burgeoning anti-war movement can express its genuine
solidarity with the soldiers. Holmes voice rises: "We have an
alternative way to support the troops: Bring them home! Why
should they fight and die for oil profits?"
Holmes offers a few cogent lessons from the anti-military
struggle he cut his teeth on 30 years ago. "I was drafted
during the Vietnam War and got involved with a group called the
American Servicemen's Union. The ASU was founded by GIs, with
the support of anti-war activists, in 1967. At the height of
the Vietnam War we had 30,000 card-carrying members who
exchanged information and views with each other through a
terrific monthly newspaper called 'The Bond.'"
Holmes brings to mind that soldiers have no rights. "We had
a splendid approach to organizing the women and men in the
military ranks that I think could be applied today. The ASU
demanded that GIs have the right to a labor union.
"This includes the right to vote against participation in
wars, to engage in free speech and political activism, decent
pay and benefits for GIs and their dependents, and an end to
racist, sexist and anti-gay discrimination."
Holmes adds that soldiers, specifically, "should be able to
talk openly about the war in their barracks without the
presence of officers or any fear of punishment. They should be
able to participate in anti-war activities both on military
bases and off."
He draws a breath and concludes with conviction: "In the
coming days and weeks, our anti-war movement will have to take
up the challenge of helping to organize GIs against the war
much more seriously."
Reprinted from the Jan. 23, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
under a Creative
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