military and law enforcement
News and articles about work, policy and mutinies in armed forces and police services around the world.
State terror and dirty war: a year of state recuperation in Mexico
An in-depth look at the contemporary situation in Mexico in the aftermath of recent state offensives against movements in Chiapas, Oaxaca and San Salvador Atenco.
Following a heady 18 months of diverse and popular struggles up down the country, the Mexican state is using familiar tactics to reassert itself as the country’s main authority.
US Green Corn rebellion, 1917
In 1917, the Working Class Union reacted to the imposition of military conscription with an ill-fated but heroic armed rebellion that stands with the agitational campaigns of working class anarchists as a revolutionary response to US entry into World War One.
It's still a matter of conjecture what convinced “Rube” Munson and the WCU there was going to be a national rebellion.
I'd like to thank the work of Oklahoma grass-roots historians and journalists for finding and publishing period newspaper accounts
On the uselessness of heroes
Charles Reeves reviews "Los Incontrolados, Chronicles of the Iron Column", a book about the famous Spanish anarchist militia and its activities in the Civil War.
On the Uselessness of Heroes
Charles Reeve
(Le Monde Libertaire, February 6-12, 2002)
South Africa: death at housing demonstration
A protester was accidentally killed during clashes between police and Soweto residents demanding improved housing conditions.
Almost twenty years after the end of Apartheid and thirteen years after the election of the ANC residents of the township of Soweto feel they have been left behind. Promises of wealth sharing have proved hollow, with any redistribution of assets seeming to end up in the hands of the emergent black middle class.
Public pay: Now police call for right to strike
Hot on the heels of an illegal strike of prison officers, now police offices offered a below-inflation pay rise have demanded the right to strike.
The Observer reported that rank and file police officers demanded that their right to strike be reinstated as relations with the government fell to a 30-year low. The move highlights mounting unrest in the public sector over pay as unions threaten an 'autumn of discontent' for Gordon Brown.
UK: Prison officers in mass unlawful strike
Some 20,000 prison officers in England and Wales took illegal unofficial action on Wednesday 29 August against Gordon Brown’s public sector wage cuts and the disastrous overcrowding in prisons.
Some 20,000 prison officers in England and Wales took illegal unofficial action on Wednesday 29 August against Gordon Brown’s public sector wage cuts and the disastrous overcrowding in prisons.
Reservation Politics: the Palestinian experience through the historical monocle of Native Americans - Melancholic Troglodytes
An historical examination of the similarities and differences in the situations of the Palestinians and the Native Americans.
"Our historical analogy aimed to demonstrate the failure of the present course of action for the region’s proletariat and suggest an alternative. It is the social and not the military dimension of the struggle that has the potential to transcend capital."
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Korean workers riot in Vietnam, 1967
The riot by Korean workers at Vinnell Corporation, Cam Ranh Bay during the Vietnam War.
MACV (Military Assistance Command Vietnam, the U.S. command for all its military forces in Vietnam – ed.) had also been directed to start a civilianization program on September 15, 1967. South Vietnamese workers would be substituted for U.S. military support personnel in certain logistical units. There were many advantages. American manpower could be trimmed as technical expertise was shared.
The Battle of Cable St, 1936 - Joe Jacobs
Joe Jacobs was in 1936 a local Communist Party activist in London's East End. This is his account of his involvement in the famous defence of the East End against an attempted march by Mosley's fascists.
Joe describes events leading up to the march, including the changes in the CP leadership's tactics as they finally realised their calls for a peaceful demonstration elsewhere would be ignored. His account corrects false impressions later created by official Communist versions of the events.
Somalia: Soldiers demand unpaid wages
Soldiers have taken control of government buldings in the Central province of Hiran after going seven months without pay.
The troops have not been paid since they were deployed to the province and are blaming corruption by local goverment. They have seized the buildings in Balet Weyne and have said they will keep them until they are paid.
Troops have also seized a barracks in Jowhar, north of the capital Mogadishu, with reports of gunfire although not of any injuries so far.
