ge CANROT LEGAL? THLS MEUSPAPER 1S YOUR PFRSONAL PROPERTY IT BE TAKEN #808 YOU FOR ANY REASON ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT IN AMERICAN ARMY These mastheads and the cartoons below are from Gl under- ground papers. August, 1968 Viet STRIPES VETERANS) STARS & |; . PEACE ee = Volt No 8 Chirngn Ti, Ave Sey! IME degcated ve ending the wer in Vietnam DVENTURE Free to Servicemen BE LEGALLY TAKEN FROM YOU FOR ANT REASON. The most underground press in the U.S. today is the Gl press, written for and distributed among military personne! right under the thumb of the brass. Above are mastheads of six such publications, and one published by veterans that also reaches men in the service. ' By MICHAEL JAY NEW YORK — When Andy Stapp was a student at the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania in 1965, he could not possibly have im- agined that he would one day be the chairman of a USS. ser- vicemen’s union, and the edi- tor of the union’s paper with a circulation of 15,000. But it hap- pened. He burned his draft card Oct. 16, 1965, and was expelled from school. In May 1966 he was drafted into the Army. April 19, 1968, 2 days short of fulfilling his two years of service, Stapp was discharged after a court martial found him guilty of “subversion and disloyalty.” Stapp had been as active at Fort Sill as he had been at school. With others, he organ- ized a union to fight for GI rights. We interviewed Stapp at the tiny office of The Bond; news- paper of the American Service- men’s Union (ASU), at 156 Fifth Avenue, New York. Before the interview could begin, the phone rang. At the other end was a GI who was facing court- martial in an incident relating to his possesion of The Bond. Within an hour, by the time the interview was over, the GI had a lawyer. “That’s one of our functions,” said the 24 year old ex-private, “getting legal aid for guys,” but he emphasized that this was hardly the ASU’s only function. “We provide literature for or- ganizing demonstrations among civilians. But the important thing is to let guys in the ser- vice know there are others who feel like they do.” The actual membership of the ASU is kept confidential. But Stapp spoke freely of the types of people who have joined. “We don’t keep racial rec- ‘ords,” he said, “but we know that there are a lot of black guys in the union, and a large number of working class people. We know they are working class by the types of iobs they have. No officers are allowed in.” Stapp said the union had membership in all branches of the service. Among them are cooks, truck drivers, prisoners in stockades, some clerks, in- cluding “a few” at the White- hall Street induction centre in New York, even some military police and prison guards. Some of the members are women be- longing to the WACS and WAVES. The Bond comes out monthly and is free to servicemen. Con- tained in each issue is a union membership application and a list of the union’s basic de- mands. These demands are: e An end to saluting and sir- - ing of officers—let’s get off our knees. e Election of officers by vote of the men. e Racial equality. e Rank and file control of courtmarshal boards. e Federal minimum wages. e The right of free political association. : e The right to disobey illegal. orders—like orders to go and fight in an illegal war in Viet- ‘nam. e The right of collective bar- gaining. Stap said new membership comes in every day.” “We have people on every major military installation in the U.S. and on U.S. bases abroad,” he said, “including men in Vietnam. Some of our members were active at Da Nang.” This referred to men who had been sent to the front last month for refusing to salute —a policy later reversed by the brass. Stapp, while pointing out the class. difference between the ASU and the draft resistance movement, composed predomin- antly of middle class students, emphasized that the union ap- preciates such resistance. “A lot of guys probably wish they had resisted the draft,” he said, “but we feel that once a person is in the Army, they should have a union.” Activities of the local unions vary, Stapp said. The union has been active in defending the 43 black GIs from Fort Hood, cur- rently being court-martialed for refusing “riot duty” during the Democratic national convention in Chicago. ' Stapp said there were 29 ASU chapters in the U.S. with 15 or more members, and numerous others of smaller size. Initiation fee is a dollar. - Only recently, Stapp said, “union members at the Brook- lyn Naval station were among a group of 44 who barricaded themselves in a building to pro- test new regulations. “They pushed furniture against the doors, just like Columbia,” he said, adding that “they won some of their de- mands.” In that case, the issue was related to use of time spent on mandatory physical activity. The men wanted to play basket- ball instead of exercise routines. They won. Stapp said he gave the example to illustrate how the various local groups organ- ize on local issues, which vary- from base to base. A union fighting for GI rights is naturally frowned upon by the brass, and there have been incidents of harassment. On a recent visit to Fort Hood. Stapp was arrested and charged with vagrancy. Speaking of the union’s ori- ginators, Stapp said, ‘““While we were in the Army, we were all called in by military intelligence for questioning.” Hearings were held at Fort Sill last February, - complete with testimony by agents of the House Un-American Activities Committee, in an attempt to “bust the union.” But the har- rassment, said Stapp, “hasn’t stopped the union and we har- ass them (the brass) plenty.” Emphasizing the importance of fighting against the military authorities, Stapp declared, “You have to realize that peo- nle like Curtis LeMay get their fascist ideas from being in con- trol of millions of guys who have no control over their lives,” “Democratizing the armed forces.” he continued, “will de- fend the rights of all Ameri- cans. The importance of the union is much broader than just fighting for the rights of Gls.” Subscriptions’ to The Bond are three dollars per year for civilians. (Room 633, 156 Fifth avenue, NYC 10010.) . ‘that “True patriot love In all thy sons mand 2.” Upon occasion we bawl loudly enough, yet for the mass the message doesn’t seem to get through. In Vancouver the Marine Workers and_ Boilermakers Union have stated it often enough to unresponsive gov- ernments, stone-deaf minist- ers and the like, but no dice. The job of extracting “true patriot love’ from a mono- poly octopus which holds the maximum extraction of profit dollars to be synonymous with patriotism will take a lot more “commanding” be- fore it gets hep to the idea “true patriot love’ means serving Canada _in- stead of robbing it. : You guessed it first time— the. CPR for short, or to make it more understandable to the fabled ‘man on the street” who pays the shot and uses stronger language, “Canada’s Principal Robbers.” Fifteen incnes of column in the financial pages of a local journal emphasizes the point. It starts by saying that “a $33 million order has been com- ‘placed by CPR subsidiary Canadian Pacific (Bermuda) Ltd. for two 250,000 super tankers . . . to be built by Nippon Kohan Kaisha Ltd. in its giant shipyard in Tsu, Japan.” Should anyone wonder why the CPR selected Bermuda, let it be quite clear it wasn’t because of the salubrious climate, but to escape the “costs” of Canadian registry, flying a Canadian flag, and/or manning its growing fleet of super bulk carriers with Can- adian crews, all of which would have meant a modi- cum of financial revenue -— for Canada. “True patriots all’, and in case you have missed this special brand of CPR “patri- otism” be advised that it al- ready has four of _ these “Made-In Japan” bulk car- riers in operation, all sailing the seas under “flags of con- venience’ and bearing the names of such super “patri- ots” as Lord Mount Stephen, Lord Strathcona, the H. R. MacMillan and the J. V.. Clyne. Doubtless when the new and still larger CPR (Bermuda) carriers slip down the ways in Japan (while Canada’s own ship building industry takes on the atmos- phere of a graveyard), in ad- dition to another big lumber and log carrier plus a giant _ “container” carrier, the -names of other great Cana- dian “pay-triots” will grace their bows. I could suggest a few, such as the “Lord Bed- ‘ ford of Calgary”, nee the laté R. B. “Iron Heel” Bennett late of the CPR and Eddy Match Co., the “Sir Herbert Holt” of Textile and Abitiby pulp fame, etc., etc. And } any of this growing fleet % CPR bulk carriers ever catty a Canadian flag on board, tt will likely be for “distress signal” purposes, that when the CPR makes one % its oft-repeated treks to tawa for another subsidy handout to assure the prese! vation of a truly free “freé enterprise’”’. “True patriots all .. - And just an added note the prime purpose behil this great fleet of CPR (Bet muda) bulk carriers bearine the names of notorious Can@ dian “pay-triots’ past ai present; to carry away thé bulk of Canada’s natural t& sources, oil, lumber, ©0@ iron ore, copper, etc., etc. Japan, West Germany, Spal! Portugal and other such ce? ters of “democracy”, whelé cheap labor and tax conces sions. to monopoly buccal eers are more readily avaly able. Thus it can be said that as well as carrying a supe cargo “outward bound” wil a flag of profitable conveth ence flying at the masthea and a foreign crew on deck— a big part of that carg® though not immediately dis cernable, will be the jobs a? livelihood of Canadian work ers also going out in bulk. Sing it boys, sing it — “True patriots all...” . Right here in Vancouvel while Japanese industry fat tens on Canada’s, and espe ially B.C.’s raw tesources the CPR has currently point ed its “stand and delivé highwayman’s gun at thé head of our citizens, with # demand for $5-million dollat® for a few of the million acres it got free gratis on its prom ise to provide rail services t the people of Canada, mos of which promises it has re? eged on long since. Vancou- ver wants this land for recre@” _ tion and culture of its peopl and for the generations of thé future. : The CPR say ‘$5-millio® or else” and the “or else means they are already assu! ed of that price for their ]ool from the big real _ estaté sharks, with whom they havé a common and long-establish- ed affinity. M. Trudeau could well b& gin the building of his “Just Society” by nationalizing thé CPR, since its ‘“paytriotis™ has been, and still is one 9 the most costly encumbran® es since Confederation, That's what precisely “In all thy sons command” means. Brickman in tne Reanine Star, ing “As you get older soul teatize that inpustice isn’t all bad”