Boston teach-in reveals opposition of Blacks and veterans to U.S. war in the Middle East

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BOSTON-Two hundred people filled the Arlington Street Church here on Oct. 21 for a teach-in unlike any organized thus far against the war in the Middle East.

Sponsored by the Committee Against a Vietnam War in the Middle East, the teach-in brought together out-of-town guests with local Black leaders and Vietnam veterans. All of them denounced the war plans of the United States and scored the hypocrisy over a "fight for democracy" in the Persian Gulf.

Winston Warfield, a Vietnam veteran and Minister Don Muhammed: president of the Smedley Butler Brigade of the Veterans for Peace, chaired the meeting. Speakers included Daniel Sheehan of the Christic Institute and Ralph Schoenman, former Executive Director of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation.

Minister Don Muhammed of the Nation of Islam addressed the meeting, as did Shakur Ali, who served three combat tours in Vietnam, and the Rev. Graylan Ellis-Hagler of the Church of the United Community. Chris Nteta, a South African supporter of the Black Consciousness Movement, also spoke. Roger Sheppard represented the Committee Against a Middle Fast.

U.S. Marine Corps (Reserve) Lance Corporal Eric Glen Larsen, who has refused to serve in Saudi Arabia (see Socialist Action, October 1990) was a special guest at the teach-in. The crowd gave him a hero's welcome.

Larsen's two-day tour of the Boston area was met with intense media interest, as the press adjusts to dwindling support for the Bush administration's adventure in the Persian Gulf. While in Boston, Larsen was interviewed on local radio and television, feahow to get money out of S&Ls.

These are some unusual times. The sands of the Saudi Arabian people are causing your computers to act up. They just don't seem to work right. It's hot in the day and cold at night, and your plans for attack in November could very well doom the entire Western world. And it's in your hands. It ain't in the hands of Black folks.

To think that this country would say to Black boys, "Be all that you can never be in this society. Come on and join the army." No, I'm not joining your army. I'm joining the army to fight drugs in the Black community. I'm joining the army to fight poverty in the Black community. I'm joining the army to fight for education in the Black community. Our fight is here in America, not abroad.

They didn't listen to the U.N. when the U.N. said NO on the invasion of Panama. They came back and said that they lost only 200 or 300 lives among the Mestizo Indians and the people of Panama. But three weeks ago they said they lost 6000 to 7000 lives of Black people in Panama. When the hell are we going to wake up and tell this filthy government: No, no, no, it's a new day!

Israel doesn't listen to the U.N. They tell the U.N. that the world's opinion isn't necessary, they do what they want to do.

To blockade a country—why don't we blockade South Africa. Why don't we cut off the economic flow to that country. Why don't we stand for justice in South Africa and do the right thing by making Nelson Mandela the rightful president of South Africa.

This fight's not about might, because might won't work today. The fight is about right. The fight is about justice. The fight is about equality. The fight is about real freedom.

Kuwait stole oil from Iraq. With the permission of this country, and with hired drills from this country, they dug underneath their soil to drain off their oil and put it on the market—to deliberately undermine the Iraqi economy; to bring it down.

told me there was a waiting list a mile long.

I'd just returned from the war. I was wounded three times. I returned to combat three times, and each time I was wounded. I used drugs the same as mostly everybody else in Vietnam did, and I came back a drug addict. I couldn't get any help.

I came from a single-parent family. I was born in Harlem Hospital. At 17, I joined the Marine Corps. I didn't join because I was a patriot. I didn't join because I wanted to be a hero. I joined to get the hell out of Harlem, to get out of poverty. I was already thrown out of high school.

And the Marine Corps promised me that if in fact I went and served and did my thing, and came back in one piece, they would send me to school. And yet, three weeks ago, I tured in a long article in The Boston Globe, and interviewed by the BBC. He was also a guest on NBC's Today Show in a hookup from the Boston affiliate.

Later in the week, Larsen and Jeff Paterson were guests via telephone on a local TV show about soldiers who refuse to fight in the Persian Gulf. They were joined by two members of the Committee who spoke from the audience.

Excerpts from the presentations at the teach-in by Muhammed, Ellis-Hagler, Nieta, Ali, and Sheppard follow:

If they didn't want Saddam, they wouldn't be putting forth this effort, and trying to figure out a way to minimize the casualties and the fatalities that are going to occur. And many commentators are not saying if, but when, the war takes place. You see, nobody said that he was wrong when he was fighting Iran. Nobody said he was wrong, even in the Arab world.

The scriptures have him in there too, because there's so many Arab fat-bellied sheiks who are doing nothing for the masses of the people, but who are working hand-in-hand with the manipulators and the mind-managers of the West, to use their resources to line the pockets of the few while the many are going down the drain.

Saddam has a million-man army. They're not soldiers; they're warriors. They've got a million men that are committed, that don't care whether they live or die. In their heart is a burning desire that the people are going to get freedom. And you cannot destroy people with that mentality, because they would just as soon give their life for a cause than to live on this earth and be disrespected.

We're going to have to turn President Bush around, because he is on a one-way street to hell. We should not allow him to take the future of America with him.

The real Americans are not the ones who are beating the drums for war. You're the real Americans, because you want to save America. You want America to prosper. But you cannot come in this church and leave your desire here. You cannot come in this church and leave your commitment here.

You've got to take your desire and your commitment to the streets, and maybe to the suites. But you have got to take what you've got to the doorstep and to the footstep of the powers of America. You've got to make your voices heard.

You've got to tell this government that we will never allow you to send this country to hell for a dollar. It is more important to us that we fight at home before we fight abroad, because nobody is doing anything to us, and we've got things to do here.

David Roy Schervish Shakur Ali had to borrow $14,000 to complete my graduate studies. What the hell happened to the GI Bill? This government reneged on its promise.

As I look at this audience I see a number of my brother members of the Smedley Butler Brigade of the Vets for Peace, and these brothers out there can tell you the same thing. The government was not there for us. They don't give a damn about us, and they don't give a damn about you.

The only way that we're going to combat the problem of our youth out there is to realize what started that problem. And as far as