Anarchist Writers

The front of the CMC

The curse of the clashing meetings caught up with me again in Gainsville when my talk ended up as being just before the start of a 'Winter Soldier' hearing in another part of town. Despite this we got around 25 people along which was good for a town of 90,000.

Afterwards we heading down to the Winter Soldier event which was fantastic. Six US military who had served in Iraq were there to testify to a crowd of maybe 400 in opposition to the war. Five of them were men, one a women and they were drawn from the Marines, Navy (who had been on the ground in Fallujah 2), Armour, Infantry and supply. Four were members of Vets against the War which recruited 250 vets in the previous month.

The testimony they gave was varied ranging from the way the experience had destroyed their lives (there have been 10,000 vet suicides and at least two of the six speakers seemed a little suicidal to then point where during the Q&A one audience member appealed to them to talk to people who could help). Others talked of the horrors of the war, of dead bodies floating in sewage during Fallujah 2 and being used for target practise to sight in weapons. Of how they were told they were obeying the Geneva conventions because it was left to their Iraqi interpretors to torture captives which they looked on. Of the experience of contractors driving fleets of 3,000 dollar a week SUV's while they could not get the air conditioner needed to keep their warning computer running all day. How dogs and livestock were used as target practice and of how a farmed irrigating his field one night because that was when the electricity was available was delibretely shot even it was known that was what he was doing.

Some of the most interesting testimony was from the guy who had served in the armored division as it was the first time I heard a first hand account of the sort of demoralisation that crippled the US army in Vietnam. Apart from individual resistance in the form of drug taking (more self medication than anything else) he revealed that his crew would pretend to go out on mission but really sit in the bases Burger King and radio in reports as they supposidely passed way points. This would be considered mutiny. Of how they had several serious discussion of fragging one particularly hostile officer and that the only reason nothing had happened was that in the end he didn't manage to get anyone killed. Of how when there was a chance they would be sent back to Iraq for another tour they planned to sabotage their vehicles.

Each of the six had different views on the war, some had broken much further with US policy than others. So while one worried about what would happen if they pulled straight out another in calling for immediate withdrawal compared the resistance to what would happen if an invading army occupied Florida. And called for not only an immediate pull out but for the US to pay repariations to the people of Iraq. Over the summer they hope to open the first 'GI coffeeshops' near military bases just as was done during the Vietnam way to make contact with those still trapped in the army.

While in Gainsville I recorded an audio interview with James Schmidt of the Civic Media Center which you can listen to at http://www.indymedia.ie/attachments/apr2008/james.mp3

The interview covers organising in a student town, the recession, CMC origins, IWW, homelessness, organic farms and farmwork and the elections. You'll find more pictures from Gainsville at http://www.indymedia.ie/article/87137?