Green Party of New Jersey

Veterans Day, for many Americans, means parades, speeches, flags, and the usual political theatrical displays of patriotism. Those who have never experienced war itself can never truly understand the effect on the lives of those who have endured the horrors of warfare.

Since the advent of industrialized warfare in World War I, working people have too often served as cannon fodder in wars for the profits of the ruling class. The dawning understanding of this dynamic has birthed anti-war protests and resistance movements like Occupy Wall Street, which continues to draw veterans and others outraged at the current wars and their cost in lives and a damaged national economy.

“The late singer and composer Phil Ochs wrote ‘It’s always the old to lead us to the wars, it’s always the young to die,'” said Mike Spector, chair of the Green Party of New Jersey. “The young men and women returning from the conflicts are finding themselves in trouble, mentally and physically. As wars become enshrined in the nation’s foreign policy, the more they will be forgotten, tear-drenched home-comings and memorial flag-waving ceremonies to the contrary. The Green Party has always been the party of peace in this country, the true alternative to the parties of ceaseless war. Our goal is to ensure that Veterans Day will eventually be replaced by World Peace Day.”

We in the Green Party have always believed what Gil Scott Heron said: “Peace is not just the absence of war, but the active pursuit of justice.” With this thought in mind, we offer the perspectives of Green veterans on war.

• TE Smith, Washington, DC, member of the DC Statehood Green Party: I am a Black Vietnam vet. Lke hundreds of other young Black males in Washington, DC in the 1960s, I really had no real idea what was going on. There was very little to no conversation or explanation in the Black community about the war, the draft, or much else of real importance. Continue Reading →