BY WALTER BLADES
KILLEEN, Texas - A "U.S.-NATO Troops Out of Yugoslavia!!" sign placed on the socialist literature table outside the entrance to the Kmart near the Ft. Hood military base here attracted a slow but steady stream of interested GI's, their family members, and workers and students from the area.
Along with a few hostile stares and comments, the table attracted soldiers and workers who liked the table and shared our opposition to NATO's massive military build up in the Balkan peninsula. One soldier who bought a copy of the Militant newspaper was recovering from Gulf War Syndrome and was against the troops being in Yugoslavia. He bought the paper because he said he didn't know what was going on there. He said in the Gulf War he "didn't like fighting people who were surrendering." He said he refused to fight and as a result was harassed and removed from the front line.
Another soldier who bought a single issue of the Militant said he thinks Yugoslavia is "going to be another Vietnam."
In the earlier part of the day the sales team sold the socialist press door-to-door in an apartment complex near the base. The team spoke with over two dozen GI's there. They expressed a wide variety of opinions on the troops in Yugoslavia.
The discussions throughout the day were very civil. One soldier told a campaigner, "I support the U.S. government 100 percent. I don't agree with you. But I appreciate you coming by." The team sold a total of six copies of the Militant and one copy of the Spanish-language Marxist magazine Nueva Internacional.
BY HORACE KERR
DENVER, Colorado - Two Militant supporters took the working-class campaign against the war drive to the gates of the Monfort meatpacking plant in Greely, Colorado, January 13. "I agree with you. Bosnia has nothing to do with peace," said one woman driving in to work. "My daughter is over there and I'm scared." Nine of the meatpackers bought copies of the Militant and four got the monthly Spanish-language magazine Perspectiva Mundial.
On January 15, five Militant supporters participated in the Martin Luther King Day parade, with an eight-foot banner that said "No to U.S. War on Yugoslavia," and sold over 30 copies of the Militant. One young man, Nick, was excited by the revolutionary literature on the table. "I know lots of people who are looking for something like this," he said, and came along with two friends to a house meeting the same evening to discuss Yugoslavia, workers' struggles in France, and the Cuban revolution. Two Militant subscribers ordered copies of The Truth about Yugoslavia at the meeting.
The next day Nick and his friend Jeff helped sell socialist literature at the Metro, Denver's largest university campus. We hung out our big banner against the U.S. war drive again, and attached signs in defense of Cuba onto our table of Pathfinder books. We sold two Pathfinder catalogs and 19 copies of the Militant.
One student said, "My dad was in the Green Berets. I grew up with war." She bought a paper, saying, "I know what war is about. Politics. Politics and money."
"I know all about cop brutality, firsthand," said another student who bought a paper and signed up for information on the Young Socialists. He said two of his friends are in the army in Bosnia. "They were ordered to fire their guns over the heads of a group of children," he said. "They said they felt like throwing their rifles away in disgust."
That evening 12 people attended another socialist house meeting. Two more people ordered copies of The Truth about Yugoslavia. Afterward, several of the young militants there decided to set up another table at the university later in the week to campaign against the war drive and build support for a local women's rights rally. They planned to meet afterward to discuss building a young socialists group in Denver.