Grand Rapids People's History Project

Fighting for the Rights of Animals has a long history in Grand Rapids

Posted on November 20, 2014 by Jeff Smith (GRIID)

This is the first posting in a series of articles and interviews that deals with the organizing around animal rights and animal liberation in West Michigan.

There has been some new attention given to Animal Rights in Grand Rapids, with the efforts by numerous people to get the City of Grand Rapids to take a position on allowing the circus to preform in town.

The group Grand Rapids for Animals encouraged people to use this online letter to pressure city officials to ban the use of wild animals in entertainment.

Grand Rapids for Animals has been active for years, but is not the first group to organize around animal rights and animal liberation.

Beginning in the 1980s, the group known as West Michigan for Animals, organized around a whole array of animal rights campaigns, like a lot of their contemporaries across the country.

West Michigan for Animals organized protests against the murder of animals for food, with protests at Fast Food Restaurants and slaughterhouses, like the one pictured here.

In addition, West Michigan for Animals organized a large protest outside the Amway Grand Plaza in 1994, during the US Cattlemen’s Association Conference. The local media attempted to marginalize the group by asking the question of whether or not the the Cattlemen’s Association was the same as mass murderer Jeffrey Dahmer. Organizers of the protest responded by saying, “If the systemic slaughter of millions of cows a year for profit is not mass murder, then what do you call it?”

West Michigan for Animals also took on a local rodeo that was held in Sparta for years, as well as anytime the Circus came to Grand Rapids.

Another major area of protest was around the fur industry. West Michigan for Animals protested at a store that sold animal furs, located near the Gaslight Village, in East Grand Rapids. Besides leafletting against the business, the group would sometimes organize street theater and hold a mock fur event, where those protesting would splash red paint on fake fur coats to dramatize the brutality done to animals.

In the early 1990s the group organized protests at “fur shows” in the old Grand Center, located on Monroe, where the new convention center exists.

These are just a sampling of the kinds of actions that people engaged in around animal rights and animal liberation. It is important to note that the current effort to get the city to ban the use of animals at the circus, is built on decades of activism around the rights of animals.

Twenty Five Years Ago Grand Rapids Responded to the Murder of Priests in El Salvador

Posted on November 17, 2014 by Jeff Smith (GRIID)

Twenty Five years ago, on November 16, 1989, Ignacio Ellacuría, S.J., Ignacio Martín-Baró, S.J., Segundo Montes, S.J., Juan Ramón Moreno, S.J., Joaquín López y López, S.J., Amando López, S.J. and their housekeeper Elba Ramos, and her 15 year-old daughter Celina Ramos, were murdered at the University of Central America in San Salvador, El Salvador.

The murder of the six Jesuits, their house keeper and her daughter, was at the hands of the Salvadoran military. There is clear evidence, based on declassified documents that the order to kill the Jesuits came from the highest levels of the Salvadoran military. In fact, some of the Salvadoran soldiers involved in the 1989 massacre, were also graduates of the notorious US Army School of the Americas.

The Jesuits were targeted, in part, because they were seen as the “intellectual authors” of the Salvadoran left. While there is no clear connection between the Jesuits and the armed insurgents of the 1980s (FMLN), the priests were known for their sharp and ongoing critique of the Salvadoran elite. Here is a video report done by the BBC on the murder of the 6 Jesuit priests, their cook and her daughter in El Salvador in 1989.

Grand Rapids Responds

As soon as word got out to the international community about this most recent atrocity in El Salvador, those involved in the Grand Rapids Central American Solidarity movement mobilized.

About 100 people blocked traffic on Michigan Avenue in front of the Federal building in Grand Rapids. The road blockade consisted of people using two long banners that people held up, with one banner stating, “End US Military Aid to El Salvador.”

After protestors blocked traffic for 30 minutes, the Grand Rapids police came and threatened to arrest people if they did not move. Most of those blocking the trafficking decided to leave the road rather than get arrested. Shortly afterwards another contingent of people went into Congressman Paul Henry’s office and attempted to make a citizen’s arrest against the Congressman and his staff.

Several people held signs about the most recent massacre in El Salvador, while others read the Congressman’s staff their rights. Another protestor leaned over the counter in the congressional office and picked up the phone to call the GRPD, making the claim that there were “violent crimes being committed at 110 Michigan.”

Eventually, the federal building security showed up and demanded that people leave. One by one the security guards dragged people out and the doors to the federal building were locked so no one could get back in.

Another action was organized a week later, where those resisting US policy in El Salvador built coffins and made cardboard tombstones to draw attention to the US financed murders. One protestor began to dig a grave in the federal building lawn, but before they could did a large enough hole to bury the coffin, federal building security came out a took the shovel away. Those protesting US policy were still able to bury half of the coffin and place the cardboard tombstone next to it, while others held signs by Michigan Avenue.

These actions that took place 25 years ago, were in larger part, due to the nearly decade long Central American Solidarity movement that existed in Grand Rapids.

Posted in Central American Solidarity Movement | Tagged Grand Rapids Central American Solidarity Movement, Grand Rapids protest of Jesuit Massacre, protestors block traffic in grand rapids, protestors dig a grave at grand rapids federal building, protestors occupy Congressman Henry's office | 2 Comments

There are Robber Barons in every generation in Grand Rapids

Posted on November 13, 2014 by Jeff Smith (GRIID)

When reading radical historian Howard Zinn’s, A People’s History of the United States, it becomes clear early on that one can not talk about social movements without talking about the power structures that those movements fought against.

Whether it was slave owning class, robber barons, war profiteers, White Supremacist power structures or other sectors of power, Zinn makes it clear that every major social movement experienced push back from these structures of power.

Grand Rapids has its own history of robber barons, right from the start. City fathers such as Lucius Lyons and Louis Campau were some of the earliest robber barons, buying up land that had belonged to the local Native community. These men are seen as in competition with each other, but it is also clear that they were both beneficiaries of White Settler Colonialism that was moving westward after the founding of the United States.

Like much of the mid-west, Grand Rapids had its own industrialists, particularly in the furniture industry. Men like Henry Widdicomb (pictured here), were not only the beneficiaries of massive deforestation in the Great Lakes, they also made their wealth by paying workers low wages. Widdicomb, according to Jeffrey Kleiman, author of Strike: How the Furniture Workers Strike of 1911 Changed Grand Rapids, was one of the most vicious in attacking workers during the 1911 strike. Widdicomb also led the charge to bring in scab workers and hire thugs to break the strike.

In more recent decades the robber barons have names like Van Andel, DeVos, Seechia, Kennedy, Frey, Jandernoa, Hunting & Wege, just to name a few. All of these families made their wealth through the labor of working class people and by accessing public funds for private gain. The graph here demonstrations how many of them are part of the same power structures in Grand Rapids.

Probably the most notable contemporary robber baron family is the DeVos family. Co-founders of Amway, the now three generations of DeVos family members have inserted themselves into a great deal of local state and national politics. The DeVos family has been buying elections and influencing policy by spending millions on political campaigns and lobbying. They own a tremendous amount of property in downtown Grand Rapids, most of the hotels and through their involvement in Grand Action, have re-directed millions in public funds (Van Andel Arena, DeVos Convention Center and the Downtown Market) to benefit themselves and the other members of the capitalist class in Grand Rapids.

The DeVos family is so wealthy that they used to own their own island. For years the family owned Peter Island, part of the British Virgin Islands, but more recently have invested heavily in The Cape Eleuthera resort and real estate project, according to an online source.

This should not be a surprise for those who have followed the DeVos family, their excessive wealth and how they flaunt it. The DeVos Family owns one of the world’s largest yachts, which they have so arrogantly named Freedom. Below is a picture of the yacht, accompanied by an interior photo. More recently, the family has acquired the yacht know as Seaquest, which is 130 foot long.

Frederick Douglass’ point about power conceding nothing without a demand is still relevant today. Indeed, with a growing gap between those with wealth and those in poverty, it is clear that those with wealth will not willingly give it up. As with all generations of social movements, we need to know who the opposition is and be prepared to fight against them, because they sure as hell will not ignore social movements that want substantive social justice.

Posted in Anti-Capitalism/Labor | Tagged DeVos Family influence, Grand Rapids Power Structure, Henry Widdicomb and the 1911 strike, robber barons in Grand Rapids | Leave a comment

The Nuclear Freeze Movement inspired many in Grand Rapids

Posted on November 7, 2014 by Jeff Smith (GRIID)

Beginning in the late 1970s, many people in the US began to learn about the dangers of nuclear weapons and possibility of nuclear war.

The US and there former Soviet Union were engaged in a nuclear arms race, with both countries increasing their nuclear weapons stockpiles and placing these weapons of mass destruction all across the planet.

A movement to challenge the proliferation of nuclear weapons was born and involved not only seasoned activists, but included physicians, social workers, scientists and teachers. Groups like Physicians for Social Responsibility help push an anti-nuclear agenda that focused on getting the US to sign on to an arms reduction treaty as the beginning stages of a total nuclear disarmament campaign.

In Grand Rapids, a local chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, the Institute for Global Education (IGE) and various faith-based groups formed a coalition to educate the community and organize for nuclear disarmament. The group pictured above, were some of the main organizers of the Grand Rapids campaign. This picture was taken in front of the YWCA building on Sheldon SE, where IGE had an office in the early 80s.

The educational campaign focused on hosting forums, creating and distributing literature, screening films like If You Love This Planet and holding regular demonstrations in public spaces in order to engage the community. One tactic was to get communities, organizations or congregations to declare themselves Nuclear Free Zones, as is pictured here. The Nuclear Free Zones were part of the Ground Zero Campaign, to help people understand what would happen to communities hit by a nuclear bomb.

Another tactic used to draw attention to the harsh realities of a nuclear attack was to hold a Die-In on the First Friday of the month in downtown Grand Rapids. At noon, a siren goes off as a test, but it is the same siren that would be used if an impending disaster would happen, such as a nuclear attack. People involved in the Freeze Campaign would be on the old Monroe Mall downtown and when the siren went off they would scream and fall to the ground. Other members of the Freeze Campaign would hand out flyers to people walking by to let them know what would actually happen if a nuclear bomb fell on Grand Rapids.

Over time, some of these same activists would use the old weather ball (formerly located on top of the Michigan National building) as a way to draw attention to nuclear war and nuclear winter by saying, WEATHER BALL BLACK, NUCLEAR ATTACK.

However, the organizing against nuclear war and nuclear proliferation by people in Grand Rapids involved taking action outside of West MI. Several campaigns involved people confronting nuclear madness where the bombs were deployed and where the bombs were made.

In August of 1982, several people were arrested at the K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base, which was a Strategic Air Command base in the UP. Barb Lester, Matt Goodheart and Lisa Markucki, all from Grand Rapids, were arrested for trespassing at the military base.

Other campaigns targeted weapons manufacturers, such as Williams International in Walled Lake, MI and Lear Siegler, located in the southeastern part of Grand Rapids. Numerous people were involved in campaigns to shut down production of nuclear weapons at both of these factories, using educational campaigns, vigils and direct action to stop the manufacturing of weapons of mass destruction.

The Freeze Campaign hit its peak however, in 1982, with the mobilization of over 1 million people in New York City during a United Nations gathering. Several people from Grand Rapids participated in that march, with high visibility from the Institute for Global Education, as seen in the pictures below. There were also 2 women from Grand Rapids who were arrested at the massive Nuclear Freeze march in New York, Lori and Beth Smalligan.

While the Nuclear Freeze Movement did not stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons by the US, it did create a new generation of activists who went on to be involved in the Central American Solidarity and the Anti-Apartheid movements of the 1980s.

Posted in Anti-Nuclear Movement | Tagged anti-nuclear movement in grand rapids, Grand Rapids Freeze Campaign, ground zero in grand rapids, weather ball black nuclear attack | 2 Comments

Street Theater was a common tactic in the Grand Rapids Central America Solidarity Movement

Posted on October 29, 2014 by Jeff Smith (GRIID)

Street Theater has been a tactic used by social movements for decades as a means to dramatize the message of a particular campaign.

Much of the modern day street theater can be linked to the work of Brazilian artist Augusto Boal, credited with starting the famous Theater of the Oppressed.

One example of using street theater in Grand Rapids occurred in 1984, the day after Ronald Reagan was re-elected as President of the United States.

The Stop the Invasion Campaign (STIC), organized an intense form of street theater in Grand Rapids as a way to draw attention to the kind of brutal policies that the US government was supporting in Central America.

The Stop the Invasion Campaign staged a series of mock kidnappings throughout Grand Rapids, where hooded men would drag off someone, throw them in a van and drive off. People who witnessed the mock kidnappings were not sure what was actually taking place, but moments later other STIC members handed out information sheets explaining that what people just witnessed was a dramatization of what death-squads do in Guatemala and El Salvador everyday.

The mock kidnapping began on Monroe Avenue, right in front of the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel cafe, where a van pulled up to a screeching halt and hooded men jumped out and grab a woman. The staged kidnappings then moved to the old Monroe Mall, where Father Paul Milanowski was taken. Milanowski was part of a regular Wednesday vigil that took place on the old Monore Mall against US policies in Central America.

After the priest was kidnapped, STIC members then went into the GRCC cafeteria and took a student, climbing over tables to grab her (pictured here). The next stop was in front of a Meijer store on Kalamazoo & 28th street, where someone in a wheelchair was dragged into the van, with his wheelchair left behind and witnesses left in shock.

The last mock kidnapping took place at the County building, where Kent County Commissioner Liz Oppewal was taken during a County Commission meeting.

These actions all began at noon and the STIC members and supporters ended up in front of the Federal building for a protest that included about 40 people.

The street theater was an effective tool to get both the general public and other activists thinking about the daily violence in Central America that was being paid for by our tax dollars. The timing of the event was also part of a larger STIC strategy to resist US policies in Central America, which included the ongoing threat of a direct US military invasion of Nicaragua.

Posted in Central American Solidarity Movement | Tagged dramatizing death squad activity, mock kidnapping, Stop the Invasion Campaign, street theater in Grand Rapids, theater of the oppressed | Leave a comment

Calvin Student Newspaper Coverage of Vietnam War Resistance

Posted on October 27, 2014 by Jeff Smith (GRIID)

Last month we posted a piece on the diversity of tactics being used in Grand Rapids to resist the US war in Vietnam.

Some of that resistance came from Calvin College, with both students and faculty being involved in the opposition to the war.

We just uploaded the complete coverage from the Calvin student newspaper of all their articles on opposition to the Vietnam war, resistance that began to be reported on in 1967 and lasted until 1973.

The evolution of the reporting is interesting, but tends to reflect the national movement’s opposition timeline, with many people not getting involved until 1967 and most of the opposition dying off after 1973, even though the US occupation of Vietnam continued until 1975.

Some of the articles dealt with the ongoing debate around US involvement in the Vietnam war, with articles on debates pages 4, 26 and 30. There is also an interesting article (page 11), which was responding to a pro-war diatribe appearing in the Christian Reform Church’s national publication, The Banner.

The Banner article referred to any anti-war position as “treasonable propaganda” and thought the US role in Vietnam was akin to a holy crusade against any “Christless” ideology around the world.

Not surprising the Calvin student newspaper published several articles over the years looking at Christian responses to the war, with an interesting piece (page 27) about both Phil and Dan Berrigan, the brothers who were involved in the Catonsville 9 protest, where they broke into a government office and stole draft files and burn them in public using homemade napalm.

However, most of the articles in the student newspaper dealt with organizing efforts on campus with both students and faculty members who opposed the war. Some of these articles dealt with the opposition to the draft, how to be a conscientious objector, a student run anti-war information service, forums, rallies and Calvin student involvement in national marches in Washington and Chicago in 1967, 1969 and 1971.

There was also some reporting on the anti-war organizing happening off campus throughout Grand Rapids, with a piece about Julian Bond speaking at Aquinas College (page 21), Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden at Fountain St. Church (page 34) and an article about the Kent County Peace Council (page 35).

As someone who was connected to the antiwar movement opposing the US occupation of Iraq, the level of anti-war activity seems to be more diverse and involved many more students and faculty during the Vietnam. This was most likely due to the impact of the Draft, which forced more men to come to terms with the morality of the war in Vietnam, but it is also a reflection of the larger counter-cultural dynamic that existed around the country in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Posted in Vietnam War Resistance | Tagged anti-Vietnam War reporting at Calvin student newspaper, anti-Vietnam war resistance in Grand Rapids, pro-war diatribe in The Banner | Leave a comment

Music was a tool in the Grand Rapids Central America Solidarity Movement

Posted on October 17, 2014 by Jeff Smith (GRIID)

Last week we posted a piece about how political cartoons were used as a means to raise awareness about the struggle for justice in Central America in the 1980s & 90s.

This week we draw attention to how music played a role in the same struggle.

Music has always been part of freedom movements, whether it was the spirituals that slaves sang to give them hope, the folk music of Joe Hill that mobilized workers or the role that music played in the anti-Apartheid struggle in South Africa that is so vividly depicted in the documentary film, Amandla: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony.

The Central American Solidarity Movement was no different, with music that emanated from Central America that inspired the solidarity movement in the US or the music of local artists that wanted to contribute to movement in every community.

In Grand Rapids, there were numerous occasions where music was a major mechanism for creating solidarity with the struggles for justice in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala. Often music was woven into an educational event or religious ceremony honoring the people of Central America.

However, music was also used as a fundraising tool, to financially support various organizations and political movements in Central America.

In 1991, just months before the January 1992 ceasefire that ended a decade-long counterinsurgency war in Central America, people involved in the Central America Solidarity movement organized a concert at Fountain Street Church in order to raise money for the insurgent movement in El Salvador known as the FMLN.

The FMLN (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front) was the political and military framework for the democratic resistance movement in El Salvador, since the late 1970s. The FMLN had developed a sophisticated insurgency strategy that allowed the to control many parts of the country by the late 1980s. The FMLN was such a formidable movement that the US-financed Salvadoran Army could not defeat them.

The fundraising concert you can see in the pictures in this posting featured a Grand Rapids band called Friends of Durruti. (Durruti was a Spanish Anarchist) The concert not only provided a forum for people to donate to the cause, it provided a great opportunity to educate people about the freedom struggle in El Salvador.

Some of the people involved in organizing the concert went to El Salvador and just happened to be there during the cease-fire agreement. Within days, hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans poured into the streets for a day-long celebration, which featured musicians from all over Latin America. People danced and wept together until the sun came up and the people from Grand Rapids who were in attendance saw just how powerful music and solidarity can be in the struggle for justice.

Posted in Central American Solidarity Movement | Tagged concert in support of the FMLN, FMLN, Grand Rapids Central American Solidarity Movement, the role of music in resistance movements | 1 Comment

Political Cartoons were also part of the Grand Rapids Central America Solidarity Movement

Posted on October 8, 2014 by Jeff Smith (GRIID)

(This article is part of two separate projects – The Central American Solidarity Movement and the Indy Media Movement in Grand Rapids)

There were all types of resistance to US policy in Central America in the 1980s. As we have already noted, people engaged in various forms of resistance and direct action against the US funding and training of the Contra forces in Nicaragua and the Death Squad Armies in El Salvador and Guatemala.

There were also artists who lent their talents to critiquing and satirizing of US policy in the 1980s. These are the days before the Internet and print media was the main form of communication for most grassroots groups.

In the 1980s in Grand Rapids, one political cartoonist created dozens of pieces to reflect both the absurdity of US policy and the harsh reality of torture, disappearance and murder that was being done with US funding and weapons.

Jim Jirous, created some very poignant pieces for the Central American Solidarity Movement, along with the Central American Sanctuary Movement. The re-design State of Liberty shown here is one example that reflected the US government’s selective treatment of political refugees. The blatant denial by the Reagan administration of the brutal repression in Guatemala & El Salvador is what fueled the US Sanctuary Movement.

Another cartoon by Jirous uses less satire, but reflects the direct connection between US weapons sales and political repression in El Salvador. During the 1980s, the Chicago Central America Task Force estimated that the US was provided $1.5 Million a day to El Salvador, which used that funded to murder an estimated 75,000 of its own citizens, according to the United Nation Truth Commission in El Salvador.

This cartoon by Jirous appeared in several local newsletters and his work inspired many on the realities of US Policy in Central America, along with the human cost of those counter-insurgency wars.

Posted in Central American Solidarity Movement | Tagged Grand Rapids Central American Solidarity Movement, Grand Rapids Sanctuary Movement, political cartoons in Grand Rapids, US military funding in El Salvador, US support of the Contras | 3 Comments

Analyzing the Grand Rapids Press was a tool for the 1980s Central American Solidarity Movement

Posted on September 30, 2014 by Jeff Smith (GRIID)

(This is another posting on the 1980s Central American Solidarity Movement in Grand Rapids, which will be part of a larger project.)

In the 1980s, the Reagan Administration was obsessed with countering the revolutionary movements in Central America. At the time, there was almost daily national news coverage of US policy in Central America, whether it was funding for the Contras, counterinsurgency campaigns in Guatemala and El Salvador, military training programs in Honduras or the drugs for guns scandal involving high ranking officials in the US government, personified by then Army Colonel Oliver North.

The national news coverage of Central America in the US was being diagnosed by media scholars Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman in their major work Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, as well as Chomsky’s stand alone book Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in a Democratic Society. However, little attention was being paid to how local news agencies were reporting on the issue.

During a 3 year period, Richa and I produced two major studies of how the Grand Rapids Press reported on US Policy in Central America. The first study looked at coverage from 1986 and the second report investigated coverage from 1990.

We focused on the Grand Rapids Press, since it is the only daily newspaper in Grand Rapids and all other major news outlets tend to follow the Press’ lead on what stories to cover. We also felt that it was important for us to understand how people’s understanding of Central America was being shaped by local media.

The first report, released in 1989, was entitled Aggravations: A Critical Look at How the Grand Rapids Press Reports on Central America. This 13 page report had an introduction, methodology, a data section, content analysis section and a list of recommendations.

Some of the major findings from the report were the following:

A disproportionately large number of sources in the articles were US government sources, supporters of US policy or government leaders from countries the US supported.

Rarely were regular people in Central America used as a news source.

Nicaragua was the primary focus of the news stories, with few stories on El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Belize or Panama.

A disproportionate number of stories were framed in such a way to present US policy and the countries it supported as being proponents of human rights.

What we concluded in our investigation of the Grand Rapids Press coverage of Central America was that it “seriously distorts news on Central America and related issues. This distortion is caused largely by the papers’ use of wire services, particularly the Associated Press, as sources of information.”

We went to to conclude, “through wire services and other sources, it is aiding in the USA government orchestrated propaganda effort. Stories were rarely checked with independent, non-governmental sources, even though many such sources were readily available, even to a newspaper with the relatively modest resources as the Grand Rapids Press.”

We published and distributed 500 copies that those involved in Central American Solidarity work used as an organizing tool, especially when engaging the general public that was being propagandized by the major news sources available to them.

The project was such a success that the following year (1990) we decided to monitor the Grand Rapids Press as the year unfolded in order to collect the data and begin seeking out independent sources of information.

The second report was entitled Mis-information: How the Grand Rapids Press Reports on Central America, had very similar conclusions to our first report, but with more extensive research and content analysis. We distributed 2,000 copies of the second report and even set up a meeting with then Press editor Mike Lloyd. When we got to the meeting at the GR Press building, we were invited into the office of the editor. The meeting lasted only 30 seconds, since just after arriving in his office, Mike Lloyd looked at us and said, “This is what I think of your report.” He then proceeded to throw it in the trash and told us to leave.

His reluctance to even discuss the findings of our report might have been clouded by the cover picture we used for the report, but we didn’t really expect any other response than the one he gave us.

Posted in Central American Solidarity Movement | Tagged Grand Rapids Central American Solidarity Movement, Grand Rapids Press Coverage of Central America | Leave a comment

Interview with Vietnam Era Veteran involved in GI Anti-War Press

Posted on September 25, 2014 by Jeff Smith (GRIID)

During the US War in Vietnam and other countries in Southeast Asia in the 1960s and 70s, there was a massive movement by US soldiers to resist the brutal and illegal counter-insurgency campaign.

Radical historian Howard Zinn documented well at the time in his book, Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal, that one of the main factors for the US military failure in Vietnam, was the level of opposition coming from within the US military. This opposition by US soldiers is visually depicted in the powerful documentary, Sir! No Sir!

One of the major tools of US soldier opposition to the US war in Vietnam was the GI-led underground press. This interview, with Tom Henry, is an example of someone from the Grand Rapids area, who became involved in the anti-war GI Press in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The images used here are taken from copies of GI underground press that Tom was involved in.

GRPHP – When were you in the military and where were you stationed?

Tom – I joined the military (USAF) while still in high school in 1968. I was 18 years-old and terribly naive even though we watched the Viet Nam War on TV. I didn’t know much….but I knew that being 18 years-old in 1968 was dangerous and quite possibly fatal. I honestly had no idea what I wanted out of life at that age. I did know, however, that I didn’t want to die and that seemed more and more of a sure thing if you were drafted into the army. My older brother joined the Air Force after high school two years before me. He went to Germany and Northern Africa. Anywhere other than Viet Nam sounded good to me so, I joined up too.

My first posting was to basic training at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas (in late July, 1968). After eight weeks, I went to Keesler AFB in Biloxi, Missippi for training as an Air Traffic Controller. From there, I went to my permanent posting at Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire, England where I remained until my discharge in April, 1972.

GRPHP – What was your involvement in the GI anti-war movement?

Tom – My involvement in the GI anti-war movement was peripheral, at best. In 1971, a weekly newspaper started showing up on base that really struck a chord as it highlighted much of the stupidity of the American military and took a hard-line stance against the Viet Nam war. Some of us became involved enough to distribute petitions and to start organizing around a huge anti-war demonstration in London.

GRPHP – What role did you play in the GI underground press?

Tom – My role in the GI underground press was, pardon the expression, as a soldier, I guess. Although I never met the people in charge and there were no organized roles to speak of, I responded to articles in the press asking for volunteers to distribute printed materials, including petitions calling for an end to the war and I even submitted a couple of articles (none of which ever saw print).

GRPHP – What kind of response did the GI press get from other soldiers?

Tom – The GI press was very popular with the younger GI’s. The career guys were not amused and in the end, were either openly contemptuous or completely dismissed it as a joke.

GRPHP – Were there any risks by being involved in the underground GI Press?

Tom – At first, the risk was minimal. As the movement gained momentum, there were official responses from the military hierarchy including warnings to all enlisted personnel to avoid anything associated with the underground GI press. They were especially concerned about the planned anti-war demonstration in London and warned everyone that they would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of military law if they participated. However, our newspaper had a real impact on the young GIs at the time, not only providing them with a different perspective, but in many cases radicalizing soldiers who would then be a critical part of the anti-war movement in the US.

GRPHP – Why was it important for you to resist the war in Vietnam?

Tom – This is a difficult question to answer…..I guess the short answer is that I resisted the war in Viet Nam because it was so obviously wrong. I’ve lost track of when, exactly, I became a war resister. Certainly, what I was reading in the underground GI press and watching on the BBC was making me aware of things I hadn’t been aware of before but I think the fact that where I was and what I was doing was contributing materially to what I had come to believe was an illegal and immoral war was what finally did the trick.

Posted in Vietnam War Resistance | Tagged anti-Vietnam war press, GI Press, underground GI Press, US soldiers against the war in Vietnam | Leave a comment