Outside Camp Lejeune
Pickets support imprisoned Marine resister
By Minnie Bruce Pratt
Camp Lejeune, N.C.
A group of activists held up anti-war signs on
a busy street corner on Nov. 15--an increasingly common sight
as more and more people oppose the U.S. war on Iraq. But this
street corner was in Jack sonville, N.C., home to Camp Lejeune,
the largest Marine Corps base in the world. Marines have
trained here to fight in Korea, Vietnam, Lebanon and now
Iraq.
The thousands of people who drove by and saw the signs were
connected in some way to a base that has an active-duty,
dependent, retiree and civilian employee population of nearly
150,000 people.
Soldiers and their loved ones have been part of anti-war
demonstrations since before the invasion of Iraq began. But the
Nov. 15 day of action marked a new phase in the movement as
anti-war activists brought the struggle against the war to a
military-dominated base town in the South.
The demonstrators came to demand freedom for Stephen Eagle
Funk, an openly gay Filipino Marine who is imprisoned in Camp
Lejeune. He is the first known member of the U.S. armed
services to be jailed for refusing to serve in Iraq.
Funk, a Marine Corps reservist, refused to deploy with his
unit because of his opposition to the war. When his unit was
activated, he continued his efforts to file for conscientious
objector status and engaged in anti-war work, speaking out at
rallies and marches.
On April 1, he turned himself in at his unit in San Jose,
Calif., where he was charged with desertion and unauthorized
absence.
In a statement about his actions, Funk said, "In the face of
this unjust war based on deception by our leaders, I could not
remain silent. In my mind that would have been true cowardice.
... I spoke out so that others in the military would realize
that they also have a choice and a duty to resist immoral and
illegitimate orders. You don't have to be a cog in the
machinery of war."
On Sept. 6, in a victory for anti-war activism, he was
acquitted of the desertion charge. But Funk was convicted of
unauthorized absence.
He was sentenced to six months in the brig at Camp
Lejeune.
SNAFU: the answer to
"Situation Normal All Fouled Up"
On Nov. 15, activists met with Stephen Funk, rallied in
protest and held a teach-in on health issues related to
depleted uranium weapons.
The day of action was initiated by SNAFU--Support Network
for an Armed Forces Union--a group that provides "support for
U.S. military personnel and their family members who have
questions about or oppose unjust wars and military aggression."
(www.join-snafu.org)
SNAFU offers information to military personnel and potential
recruits about their rights. It also seeks to counteract
military recruitment that manipulates vulnerable young
people.
The International Action Center-New York and Queers for
Peace and Justice both worked with SNAFU to bring two van-loads
of participants to the day of action, including students, labor
unionists and former members of the U.S. military, from the
peace-time draft of the late 1950s to the volunteer army of the
1980s. Local activists from the Jacksonville area, students
from the Raleigh/Durham-based North Carolina Campus Greens and
the Student Peace Action Network (SPAN) also organized for the
actions.
Gloria Pacis, Funk's mother, traveled with the delegation to
North Carolina. Pacis had struggled against the U.S.-backed,
neo-colonial Marcos regime in the Philippines.
Responding to the recent announcement that the Pentagon will
mobilize up to 265,000 additional members of the Army Reserve
and National Guard, Pacis issued a message to the people of
Jackson ville: "We share a common weariness when we hear that
President Bush has committed thousands of more troops to the
Iraqi occupation. ... But you, the citizens of a military town
... more so than the rest of the nation, feel the anxiety when
the news announces the latest reports of casualties in
Iraq."
Funk was sentenced two days before the Pentagon announced
the reservist call-up.
Growing resistance
One soldier who had been on unauthorized leave for 11 years
was recently sentenced to one month in jail. But Funk, absent
for 47 days and in contact with his unit at all times, was
sentenced to six months. SNAFU organizers believe his stiffer
penalty was intended to discourage resistance among U.S.
reservists growing increasingly unhappy with the U.S. war.
On Nov. 15, Pacis and others in the delegation met with Funk
during crowded visiting hours at the Camp Lejeune brig.
Inside, prisoners sat opposite their visitors on benches at
formica-covered tables while guards paced back and forth.
Funk, in an orange prison jumpsuit, was in strong spirits
and talked of his continued resistance to the war. He has
gotten over 700 letters of support from 11 countries and almost
every state in the U.S. Because some of the prisoners in the
brig don't get mail, he has offered them his letters to read.
He said that the other Marines are intensely interested in
hearing about the anti-war point of view from which they have
been isolated during their time in service. Funk can receive
letters addressed to him at: Bldg. 1041, PSC 20140, Camp
Lejeune, NC 28542.
Funk explained that many of those locked up in the brig have
been to Iraq and the majority of them are against the war. Some
say that on their way to the war they had thought it was wrong,
and being in Iraq made their opposition even stronger. Funk
reported that when the prisoners see television coverage of the
war, they react with skeptical jeers and comments like, "What
they need is 'Operation Get Your Facts Straight'!"
Although guards have harassed him, he said that he has
encountered virtually no anti-gay sentiment from other
prisoners. At meal times he shares his photo album of protest
marches with them. There were three "Freedom for Stephen Funk"
lesbian, gay, bi and trans contingents at the recent October
25th national anti-war demonstrations, carrying banners with
slogans like "Money for Jobs, AIDS & Housing, Not for War
and Occupation."
Refusing to kill
for biggest superpower
Others in the brig are also resisters, though not directly
incarcerated for that reason. A friend has told Funk of being
ordered to fire on an Iraqi family emerging from their house
with their hands up. The private refused repeated orders to
fire, and yelled out to the other soldiers to hold fire. Funk
noted that this soldier was not disciplined for his refusal,
perhaps for fear of drawing attention to his resistance.
Instead the soldier ended up in the brig for a small offense.
There he has repeatedly told Funk that he is so glad that he
did not fire.
Funk's message to those now in the service is: "Military
training is designed to overcome your human bond with other
people. But nothing will be worse than doing what is wrong and
then having to live with that."
To the reviving anti-war movement, Funk said: "We're up
against the biggest super power in the world, so of course we
can get discouraged sometimes. Stay positive!"
He told Workers World he is eager to rejoin the anti-war
demo nstrations. His sentence is up in February 2004, in time
for the March 20th Global Day of Action marking the first
anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Leaving the brig, the visiting activists heard an African
American woman say that she'd just moved to the base to take
care of her brother, jailed there. He had committed relatively
minor but repeated offenses, which would result in his
discharge, and told her: "I did them because I wanted to come
home."
Who knows how many soldiers and sailors are in U.S. armed
service prisons because they have committed the same, invisible
resistance? And on active duty, there may be many thousands
trying in similar ways to "come home" out of an enlistment they
were forced into by economic desperation and the poverty
draft.
While some were visiting Stephen Funk, other activists stood
in front of Wal-Mart and First Citizens Bank at the busiest
intersection in Jacksonville.
Thousands of motorists saw more than a dozen people holding
placards that bore slogans such as "$ for vets and not for
war," "Bring the troops home," "Big Oil gets rich while GIs
die."
The strength of this protest, and of the growing movement
against the war in the U.S., was reflected in the fact that a
group of counter-protesters was asked by the police to leave.
These off-duty Marines had a professionally designed, pro-war
banner but no permit to demonstrate. That they were forced to
leave was one small sign that the military and the Bush
administration are on the defensive, and didn't want to chance
a confrontation that would give even more visibility to
anti-war forces.
Activists stayed at the intersection for five hours. There
were some vociferous and hateful catcalls aimed at them. But
these were outnumbered by a steady stream of supportive car
honks and thumbs-up, and by the many people who read the signs
and turned to each other in their cars with great seriousness
to talk over what they saw.
Judi Cheng of SNAFU said: "On the picket line, we were able
to present views that military personnel are generally trained
not to hold. People reacted with curiosity, with some
trepidation, and with support for our slogans. We made it known
that dissent is possible even in a military culture of enforced
obedience."
Asked what he made of the many positive responses to the
rally, Peter Gilbert of SPAN said, "This protest gives people a
chance to rethink a situation that may have been seen by them
as unchangeable in their daily lives."
The protest line was significant in its multi-national
character. Camp Lejeune was notorious during the Vietnam war
for the presence of the Ku Klux Klan and other racist groups
that rampaged there. More recently, racist paratroopers at Ft.
Bragg killed a Black couple as they were taking an evening walk
on a street in Fayetteville, N.C. An investigation uncovered
white supre macist organizations within the 82nd Airborne
there. (Glen Ford, "Buffalo Soldiers," ColorLines, Summer
2003)
Imani Henry of the International Action Center commented on
the anti-racist solidarity communicated by those at the
protest: "The delegation included both white people and people
of color, Black, Asian and Latino, women and men and transfolk,
and lesbian, gay and bisexual people. Today was an opportunity
to unite many struggles spanning many communities, not only to
demand freedom for Stephen Funk, but to demand an end to the
occupation of Iraq."
Depleted uranium:
a serious health issue
Simultaneous with the street protest, other activists held
an information session at Coastal Carolina Community College
about the dangers of depleted uranium to military personnel and
their families. Organized by Vernon Kelly, an instructor and
anti-war activist, this forum attracted 40 participants. Most
were students enrolled at CCCC for career re-training, either
because they are former military personnel on disability or are
active military preparing for civilian life. Almost half the
people present were people of color, and slightly more than
half were women.
Videographer Sue Harris of People's Video Network introduced
the video, "Metal of Dishonor: the Pentagon's Secret Weapon,"
which exposes the terrible dangers of the depleted uranium
weapons currently being used by the U.S., most recently in
Iraq. (www.peoplesvideo.org)
DU shells are extremely dense, and can easily penetrate
steel armor. Burning on impact, they release radioactive and
toxic particles that spread by wind, through water, and by
contact with contaminated equipment. Geiger counter readings at
several sites in Baghdad, taken by a staff writer for the
Christian Science Monitor, show radiation readings at nearly
1,900 times the normal background radiation levels. (Flounders,
"Iraq Cities 'Hot' with Depleted Uranium," IAC, August
2003)
Sharon Eolis, a health care worker who traveled to Iraq in
1998 and 2000, emphasized that radioactive DU weapons have
compromised the health of tens of thousands of military
personnel and civilians both in the U.S. and in the Gulf
region. Uranium contamination weakens the immune system, and
may cause acute respiratory conditions or neurological damage.
Short-term symptoms might be headaches, dizziness or muscle
fatigue. Long-term effects are cancers and other
radiation-related illnesses like chronic fatigue syndrome.
Eolis noted that in Iraq she saw children with cancers that had
been relatively rare and were accelerating--very possibly
linked to the tons of DU weapons used by the U.S. during the
first Gulf War.
Eolis said that, in addition to the direct exposure to DU of
those living in and on duty in Iraq, there was the
contamination of military families: "The GIs are required to
bring their equipment home, so they are bringing the uranium
exposure home to their families."
Participants at the forum actively discussed reasons why the
U.S. government has not informed service members about the
dangers of DU. Several participants who were veterans revealed
that they had Gulf War Syndrome symptoms. One woman said: "My
husband just came back from Iraq, and I know he got exposed
from the shells, because that's what he does for a job. Now how
does he get checked?"
One man left the forum hastily and stood outside crying. He
had recently lost his wife, a Gulf War veteran who died of
breast cancer. He expressed fear that her death could be the
result of DU poisoning, and said, "All I have left of her is
her ashes. Can we tell from them if she died because of
DU?"
All present were profoundly affected by the discussion.
Sharon Eolis ended by saying, "We want to empower people to
fight for their rights if they have suffered exposure to
depleted uranium."
Thumbs-up!
Back at the protest, two Marines in uniform drove by, gave a
thumbs-up, and yelled out, "We wish our horn worked so we could
honk!" They were responding to the sign that read: "Honk if
Bush lies while GIs die!"
The Jacksonville Daily News reported on the action in its
Sunday edition, spotlighting SNAFU and showing thousands more
members of the military and their families where to go for
information on resistance to the U.S. war on Iraq.
At the close of the day, Dustin Langley, a Navy veteran and
organizer with SNAFU, said: "I think this action was a
significant step forward in expanding the anti-war struggle to
include people who are also victims of this war by the
U.S.--specifically, members of the military, military families
and veterans who are fighting, dying and suffering because of
the lies, neglect and hypocrisy of the Pentagon. These
individuals are also members of the working class and will be
an important ally as we work to stop this war."
Minnie Bruce Pratt, a lesbian writer and anti-racist
activist, was an organizer in the women's liberation movement
in Fayetteville in the 1970s.
Reprinted from the Nov. 27, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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