Paramilitary Units Research Articles

Militarizing American Police: The Rise and Normalization of Paramilitary Units

Militarizing American Police: The Rise and Normalization of Paramilitary Units

Enjoying militarism: Political/personal dilemmas in studying U.S. police paramilitary units

This paper makes sense of an irony, experienced while conducting field research, by linking it to broader social, political, and cultural processes. The objectives in doing so are not exclusively theoretical, practical, or methodological, but all three. Explaining the irony necessitates a theoretical and epistemological discussion of the relationship between the dualities of agency/structure, micro/macro, and personal/political. The ethnographic description of a police paramilitary unit's “training session,” and the author's reaction, provide a forum for exposing the practical implications of this micro research event: a strengthening of paramilitaristic policing, state tendencies to militarize social problems in the post-Cold War era, and a revitalization of paramilitarism in popular culture. Finally, the enactment of “self-reflexivity” as the methodological foundation of this study demonstrates its utility.

FEMALE LABOUR IN THE TEXTILE AND CLOTHING INDUSTRY OF LESOTHO

LESOTHO CURRENTLY CONFRONTS uncertainties relating to its very future as an autonomous economy and polity. As the impetus of 'democratisation' spreads throughout the African continent and, more specifically, as important political changes in South Africa become increasingly probable, prospects for this small, landlocked southern African country become tenuous and the subject of intense debate. In the past, Lesotho attempted to draft an economic development policy which drew on its own circumstantial advantages, leading to the emergence of an infant clothing and textile industry based almost entirely on female labour. An incident in May 1991, which left 38 people dead and damage estimated at ?400 million, revealed the fragility of that policy and its susceptibility to dislocation.l More importantly, it served as a marker of difficulties which may become far more severe as the regional political and economic situation evolves. The destruction in May 1991, which led to a curfew being imposed and heavily armed para-military units being brought into Maseru, was largely selective. It was aimed at expatriates and expatriate owned businesses, with Taiwanese and Chinese entrepreneurs particular targets. Much of it centred on industrial areas, one of which had to be sealed off following the actions of predominantly female factory workers. Loss of life was largely a result of the intervention of the police and military, at the direction of a government anxious to stem the loss of expatriate confidence. The return to civilian rule in the elections of March 1993 signalled, it is to be hoped, the demise of a state so readily able to apply military force to ensure industrial discipline.2 This, coupled with the possible elimination of prevailing comparative advantage, associated with Lesotho's freedom from sanctions imposed against the Apartheid state, its relatively 'cheap' labour and preferential access to EC and US markets, suggests the need for a rethinking of

Nationalism and feminism: The Seccion Femenina of the Falange

The categories of nationalism and feminism are a particularly interesting combination for approaching the topic of the Women’s Section of the Spanish Falange. It was in their way of interpreting their own nationalism that members of the Secci6n Femenina defined their role as women. That is, their role as Falangist women. The Secci6n Femenina, or Women’s Section, was founded as a small auxiliary-a year after the founding of the Falangist party-in 1934. With the outbreak of the civil war in Spain it expanded as a service organisation, and its adherents numbered more than half a million by the war’s end in 1939. Its membership far surpassed the male membership of the Falange, and its founder, Pilar Primo de Rivera, long survived her brother, Josh: Antonio, the founder of the Falange. Nevertheless, Pilar remained absolutely loyal to the ideology and principles of Jo& Antonio and the Seccibn Femenina, laboring for nearly half a century to realise his project for the Falange. It is in analysing the concept that these women held of themselves and their Falangist mission that the categories of nationalism and feminism are most productive. The Falange exhibited those traits characteristic of fascist or protofascist parties of the 30s: hero worship of a charismatic leader, a call for a corporate state to replace parliamentary democracy, martial values and uniformed paramilitary units, the raised fist salute and a clear strain of misogyny. Reminiscent of Mussolini’s blueprint for society, Falangism called for the reconstruction of Spain. The family, the municipality and the syndicate would be the building blocks of a revolutionary organic society-one with imperial aims. The Falange called for a revolution, but one that would revive Spanish traditional values. It is its particular emphasis on Catholicism that most distinguishes the Falange. Like Italian fascists, Falangists looked back to an imperial past. But Spain’s era of greatness was also its most Catholic. ‘The most important glories of Spain are united always with the glories of the Church, and our culture and our expansion has always had a Catholic orientation”, goes an official Secci6n Femenina account. In order to recover that impetus, that will-to-empire, it was first necessary to reestablish traditional Catholic values. The anarchy of the Second Republic had revealed the bankruptcy of Modernism and its offshoots: liberalism, materialism, communism, atheism-and feminism. Catholicism was thus essential to the Falangist program. Number 25 of the doctrinal principles of the party mandated the incorporation of Catholicism into the ‘national reconstruction’ because of its ‘glorious tradition’ and its ‘predominance’ in Spain.2 Reestablishing Catholic values and the Catholic spirit would reorient

Peace education: Learning to hate war, love peace, and to do something about it

Peace education should not be only general knowledge but conclude with something the students can do — as when health education leads to hygienic practices. For this to happen, our peace concepts have to come closer to the level at which people live, the local level. It is argued that this points to transarmament rather than disarmament; to defence based on local conventional defence, paramilitary units and non-military defence, rather than (or in addition to) negotiations among governments. It is also pointed out that this would lead to the building of less vulnerable societies from the bottom up. Less vulnerable societies would have great capacity for survival even in times of crisis, including warfare in the country itself, being thereby less susceptible to blackmail. The key to national invulnerability is local-level invulnerability. And a society organised with less dependency on national and international centres will also be a society less dependent on offensive weapons, concentrating more on defensive modes of security. Present and dominant modes of defence not only try to combine a high level of vulnerability with offensive weapons, but also operate at a level so far away from the ordinary citizen that he/she feels there is little else to do than just to be informed and perhaps to have strong opinions.

The Hovering Giant: U.S. Responses to Revolutionary Change in Latin America

In the first edition of Hovering Giant, Cole Blasier analyzed U.S. response to revolutions in Latin America from Madero in Mexico to Allende in Chile. He explained why U.S. leaders sponsored paramilitary units to overthrow revolutionary governments in Guatemala and Cuba and compromised their own differences with revolutionary governments in Mexico and Bolivia. The protection of private U.S. interests was part of the explanation, but Blasier gave greater emphasis to rivalry with Germany or the Soviet Union.Now in this revised edition, Blasier also examines the responses of the Carter and Reagan administrations to the Grenadian and Nicaraguan revolutions and the revolt in El Salvador. He also brings up to date the interpretation of U.S.-Cuban relations.Blasier stresses U.S. defense of its preeminent position in the Caribean Basin, as well as rivalry with the Soviet Union, to explain these later U.S. responses. Seemingly unaware of historical experience, Washington followed patterns in Central America and Grenada similar to earlier patterns in Guatemala, Cuba, and Chile even though the latter had adverse effects on U.S. security and economic interests.

West Indian Troops and the Defence of British West Africa in the Nineteenth Century

In the nineteenth century one can distinguish between three different stages in the development of British military policy in Africa. Up to 1840 British military policy relied heavily on eighteenthcentury precedent and revolved round the triple pillars of the Africa Squadron, the forts, and the military personnel, made up mainly of Europeans who were brought fran Great Britain or raised among European volunteers at the coast in times of emergency. Between 1840 and 1870 the British relied rather heavily on the Indian troops, whcn they used in a strategic role to deal with military problems in her African possessions. During this period attempts were made to raise small but local paramilitary units to supplement the efforts of the India Regiments. Fran the 1870's onwards the limitations in the use of the Indian troops and the need to cut down military expenditure led to the emphasis placed on the raising of ccmparatively large African and local forces which later took over the duties previously undertaken by the India Regiments. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, when the need arose, these local forces were amalgamated into what came to be known as the West African Frontier Force, which eventually became the instrument used by the British government not only to ward off European trespassers in those areas which it claimed but also to consolidate its authority in Africa in subsequent years.