army

military and law enforcement

News and articles about work, policy and mutinies in armed forces and police services around the world.

Psychiatrists raise concern over torture involvement

The US military is violating international and professional agreements forbidding doctors to partake in any sort of interrogation.

Contrary to stated positions of various medical and psychiatric profession associations, the US military is training psychiatrists to be involved in military interrogations.

Those poor soldiers

Apparently, if you compare the wages of soldiers with traffic wardens the poor old grunts come off worse, according to the head of the armed forces General Sir Richard Dannatt.

Except that’s actually a load of old bollocks. The good General and knight of the realm is being just a little misleading – I’m sure it’s unintentional, him being such a respected state figure and all - when he fails to point out that, unlike the average traffic warden, our boys in khaki also get a number of little perks.

International Volunteers in the POUM Militias

Written by Andy Durgan, historical consultant for the Ken Loach film Land and Freedom, the article also contains a list of international volunteers in the POUM militia.

FUNDACIÓN ANDREU NIN

International Volunteers in the POUM Militias
Andy Durgan

Up to 700 foreigners fought with the 10.000 or so militia organised by the Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista (POUM) between July 1936 and June 1937 (1). They were from at least 28 different countries; French, Italian and, above all German fighters being the most numerous (2).

Mutinies in the American army, 2004-2005 - Echanges #111

A brief discussion of incidences of dissatisfaction in the US Army during the Iraq War.

Mutinies, the word can seem excessive because Iraq is not (yet) Vietnam. However, a refusal to obey in the army, whatever the reason, is a mutiny and quite often such acts of insubordination have started with minor acts. Even isolated, such acts are indicative of "troop morale", an essential element for continuing war.

Join the army: be depressed - anti-military recruitment flyer

Anti army-recruitment flyer in pdf format from April 2007 which focusses on the mental ill-health many servicemen and women suffer.

This .pdf flyer (two to a sheet) was produced by the State of Emergency group, and is up to date as of April 2007. The group has an archive of resources on their website.

Another day, another IDF Refusenik

Since 2002, soldiers and officers from the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have been refusing to serve in the Occupied Territories in protest against what the Israeli military regime.

The "refuseniks" believe the occupation to be a threat to Israel's own security and inherently oppressive.

Occupation refuser Omri Evron was sentenced Sunday, Oct 15, 2006, to 14 days in military prison after he announced his refusal to enlist for regular mandatory service in the IDF. Omri was put in solitary confinement having refused to wear uniform and obey orders.

1919: The Luton riots

The history of the riots which flared up in Luton. Ex-servicemen and their families, angered by extravagant publicly-funded victory celebrations while they were unemployed and poor, took to the streets in protest.

Peace comes to Luton!

In the summer of 1919, as the local Council launched extravagant celebrations of the war’s end, angry ex-servicemen demanding work took to the streets.

1974-1975: The Portuguese Revolution

A short history of the Revolution in Portugal in which an army rebellion overthrew the fascist dictatorship.

The real revolution was in the urban workers took control of their workplaces and farm workers took control of their farms and organised production themselves while the parties of the left merely jockeyed for positions of power, eventually killing the revolution.

1961-1973: GI resistance in the Vietnam War

History of the widespread mutiny of US troops in Vietnam that brought the world's most powerful military machine to its knees.

The GI anti-war movement within the army was one of the decisive factors in ending the war.

[i]An American soldier in a hospital explained how he was wounded: He said