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Local 882 Member Al Sims from Hapeville, Georgia writes in opposition to an article in the Region 8 insert of Solidarity Magazine concerning the School of the Americas. Following Al’s letter to the editor is a letter in response by Local 2195 Member John Davis, who wrote the article that appeared in Solidarity Magazine.

As a dues paying member of the UAW for 35 years I would like to comment on the SOA article in Solidarity Magazine. --- The SOA has been reviewed and reformed as needed and currently trains personnel in human rights much the same as police academies train their recruits. The U.S.military trains all soldiers in interrogation and treatment of detainees and also trains these soldiers in types of torture and how to resist torture if captured. Every former or current American soldier has received this training.

The SOA is not a school of assassins and the statment as such in the UAW article is a blatant lie. It would be difficult to find any governmental authority anywhere in the world that hasn't had someone abuse their position of authority and the same has happened in Latin American military and police organizations. Many Latin American countries have been in virtual civil war for decades if not centuries. There's no doubt that murders have taken place as in all civil wars. The more accurate figures of murders by Latin American governmental groups is somewhere around 200. On the other hand, the left wing groups in these same countries have murdered some 30,000 innocent citizens merely for supporting the government or resisting left wing indoctrination.

The Marxists, communists, revolutionaries, drug lords, and other anti-government groups have aligned with union organizations and have masqueraded as union organizers to provide themselves with a common issue to try to bring down governments in the region. --- The UAW leadership has always taken the left wing liberal view on every issue with the exception of the anti-military and the space exploration issues The UAW has had to opt out on these two issues only because defense and aerospace workers are UAW members and because so many UAW members are military veterans. However, protesting the SOA has become a way for the UAW to support left wing liberals in this country on the fierce anti-military bias that liberals have held dear for 200 years. --- American soldiers deeply resent the UAW protesting the SOA and are boycotting UAW products much the same way they boycotted UAW products after the Marines were forced, unfairly, off UAW property in Michigan for displaying George Bush bumper stickers.

Many UAW members are also against protesting of the US military including the SOA. --- We all want to see organized labor thrive but not if it means being in bed with thugs and communists. The German Nazi Party believed strongly in workers' rights and had their own labor union. The Nazis were intensly against the rich, business owner Jews and blamed them for Germany's troubles. Even though the liberals try to paint the Nazis as right wing, they were actually socialist, anti capitalists who believed the state should protect workers and punish the rich. Let's don't align with communists, socialists, or liberals simply because they talk about their ideal of workers' rights then deliver something else entirely. That's the mentality of the UAW leadership isn't it?

Al Sims Local 882 Hapeville, Georgia

Responce to Al Sims' Letter to the Editor by Local 2195 Member John Davis who wrote the article:

To Al Sims
UAW Local 882

Mr. Sims,
I was forwarded your letter stating your opinion on the recent article in the Region 8 insert concerning the School of the Americas protest at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia.

I wrote the piece on the School of Americas and take offense to your statement about the information being a “blatant lie”. Evidently you have been misinformed concerning what the School of the Americas is and what it does. The protest has nothing to do with the soldiers at Fort Benning or any of our military forces. School of the Americas students are NOT U.S. military personnel but rather Latin American soldiers. The School of the Americas has become somewhat of an interest to me and I have spoken with many of my friends in the military that have served at Fort Benning. Most say they only way the soldiers are aware of the school is because of the protest each November. Even with that, most of the members of our military at Fort Benning have little knowledge about what the school does.

In your letter you state and I quote: “The Marxists, communists, revolutionaries, drug lords, and other anti-government groups have aligned with union organizations and have masqueraded as union organizers to provide themselves with a common issue to try to bring down governments in the region.” Do you really have any idea who the people who have gone through the School of the Americas are? Let me tell you about a few:

- Coke-Cola workers in Columbia organized and won their right to bargain. However, in 1996 SOA alumni executed local union leaders at the Coke-Cola Bottling facility in Carepa, Columbia after the company refused to bargain and the local union planned a strike.

- Gen. Farouk Yanine Diaz who was involved in the 1988 Uraba massacre of 20 banana workers, the assassination of the mayor of Sabana de Torres, and the massacre of 19 businessmen. According to a U.S. State Department Report, he was also accused of "establishing and expanding paramilitary death squads, as well as ordering dozens of disappearances, and the killing of judges and court personnel sent to investigate previous crimes."

- The Mexican drug cartel called the Zetas features a hit squad of former Latin American military members trained at the SOA. The Zetas have crossed over into the United States and executed a number of police officers in Texas involved in slowing down the entry of drugs into the U.S.

- In 1980 over 900 people were executed in El Salvador by SOA graduates in what has become known as the El Mozote massacre. The 900 victims including men, women and children.

- Former Salvadoran army officer Gonzalo Guevara Cerritos murdered six priests, their housekeeper and her 14 year old daughter at the Central American University in San Salvador.

- Frank Hammer of the UAW GM Department had a brother executed 25 years ago in Central America while on a humanitarian trip for the AFL-CIO by a graduate of the SOA.

- Juan Veliz Herrera, Bolivia’s former Military Chief of Staff killed 67 civilians in El Alto Bolivia during the “Gas Wars” of September-October 2003.

- Gen. Hugo Banzer, former dictator of Bolivia. He was notorious for the "Banzer Plan" to silence outspoken members of the church. That plan became a blueprint for repression throughout Latin America. Banzer was also known for sheltering Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, "The Butcher of Lyon," and for his links to drug trafficking groups.

In 1996 the Pentagon was forced to turn over the training manuals for the SOA as the result of a federal court order. In these manuals the students are encouraged to target for execution those who:
- support “union organizing or recruiting”,
- distribute “propaganda in favor of the interests of workers",
- “Sympathize with demonstrators or strikes”.
- make "accusations that the government has failed to meet the basic needs of the people"

So with this said, how can you say that the “left-leaning” people who oppose the SOA are trying to bring the governments in these countries down? The crimes of the SOA prove that many of these people trained at the SOA are doing exactly what you accuse the opponents are doing.

You say you are a dues paying member of the UAW for 35 years, and surely you have seen the advantage of being a union member of you wouldn’t have continued to pay dues in a right to work state. If you feel like you should have the right to a union, how can you feel the people of South America do not? Do their families not deserve the right to have a fair wage and decent standard of living? Do they not deserve the same rights to a safe workplace that we do? Do they not deserve the right to work and live with dignity? Just because their skin is a different color from ours, doesn’t mean their lives are worth any less.

I am not saying that the U.S. government sends every Latin American mercenary through the SOA to carry out atrocities against humanity. Even if the case could be made this school operates “for a noble cause” (and there is no way this school can be defended for this purpose) how can we control these terrorist once they leave the school? Have you ever heard about the Freedom Fighters? This was a group of Afghani citizens the CIA trained to fight the Russians in Afghanistan over 25 years ago. They were trained in the same counter-insurgency and torture techniques that SOA graduates are trained. Do you have any idea who the most famous graduate of the Freedom Fighter School is? If not I’ll tell you – Osama Bin Laden – that’s who. There is no way we can prevent these trained killers from turning on us once we send them out into the world. The current problem with the Zetas in Texas is proof of that.

You speak of being in bed with communist, socialist and liberals, but who do we end up in bed with when we take sides with these military regimes that wage war against their own people and kill anyone who tries to improve the living conditions of their poor?

As far as the military members being forced off UAW property in Michigan, it was not because they had George Bush bumper stickers on the cars, but because they were foreign cars. UAW property is private property and if there is a sign that says no foreign cars that means no foreign cars – regardless of who drives them. At the same time the flap over parking at Solidarity House was making headlines in the Detroit News, the UAW was building a Veteran's Home in Lansing that would largely unnoticed by the outside press. The International Executive Board voted to spend $250,000 on building materials and the labor was donated by UAW members in the area to build the home. I believe building the Veteran's Home speaks much more to the UAW's support of our troops than asking visitors to adhere to our policies when using our private property.

This letter is not representative of the UAW leadership, because I am not part of the UAW leadership – I am just a simple member as you are. I don’t mind telling you there are many instances where I disagree with the UAW leadership position. However, I am for the right of every worker to have a union if they so choose. I do believe that all working people should be treated with dignity and respect and I do believe that the United States is the greatest country on the face of the Earth. Does that mean we don’t have areas that could be improved? Of course not- as a nation we have made many mistakes in the past. It is the duty of its citizens to make certain a nation always strives to live out the meaning of its creed.

I respect your opinion as a union brother of mine, but again I must take issue with your statement about the article I wrote being a lie. It is based on facts- look them all up. You can say you don’t like the article because you agree with the things taught at the school – that is fine it is your opinion. But please don’t call me a liar when you evidently haven’t researched the actions of the school very deep, for your response about the school has a number of statements that are not accurate.

As Christians – union members or not – we should value the life of each person on the face of this Earth regardless of the color of their skin, the status of their social condition or the country they lie down in. It is my hope and prayer that my grandchildren can some day live in a world where the lion can truly lie down with the sheep and peace will rule. This will never happen as long as I turn a blind eye to the pain and suffering that is common place in this world.

In Solidarity,
John Davis

 
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