the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Aug 4, 2025
It has been in the news recently that a bipartisan bill is moving through Congress to speed up payments to people who were exposed to poisonous chemicals between 1953 and 1987 at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, in Jacksonville, North Carolina.
Over these years, as many as a million people, soldiers and their families as well as workers at the base, bathed in and drank water contaminated with harmful chemicals. These ranged from a dry-cleaning solvent linked to a nearby off-base dry cleaning company; a degreaser, from on-base units using chemicals to clean military equipment; benzene; vinyl chloride, and dozens more contaminants.
It was only years later, in 2014, that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) concluded that the contaminated water significantly increased the risk of contracting diseases—including for children born at the base during the contamination years. These serious diseases range from leukemia, bladder, kidney, liver, lung and breast cancers; Parkinson’s; and many more.
The story behind this contamination is long and convoluted.
The buck was passed, more than once, when base commanders and other officials ignored the reports that showed contamination.
In 2022, nearly 60 years after the contamination started, after years of veterans, their families and their supporters fighting for some kind of justice, Congress passed the Camp Lejeune Justice Act, which was supposed to provide compensation to everyone who was contaminated. And today’s current bipartisan bill, in fact, is proof that just a small fraction of the plaintiffs in a current lawsuit have received any financial settlements. In one of the recent testimonies before Congress, one Marine said how the water stank and it smelled bad, “but we didn’t question it because we were Marines.”
Poisoned well water at Camp Lejeune is just another part of the story of how the government, how the top brass of the military, treats its rank-and-file soldiers. Add it to the list—whether it’s the “Atomic Vets,” in the 1950s, who were exposed to radiation during nuclear weapon testing in military exercises; soldiers in Vietnam exposed to Agent Orange; or those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, exposed to burn pits.
Today these same officials are beating the drums of war, trying to prepare the laboring population of this country to be ready to go to yet more wars this system carries out. But this is how they really treat their soldiers—all the while hypocritically mouthing the words, “Thank You for Your Service.”