> On Apr 21, 2026, at 12:29, Dennis Brasky via groups.io > <[email protected]> wrote: > > Moralizing? Soldiers wanting out of imperialist aggression in the absence of > a left that can organize them into a resistance - I'll take that over > dogmatic purism.
Dogmatic purism has nothing to do with it. The left didn't organize GIs in the 60s and 70s, GIs organized GIs then, with no more support than we have today. Back then, what the Left provided was filling our streets and culture with mass opposition to the Vietnam war. The left did outreach to troops just like the group mentioned in your article and also About Face, among many others. There is more opposition to US military force on the US streets and overseas today than at anytime since the 60s/70s. I helped organize troops while in the Army in 1973. A group of us started a petitioning campaign to demand that Congress pull funding for upcoming NATO training in West Germany. We did have one outside organizer from the Chicago Area Military Project. He provided the mimeo machine and stirring speeches, but we did the organizing; he did not succeed in any unit where the troops did not organize themselves. What we lacked was legal support: The 1st Infantry Division command quickly banned petitioning on base - in violation of written law. https://web.archive.org/web/20230105050025/https://content.wisconsinhistory.org/digital/collection/p15932coll8/id/49971 describes the shake down that resulted from the effort. In hindsight, we should have been prepared for command to just order us to stop regardless of the law, which is what they did. We had no lawyer, I was told, because the Chicago Area Military Project had lost its legal staff and shut its doors that month. Opposition to the war collapsed within months of the last troops leaving Vietnam during spring of '73, and US support to S.Vietnam went largely unopposed for two years, until the Fall of Saigon in 1975. Shame on the US left. But inside the army, we were tilting at windmills without an active movement on the outside. The tail does not wag the dog. Today, there are active movements on the outside is growing. There are also several groups organizing troops, or trying to. They are just using the wrong strategy and tactics. They even got Democratic Party Congresspeople blathering about "illegal orders." More soldiers will speak up and protest, however, than will commit mutiny. Socialist should urge groups like About Face to change their tactics to support organized opposition within the services. Mark -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#41537): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/41537 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/118937890/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
