Demand for Freedom. Kadena Air Force Base, Japan: [s.n.], No. 2,
November 16, 1970.
Insert abstract here....
 FULL TEXT
DEMAND FOR FREEDOM
Kadena Air Base, No. 2 Nov. 16. 1970. Free to GI's
I AM AN ANTI-IMPERIALIST. I AM OPPOSED TO HAVING THE EAGLE PUT ITS TALONS ON ANY OTHER LAND.
MARK TWAIN, 1899
AR 381-135 (D) THIS IS YOUR PERSONAL PROPERTY. IT CANNOT BE LEGALLY TAKEN AWAY FROM YOU.
Expose the brASS
OVERT DISCRIMINATION on brothers who voice their opinions about military injustice:
Lately, Black and white brothers who fear not the brass, are being subjected to extra
harrassment by the brass in these hard and unjust times. The brass fears these individuals
because the truth can heavily damage the system and its backup force, the military.
The military is run by hypocrites, Neanderthals, and racists who claim to be liberal, which
is characteristic of schizophrenia (loss of contact with the environment because of a
splitting personality). So here we have sick, degenerates commanding over us. It is our
duty to expose them, so they may have the adequate treatment – re-moval from society
or annihilation. It's like cancer growing and growing. It's got to be stopped ASAP! By
any means necessary, because the brass is an evil – a hazard to one's health.
For example, a brother had a complete body breakdown while staying on Okinawa and presently
is in Joint Services Stockade, pre-trial confinement, for allegedly being AWOL from work.
This brother has been on bedrest for a back problem that began when he first hit Okinawa more
than a year ago. From that time on it was going to be a rough and challenging road, leading
to his present imprisonment.
This brother has been in the service for 7 years and 5 months with the rank of E-4. But when
his ailments started to occur, his body started to decline from a healthy state to the
condition today. And his rank was reduced to E-3 for having illness.
He was charged with failure to repair for being late for work for 3 days, because of taking
sleeping pills which are prescribed by the doctor at the dispensary. Well, being knocked out
by sleeping pills is not just enough reason for being late, so convicted he was!
It is obvious that the brass, far from having the welfare of this brother in mind, are out
to get him. They've busted him for being sick. They have failed to get him proper treatment
for his ailments. And they are looking for any excuse to throw some bogus charge at him.
A change must come!! We must expose these fakers! These are the very ones killing a united
society, the Third World, and peace. We need qualified people for everything, not the ones
who just do it for the money, but those who will do it for a better and safer world.
EXPOSE MILITARY INJUSTICE!! ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!
DISCRIMINATION – TAUGHT & LEARNED
TAXI DRIVERS ON AND OFF BASE
Many brothers have been rejected by taxi service on and off base. Some brothers have been
out and out discriminated against. Many of these Okinawan drivers are disillusioned with
black people, and their dispositions. Some of these drivers have been led to believe obscene
tales of Black people and their nature. Some have taken the actions of one or two Blacks, and
have recklessly broadened their dislikes and hatred toward Black people as a whole. It is
known by us all that Okinawans are being oppressed by THE MAN'S oppression, right here on
Okinawa. That disillusioned taxi driver, being in a position to render service at will, has
set himself on a higher social base than the other drivers. He is a victim of the man's
"Black Stay Black" policy. Just as he has washed other countries and groups other
than whites, he is doing the same on Okinawa.
Brothers, you know these taxi drivers when you see them. Just their superior expression will
give them away. DON'T give them the satisfaction of their carefully inherited "Black
Stay Black" game. Keep stepping. IT WILL BLOW HIS MIND!!
I'M BLACK!
SAY BROTHER, WHAT DO YOU KNOW OF YOUR CULTURE? OF YOU??
This is to say, are you the man you feel you are? Are you the man you want to be? Are you
a man, is a question we must all ask ourselves. What makes a man a man? Money? Security?
A good job? A good woman? A hard-ass supervisor who makes you work your ass off, which in
turn gets you promotions, or the easy way Uncle Tomism? What are you out to achieve in life?
What is your definition of life, and can you hack it? Will being Black hold you back, or get
you ahead (tokenism)? Or will you, being you, your own man, get your wishes and desires?
What I'm trying to say, brother, we were brought up under the Western Hemisphere, white
indoctrinated. We were brought up to be Negroes. Well, Negroes have no culture past slavery.
Negroes have no rights, human rights that they're willing to stand up for. Negroes have no
mind, except what the man feed into it. Well, you're probably saying I was brought up under
the same system. Yes, I was, except I took time on my own (since the man doesn't want to
teach me my heritage) to find my origin, and apply what naturally is me. I'M BLACK!
For being black is the ability to understand and relate to people. And we do know that the
man used our women as sex-machines and play toys for their sons. We do know that the man in
times of slavery had us acting in the minds like kids, feeding us all their propaganda and
religion (which I do not wish to discuss at this time, but I can say that it was and is a
depressant and no stimulant. It can hurt us more than it can help us and that's been proven
already. Speak and live the truth and you will not condemn me for saying this, but praise me.)
and education – the little we could receive by sneaking in behind closed doors or walls
as it was illegal for Blacks to read and write. And form of learning material relating to
intelligence, the longer we are deprived of literature, I mean the proper literature, a true
literature, if there is one!
BLACK IS BEING ABLE TO WALK DOWN THE STREET AND PASS BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF ALL CULTURES AND
BACKGROUNDS OF COLOR AND HAVE A COMMON BOND OF BROTHERHOOD, UNITY . . . THE MAKING OF A UTOPIA!
BLACK IS WALKING TALL DOWN THE COURTROOM HALL AND SEEING YOUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF CONCERN
AND GIVE THEM POWER; I MEAN BEAUTIFUL, STRAIGHT RIGHT ARM IN THE AIR-POWER TO LET THEM KNOW
POWER TO THE PEOPLE, POWER TO ALL THE OPPRESSED PEOPLE, POWER TO THE THIRD WORLD!
BLACK IS RESISTANCE AND NOT CONFORMING TO LAWS THAT DON'T APPLY TO YOU, OR THAT ARE STRICTLY
FOR YOU!
BLACK IS CALLING EVERY WOMAN OF COLOR A SISTER, AND NO WHORE, [?], BITCH, BRAWD, OR WHATEVER
TERMINOLOGY USED!
HARASS BACK
ARE YOU BEING HARRASSED BY YOUR SUPERVISOR OR C. O. UNJUSTLY? ARE YOU AMONG MANY OPPRESSED
[?] SUBJECTED TO OVERT HARRASSMENT, ILLEGAL OR INVALID ORDERS?
Go to your legal offices and ask one of the lawyers what is an illegal or invalid order. Do
you know that we are not supposed to obey an illegal or invalid order? You're probably saying,
"How will I know whether it's invalid or illegal?" Well, actually you can't know
unless you know law. But you can ask the individual giving you the order to put it in
writing, and he must comply. Once in writing (if he will put it in writing) tell him that you
will comply with the order AS SOON AS YOU CHECK INTO THE LEGALITY OF IT. If he gives you
another order, stating immediately, then it is up to you to comply and then complain. But
then you have no real complaint, because you carried it out. Or you can refuse to obey the
order because you feel and know that it's illegal or invalid. If, by chance, you refuse and
the order is legal, then you're subject to have charges pressed on you for failing to obey a
lawful order.
So what we are saying, check into orders. Many are illegal and invalid. Ask for the order in
writing; this generally puts a paranoia (fear) on the pig.
If you want heavier artillery, then put an Article 138 on your C. O. This is the right to make
an effective complaint when you are wronged by your commander (C. O.) or any other superior.
Check out the whole text of Art. 138 below.
ARTICLE 138 – THE RIGHT TO MAKE AN EFFECTIVE COMPLAINT WHEN YOU ARE WRONGED BY YOUR
COMMANDING OFFICER
"Any member of the armed forces who believes himself wronged by his commanding officer,
is refused redress, may complain to any superior commissioned officer, who shall forward the
complaint to the officer exercising general court-martial jurisdiction over the officer against
whom it is made. The officer exercising general court-martial jurisdiction shall examine into
the complaint and take proper measure for redressing the wrong complained of; and he shall, as
soon as possible, send to the Secretary concerned a true statement of the complaint, with the
proceedings had thereon."
What does this mean?
- Since this is a statutory right, a law passed by Congress, no local regulations, no
service directives, no "interpretations" by officers, legal or otherwise, may
restrict this right. The military is compelled to follow this procedure once a member of the
armed forces has begun it.
- You may make such a complaint to any superior officer, wherever he is located – at
your post in another unit, at a military installation near your home, in the Pentagon itself
– and he must forward your complaint to the officer exercising general court-martial
jurisdiction over your company commander. This officer to whom you complain need not be in
the chain of command directly over your company commander.
- The officer exercising general court-martial jurisdiction over your company commander must,
after an investigation, forward it to the Pentagon with a record of the "proceedings
thereon."
- Such a complaint cannot be covered up as I. G. complaints can be. The highest authority
in your branch of the service must be informed as to the case.
- The Court of Military Appeals has ruled that a stockade prisoner has the right to file an
Article 138 complaint (Dale vs. U. S., Misc. Docket 69-55 (27 Feb. 1970) Walder vs. Commanding
Officer, Misc. Docket 69-45 (27 Feb. 1970)).
- If you are informed that your formal Article 138 complaint is inappropriate and not going
to be forwarded as required, you can follow up the matter by filing another Article 138
complaint, stating that those who failed to accept the first one violated Article 98 as well,
which punished failure to enforce or comply with the UCMJ.
- Such a complaint must be filed in writing but need not be prepared in any particular
format or form.
How may this be used?
- Because the failure of the officer to whom you complain to forward your complaint may
result in punishment under Article 98, it is well to send a copy of your complaint to your
congressmen and inform the officer to whom you complain that you have done so.
- The officer about whose actions you are complaining need not be your immediate C. O. He
can be the commanding general of your base, (or admiral). In any case this complaint must be
forwarded by the officer to whom you have complained with the next ranking general who has
general court-martial jurisdiction over the officer about whose actions you are complaining.
- You cannot complain about a wrong done someone else.
- You cannot make joint complaints – each complaint must be handled on a separate
basis and there can be no grounds then for possible conspiracy or mutiny action.
- Such a complaint procedure under Article 138 cannot be used as a substitute for the usual
appeal channels in a court-martial situation.
- In all cases such a complaint cannot be filed unless you have first applied to the officer
you feel has wronged you for "redress." If you have been "refused redress",
then you may file such a complaint and it must be processed and the Secretary (of the Army, Navy
or Air Force) must be informed of actions taken.
- Examples of "wrongs" that might be included in such a complaint under Article
138 are listed in 2 Military Law Review 45 (1958) citing opinions of the Judge Advocate General:
"Improper deviation of pass or leave privileges; denying without sufficient cause, a
married enlisted member of the command privilege off the post and drawing separate
rations . . . utilization, without proper authority, of subordinates on personal matters, such
as cook, chauffeur, valet, gardener, and the like; requiring subordinates to purchase from
personal funds articles of clothing, uniform or equipment which are authorized but not
required by regulations or custom; requiring subordinates to obtain permission to purchase or
own motor vehicles; failure to adhere to known command policies with respect to pre-trial or
post-trial confinement; failure to consider, without jurisdiction, a subordinate for promotion
although he is eligible and vacancy exists; improper efficiency rating, imposition of punishment
in guise of additional training."
- If you are harrassed as a result of your filing a complaint under Article 138, this also
may be the subject of an additional complaint filing. The important matter here is that
provisions for informing higher authority are mandatory and cannot be covered up as I. G. or
most complaints can be.
U. S. IMPERIALISM IS OUR COMMON ENEMY, AND WE ALL STAND ON THE SAME FRONT AND NEED TO UNITE
WITH AND SUPPORT EACH OTHER.
FARMER'S STRUGGLE
This is the second part of a transcript of a meeting the brothers had with some Zen Gunro
(All Okinawa Military Workers Union) baseworkers. This part is especially important because
it shows how the economic imperialist pigs from both Amerika and Japan team up with the
military imperialist pigs to exploit the Okinawan people.
BROTHER: I'd like to ask a question. What I have to ask isn't related to
what we're talking about now, something that happened a few nights ago while we were out on
the road. We ran into a road block and it was like an Okinawan community –
BROTHER: Out on highway 13, 13 or 15, whichever one. You know, coming out
of the bush and going to Naha.
BROTHER: This road out here, you take it all the way out. There's a sugar
cane factory there, and it sits in the Okinawan community. Like right before we got up to the
sugar cane factory there was a roadblock. And I mean a roadblock; everything was there –
concrete stuff and wood – and I mean there was just no way to go through that roadblock
unless you had a group of force behind you. And it was kinda high – I'd say a little bit
over six feet high. Anyway, uh, while we were there the pigs came. These were Okinawan pigs,
and we were kinda like off a distance. Well, I'd like to know what the demonstration, I guess
you'd term it, was for and what happened, because it was probably a great big fight.
TRANSLATOR: Right next to that highway they're building an oil company called
Toiyo Oil which has, uh, it's a joint venture. It has capital from both Calter and Japan Oil
Company.
BROTHERS: Wow! Rockfeller and Japan. This is something we never knew about,
man. They're doing the same thing in Vietnam.
TRANSLATOR: Okay the first, there's like two steps. The first thing is that
company, that oil company down there, is producing a lot of pollution which is impoverishing
the village people surrounding it.
They're polluting the bay. I happened to be walking down there a few days ago, and I talked
to some fishermen, just accidentally, and asked them how the fishing was. They said there
weren't any more fish. There were a few but, uh, it was going downhill. And the other thing
is that the smoke comes out and kills the crops.
BROTHERS: Capitalism. They don't care about the welfare of nobody else, only
them damn selves.
TRANSLATOR: Smoke kills the sugar cane. So the two things they had that were
their original ways of making a living, fishing and farming, are getting wiped out.
BROTHERS: They're committing genocide.
TRANSLATOR: So they've been fighting against, the farm people down there, just
the village people, huh, have been running a fight against them since last summer and so far a
hundred people have been arrested in that fight.
So this is a new factory; it hasn't really gone into operation. The bay has been polluted just
from the construction, not from actual operation. There are two things that remain. It needs,
uh, water supply and electricity, and then it can go into operation. And the thing, that fight
two days ago was about the last section of the water pipe. There was one section of the
waterpipe that the people have been holding out on, and that's what the fight was about two
days ago.
The day you saw, the farmers and some Hanson Seinen Iinkai (Anti-War Youth Committee) members
of which he is a member went in and sat in on the spot, the remaining spot over where they were
going to build the waterpipe. And two Hansen members were arrested.
So like all this is stuff that is not gonna change when the 1972 reversion happens, see. This
is preparation for all the big stuff they're going to do after that. There's that, which was
the Caltex thing, and then Gulf is also moving in on one of the islands and Esso is movin' in.
One of the things this can do is supply oil directly to the B-52s on the base. There was a
story that they have heard – and they're not sure about this yet – from the
refinery that you came by, of building a direct pipe from that refinery onto Kadena, see.
So they can just pump the oil right into the plane, and they can take off.
BROTHER: So they can drop bombs on the Vietnamese.
TRANSLATOR: So there's a big anti-pollution campaign beginning in Japan,
right. They don't like any pollution, so they sent 'em down here.
They're also building an alminum company, which also puts out a lot of pollution, right next
to the Gulf. If you want to make a big stink –
BROTHER: That's a bunch of bullshit. They can get off this island, man.
They don't even need to be on it. They can sit and [?] with their money, man.
TRANSLATOR: It's going to be smog now. That oil is not, is not, that oil
is brought here in ships. There's no oil here.
It comes from Arabia, from the Middle East and Indonesia. They're bringing it up, and they
refine it, and they send it out. They leave the shit and take the good stuff.
BROTHER: And they put it on B-52s.
BROTHER: What is the main resource that Amerika is stripping off Japan from,
you can clarify that with Okinawa too, you know. Or just Okinawa, yeh, they're stripping them
of some kind of minerals or resources or something.
TRANSLATOR: Probably just mainly labor.
BROTHER: That too, but that's a resource they're stripping from them.
TRANSLATOR: In fact these industries they're building are absolutely modern,
you know; the most technologically advanced kind of companies. So they need very little labor.
So what they're sayin' for example about Zen Gunro – a whole lotta people have been fired
off the bases, right – what they're sayin' is you can all get jobs down at these oil
factories. But that's not even true, because there aren't that many jobs.
He said that the overall trend anyway is what is known as primary industry, which means farming
and fishing, direct working with your hands producing food and stuff is gonna disappear from the
island of Okinawa. And that's the tendency because the bases took up like that was farmland,
all that stuff on Kadena, all those beautiful hills, that golf course, and there's very little
of that left, and what's left is going to be poisoned out, see. Like somebody told me the other
day that most of the farmers, uh, actually are like only farming part-time. They like to work
on the base or something, and then they farm part of the time after their eight hours are over.
So, that relates to your question of the culture and how come it doesn't remain. 'Cause a lot
of the places that even though the people living there are Okinawan, the Okinawan culture which
was a primary industry culture of farming is destroyed at the root, because the farmland is
ruined.
BROTHER: I seen some farmers on base, land on base and stuff.
TRANSLATOR: There're farmers that come on base; there's a beautiful picture
in here. (Photography book of Okinawa) Those farmers have to show their pass at the gate, see.
That's one of them. He's got to have a pass to come in and farm his land.
BROTHER: What actually happened to them in that scene all of us happened upon
the other night?
TRANSLATOR: They had a demonstration and a sit-in and two men were arrested,
and the next day the waterline was built.
BROTHER: Okay, wow! We heard a whole bunch of ruckus; it wasn't no
peaceful-type thing.
TRANSLATOR: The police came to arrest people, and there was a counter-attack.
BROTHERS: Joto!
TRANSLATOR: The counter-attack was not only by the Hansen people who are
the political group, but also by the farmers, by children, by old people,everybody.
BROTHER: So it was a real big old thing, huh.
BROTHERS: Joto! That's the only way to be. Together. The only way.
BROTHER: They gonna blow up that line now?
(laughter)
TRANSLATOR: Just finishing up about the oil company, there's one last rather
important thing. The struggle began, the fight against it began, was begun by the farmers
themselves because their daily life was being destroyed by the pollution, by this movin' in
on them. But, uh, the thing is that after a while they began to ask the question about why
this oil company is here in the first place and what it is for and so on. And the point is
that it has to do with this sort of joint Japan-Amerikan imperialistic plans for Southeast Asia.
There is going to be a string of oil companies and so on in Japan and linking Japan and the
Philippines and Southeast Asia, and it's part of this whole economic network that is being
built. And this is the kind of thing that the farmers down there are coming to see, that
they're not just talking about dirty factories but they're talking about why those factories
are there, why they have to be there and it turns out that they come up with the word,
imperialism, again.
(CONTINUED NEXT ISSUE)
TAKE THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG. I REMEMBER AS A CHILD HOW I USED TO CHOKE UP
EVERY MORNING – "I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
AND TO THE REPUBLIC FOR WHICH IT STANDS, ONE NATION INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE
FOR ALL." NOW IT DIDN'T SAY, "I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO RACISM, TO CAPITALISM, AND
TO NEO-COLONIALISM, AND J. EDGAR HOOVER AND RICHARD NIXON, AND RONALD REAGAN, AND MACE,
AND BILLY CLUBS AND DEAD NIGGERS ON THE STREET SHOT BY PIGS." I MEAN IT DIDN'T SAY
THAT SHIT, YOU SEE.
– ELDRIDGE CLEAVER
SOLIDARITY
TO MY OKINAWAN AND JAPANESE BROTHERS ON THE ISLAND OF OKINAWA. I AM A BLACK BROTHER WHO IS
BEING OPPRESSED, JUST LIKE YOU, BY THE SAME ENEMY, AMERIK-KA.
I am a minority, just like you, culturally. But united we are a majority, if we fight for
the same goals, liberation, and the fight to determine one's own destiny. I want better
housing, better education, food. In essence I want a better life. You, my Okinawan and
Japanese brothers also want better housing, education, food. You want Imperialist Amerik-ka
out of your country, off your lands, out of your houses.
We, the Black Race, understand what is is to be inferior. We were happy to be inferior at
one time, just like many Okinawans feel now. They know Amerik-ka is the upper hand. And in
their fear they let Amerik-ka become so powerful on Okinawa. How do you feel, having a PIG,
a non-color individual, who has been brought up under the western culture, a man who knows
nothing of the Okinawa struggle and cares nothing about it, to govern you, the people of the
East?
If you, the Okinawan people were not so scared of Amerik-ka and caught up on its dollars, you
could be living a better life – one with less poverty, one with respect for your fellow
Okinawan brothers and sisters.
Amerik-ka has used its tactics on you as it has been doing all over the world. Divide and
conquer; separate the culture, social life, and economy, by setting up its businesses. True,
it gives many jobs, but now you're dependent on Amerik-ka. Amerik-ka is the one gaining
because you're working your ass for low wages, but yet to you it's fair or good. But to
Amerik-ka it's a few dollars in saving on cheap labor.
Now Okinawa depends on its American visitors for income. Amerik-ka legalized prostitution in
Okinawa for its soldiers. It's illegal in Amerik-ka... Why legal here? To keep the
Americans happy, or what? Now Okinawa depends on prostitution for a big income. Amerik-ka
has made Okinawans, your friends, into viscous businessmen. They value the dollar more so
than their fellow brothers and sisters. Help stamp out Amerik-ka's Imperialism! Start your
struggle! Fight for your rights! You are not alone. You have 200 million people of color
to depend on if everyone unites.
POWER TO THE THIRD WORLD!
POWER TO THE PEOPLE!
LIFERS (BLACK)
Cool-slick-fly,
A whole generation of
Mistaken identities
March by.
A whole generation of
unidentified
Persons
Who fear the uncertainty
of truth,
Who know the sheer
hypocricy of
Their lives,
Who have sold themselves
To the Sandman!
REVOLUTIONARY reading
BLACK PANTHER
Ministry of Information
Box 2967
Custom House
San Francisco, Calif. 94126
MOVEMENT FOR A DEMOCRATIC MILITARY
P.O. Box 1356
Vista, Calif. 92083
GUARDIAN
197 East 4th St.
New York, N.Y. 10009
LEVIATHAN
968 Velencia Street
San Francisco, Calif. 94110
FROM JAPAN
FALL IN! AT EASE!
FREEDOM RINGS
YOKOSURA DAVID
ITAZUKA Y[?]ND
SEMPER FI
c/o PCS
Ishii Building
6-44 NAGURAZAKA
Shiajuku-ju, Tokyo, Japan
(Reprinted in Tokyo Area)
************************************************
CONTACT IN TOKYO: ROGER HOBLITT
c/o Pacific Counselling Service
Ishii Building
6-44, Kagurazaka, Shinjuku-ku
Tokyo
TEL. 03-269-5082
|
![Source: Demand for Freedom. Kadena Air Force Base, Japan: [s.n.], No. 2, November 16, 1970.](../images/demand_for_freedom_111670.jpg)
