Preface
Soldiers Organize: An Overview
After Vietnam: Resistance Continues
The "Nonunionization" of the American Military
The Professional Military Unions of Europe
The Volunteer Army: Its Origins and Consequences
The Debate on Military Unions
The "Hair Force" of Holland
"Bad Company": Company Unions and the Soldiers' Movement of
Scandinavia
Sons of the Wehrmacht: Pacifists and Unionists
Eastern Europe and the USSR
France: Halte à la Misère Sexuelle!
Italy: Conscripts and NCOs Unite
Spain: From Massacres to Mess-Hall Strikes
Portugal: The Revolution of the Carnations
Chile
Iran: The Airmen's Revolt
The Philippines: Another Revolt?
ECCO and the Continuing Soldiers' Movement in Europe
Why?
Bibliography
Index
This volume provides a unique perspective on the history, and analyzes the current status, of soldier unions and resistance movements in 20 countries.
DAVID CORTRIGHT is a visiting fellow at the Institute for
International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. His
previous publications include Soldiers in Revolt, as well as
numerous articles on peace and military resistance issues that have
appeared in newspapers and national journals.
MAX WATTS presently lives in Annandale, Australia, where he studies
and writes about the evolution of socialist countries, applied
Marxism, and rank-and-file soldier resistance movements. He has
authored numerous articles in Australian, Asian, American, and
European journals and newspapers.
?A sympathetic account of the effort to create soldier unions over
the past 30 years. Much of this effort has been the consequence of
anti-war and left-wing resistance movements in the US and Western
Europe. Pages are set aside for the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe
(including the events of 1989 and 1990), Chile, Iran, and the
Philippines, but the emphasis is on the West. The sympathies of
both authors are with the Left; they are clearly hostile to the
military establishment. Cortright, a former director of SANE, is
severe in his criticism of the failure of Congress to allow soldier
unions. Watts, founder of a left-wing West German newspaper, is an
uncompromising critic of the Bonn government and the Bundeswehr.
The underlying thesis of this well-written book is that resistance
among enlisted men is heaviest in the "highly capitalized nations"
where young people are most skeptical of authority. Furthermore,
movement away from materialism in the postindustrial society of the
1980s and 1990s has further intensified the opposition to the
military. Although, Left Face might appear to be polemical to some
readers it is nevertheless a forceful presentation of a viewpoint
that must be considered in any study of the role of the military in
a democracy. General and undergraduate readers.?-Choice
?Left Face makes a contribution to military sociology by reviewing
the literature on soldier resistance and adding more "recent"
data.?-Contemporary Sociology
"Left Face makes a contribution to military sociology by reviewing
the literature on soldier resistance and adding more "recent"
data."-Contemporary Sociology
"A sympathetic account of the effort to create soldier unions over
the past 30 years. Much of this effort has been the consequence of
anti-war and left-wing resistance movements in the US and Western
Europe. Pages are set aside for the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe
(including the events of 1989 and 1990), Chile, Iran, and the
Philippines, but the emphasis is on the West. The sympathies of
both authors are with the Left; they are clearly hostile to the
military establishment. Cortright, a former director of SANE, is
severe in his criticism of the failure of Congress to allow soldier
unions. Watts, founder of a left-wing West German newspaper, is an
uncompromising critic of the Bonn government and the Bundeswehr.
The underlying thesis of this well-written book is that resistance
among enlisted men is heaviest in the "highly capitalized nations"
where young people are most skeptical of authority. Furthermore,
movement away from materialism in the postindustrial society of the
1980s and 1990s has further intensified the opposition to the
military. Although, Left Face might appear to be polemical to some
readers it is nevertheless a forceful presentation of a viewpoint
that must be considered in any study of the role of the military in
a democracy. General and undergraduate readers."-Choice
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