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Student Peace Action Network is a grassroots peace and justice organization working from campuses across the US.. We organize for an end to physical, social, and economic violence caused by militarism at home and abroad. We campaign for nuclear abolition. We support a foreign policy based on human rights and international cooperation, and a domestic agenda that supports human and environmental concerns, not Pentagon excess. War is not inevitable. We push for practical alternatives..

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Tuesday, December 09, 2003

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
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via email: ww@wwpublish.com. Subscribe wwnews-on@wwpublish.com. Unsubscribe wwnews-off@wwpublish.com. Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)

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