(We are sharing here a brief article for the readers consideration written in 2022 by an ICFI (1953) Supporter. The article is a possible example of the kind of propaganda which could be directed towards soldiers by the socialist movement.)
("The duty of propagating communist ideas includes the special obligation of forceful and systematic propaganda in the army... Refusal to carry out such work would be tantamount to a betrayal of revolutionary duty and would be incompatible with membership of the Comintern.") - editor
Despite ramping up military spending to record levels in preparation for great-power conflict with Russia and China, many soldiers in the US military are living in squalid conditions. Broken air conditioners, inadequate ventilation, and scant barracks upkeep have fostered decades-long mold growth issues which have compounded over time, which soldiers have tried repeatedly to remove without success. In such barracks, corridors and doors can quickly become coated black with mold. In addition, the likelihood that mold will invade buildings has been worsened as a result of climate change.
Soldiers are instructed to purchase their own cleaning and protective gear in order to scrub the mold themselves, though in some cases this actually makes the mold problem worse and poses health issues when proper methods and equipment are not used. If soldiers must leave their rooms for an extended amount of time and don't continually scrub the mold, it swiftly spreads onto beds and equipment.
A soldier returned to his Fort Stewart barracks after a protracted overseas tour to find mold had taken over every square inch of his room. Not only were the walls infested, but his bags and bed also became black and green from mold growth. His possessions were destroyed. "This is the reason a lot of us are getting out," the soldier said. "We can't live like this. … It's up to junior soldiers to get this stuff out or on social media, and that's the only way senior leaders are going to know they failed."
Soldiers also paint a picture of senior officers belittling platoon-level NCOs for not being harsher on their soldiers to clean. Soldiers have taken offense at perceived blame directed at lower-level NCOs. Officials at Fort Stewart have no plans to evacuate soldiers living in moldy dormitories, a problem that has plagued the Army as a whole for years.
Units will have to wait more than a decade for new dorms to be built, long after all soldiers presently stationed at the facility have left. While some officials claim that the conditions are not hazardous, mold exposure can cause a variety of health problems, including stuffy nose, wheeziness, red or itchy eyes, rashes, and in more severe cases cognitive difficulties, fatigue, fever and fungal and respiratory infections.
The problems at Fort Stewart follow press reports on mold problems at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, bases in Okinawa, Japan, Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and Camp Lejeune and Fort Bragg in North Carolina, where Army press representatives at the latter found it difficult to provide simple responses to inquiries about what the service will do to address the issues. Mold concerns are nothing new to the military and frequently prompt long online complaints from junior troops, but garrison chiefs commonly ignore the issues. Rarely are junior enlisted soldiers' complaints given consideration.
The barracks where the soldier's dwell, according to a noncommissioned officer, appear to be painted with mold, with the walls and doors almost all covered. Simple measures of mitigation, like using dehumidifiers, at best serve to decrease the rate of mold growth. The humidity in many bases is too high for these to be effective. In almost all instances, soldiers are informed that the mold issue is not a priority and that they have to take care of the mold problem themselves. Other soldiers have reported online that they were told that mold spores that were being visibly spread by ventilation systems were just dirt.
Long-standing issues with substandard conditions plague military housing around the nation, notably at Fort Belvoir in Virginia, where at least a dozen families have had to leave because of mildew, mouse and bug infestations, among other issues. The Fort Belvoir housing problems are in fact just one more instance in a long line of issues with privatized military housing that were originally brought to light by Reuters in a number of articles in 2018 and 2019. The Defense Department claims it had to "be sensitive" to the bondholders who were lending the money on the housing developments, even if military members and their families were being subject to “slumlord” conditions. This points to the fact that capitalist military budgets serve to line the pockets of well-connected profit interests.
While socialists oppose the imperialist war machine, the callousness with which the capitalist state treats those it tasks with furthering its interests abroad, both active duty and veterans, is a disgrace. Water contamination on military bases, particularly regarding Camp Lejeune, has also received wide coverage in the press recently. In the present, nearly three hundred military bases have contaminated drinking water.
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