Dear Progressive Reader,

I just returned from Washington, D.C., where I saw firsthand the helicopters, tanks, and other military vehicles being displayed on the National Mall. The event is ostensibly a celebration of the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army, but not without coincidence, it is also a birthday party for Donald Trump who turns seventy-nine today (making him the second oldest sitting U.S. President in history). Trump first began coveting a large military parade when he visited France in 2017 and saw the celebrations of the anniversary of Bastille Day. But it is worth noting but for most nations in the world, large demonstrations of military prowess are most often associated with authoritarian regimes including Russia and North Korea. Today’s event is not the first time the nation’s capital has seen a large military display, but it is the largest in decades. Following the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, military parades took place in several cities. The Washington, D.C., event had more than 800,000 attendees and cost about $12 million. This year’s event is anticipated to have a price tag between $25 million and $45 million when it is done.



It is also worth noting that the military display in D.C. is occurring at the same time that Trump has taken unusual steps in response to anti-ICE protests in several cities—particularly Los Angeles, California, where Trump has federalized and deployed 2,000 National Guard troops, along with 2,000 military police, and 700 Marines. The administration also has plans to utilize National Guard members in a broad role in immigration enforcement in the coming months. The use of the Marines is particularly frightening since these are people who are not trained for domestic police actions. The website Military.com has a listing of some past occasions when the U.S. military has been used in “riot control,” but as I wrote to the article’s author, “I think there are more [that you have not included].” One of the least reported of these was the use of the army and military aircraft against striking miners in the “coal wars” of West Virginia in 1921. President Warren Harding ordered 2500 troops, some of whom had served in the battlefields of World War I, to put down the miner’s labor action. The troops were accompanied by a squadron of bombers led by General Billy Mitchell who had served under General John Pershing (who was promoted to Army chief of staff during the Harding Administration). Mitchell saw the opportunity to use the new military technology of airplanes to “demonstrate that the planes could provide tactical information in rugged, mountainous terrain, and be useful in quelling civil disturbances.”

Another historical example that went different way is the story of the Fort Hood 43—active duty soldiers who refused to be sent to Chicago, Illinois, in 1968 to put down protests at the Democratic National Convention. As the Zinn Education Project website explains, these Black GIs had “serious reservations about being put in situation where they might be asked to engage other African American as ‘hostiles.’ Several demonstrators mentioned that they had grown up in poor, Black neighborhoods and said they knew why people were rioting. ‘The people we are supposed to control, the rioters, are probably our own race,’ one protester said. ‘We shouldn’t have to go out there and do wrong to our own people.’ ” As the website History.com notes, “The protest of the Fort Hood 43 remains one of the largest acts of civil disobedience ever conducted by members of the American military.” Nonviolent civil disobedience actions like this one could become more frequent as the Trump Administration orders soldiers, who swear an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” to suppress the rights of protesters exercising their First Amendment-protected right “peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

This week on our website, Nourdine Shnino continues his reporting from Gaza, sharing the story of one family facing starvation. Also, Zane Badawi reports on how his graduation ceremony at Oberlin College was disrupted by students standing up for Palestine; Mike Ervin looks at a group suing Harvard University for “discriminatory practices against students with mental health disabilities;” Ankur Singh examines two events in the Chicago suburbs that showcase ways that members of the Indian diaspora are responding to ethnonationalism in their home country; and Paul Buhle reviews the new book Freedom Ship on the role of the sea in abolitionist history. Plus Griffin Dix pens an op-ed on provisions in the budget bill that would weaken gun regulations; and Mariya Taher opines on the ways the Trump Administration is breaking ties with groups working to end domestic violence.

Finally, today is June 14 and we are celebrating the 170th birthday of Robert M. “Fighting Bob” La Follette, with a special day of online fundraising to honor our founder and his vision for a true peoples’ democracy where corporate interests do not hold undue influence over our political system. Please join us this year to #FIGHTBACKPRESSFORWARD and make a gift to help keep the independent voice of The Progressive alive and thriving.

Please keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.

Sincerely,

Norman Stockwell
Publisher

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