These essays on war, resistance and counter resistance represent an original approach to understanding how political constraints on human behavior, and the resistance movements to which these restrictions give rise, produce counter-resistant forces which represent new constraints, which in turn often generate new and innovative behaviors which sometimes create new crystallizations of cultural expression and occasionally influence institutions and traditions. This new anthology offers a unique analysis of the important role political constraints play in the production of creative thinking and the development of systematic projects aimed at human liberation. In the preface, Francis Feeley clearly states the purpose of this book, which is to demonstrate how resistance movements have often given birth to counter-resistance measures employed mostly by state agencies aimed at stifling the self-realization of certain groups and promoting the self-realization of other organized interests. The following essays are a composite of writings by political activists, poets, and academic scholars. The introduction offers a brief description of major resistance movements in the United States. This historical overview presents a context for the appearance of the 20th- century resistance movements described in the following chapters. We are alerted from the start that one of the unifying themes of these essays is the dialectical relationship between social movements and political institutions, "producing democracy within American institutions"; another theme will be how these social contradictions which generate the growth of democracy have proven time and again to operate beyond the control of capitalist interests both in France and within the United States, thereby giving rise to many species of democratic expression... Gilles Vachon's description of his childhood impressions of Paris under the German occupation offers new insights into micro-resistance at the level of alternative perceptions and subliminal communications. George Brown's contribution to the thesis of this book, although first published in 1978, is his self-conscious description of one man entering into a dialectical relationship with prison reforms, which pushed him into a deeper understanding of the injustices that he had suffered as a child and young adult growing up Black in the United States. In the third chapter of this book Francis Feeley uncovers the economic interests behind the production of political repression. His analysis of the Homeland Security Act, and the growth of surveillance and security industry that it gave rise to, supports the main thesis of this book, namely that the contradictions which generate democracy exist beyond the control, and very often beyond the apprehension, of the society in which they are created. Patrick Litsangou's essay in chapter 4 contributes to our understanding of the dialectical relationship between the mainstream media and the alternative media, in the period of the U.S. military invasion of Iraq. He illustrates in this essay how the demise of mainstream medias independence gave rise to the extraordinary success of the alternative media, as large numbers of people living within the United States vigorously struggled to stay informed, in order to understand the palpable contradictions in their lives. In the fifth chapter, Peterson Nnajiofor recounts the histories of resistance and counter resistance around the aggressive activities of US petroleum companies in the Niger Delta, where class warfare has produced strategies and counter tactics that have been evolving for decades in the relationships between the inhabitants of the region and the transnational corporations which control their political economy to the almost unimaginable detriment of the environment. The last chapter of this book is an excerpt from Professor Anthony Wilden's classic work, "Man and Woman, War and Peace, the Strategists Companion" (New York, 1987). Despite having been published more than two decades ago, this theoretical study stands as a contemporary statement on the epistemology of strategic thought. The indirect approach, described here by Wilden complements Professor Feeley's thesis that the forces of resistance and the forces of counter resistance are intimately related; that from this interrelationship new cultural expressions are created, some of which have long-term effects on the society in which they occur. The formation of a revolutionary counterculture is but one example of the effects of this power interface. As professor Wilden notes, no confrontation occurs without some structural modification taking place. The forces of order are never the same after they successfully repress the forces of change, and guerrilla warfare tactics are constantly evolving, adapting to new conditions. Professor Feeley concludes this anthology by attempting to synthesize the main ideas presented in the seven essays in this book. The main thread running through these chapters is the idea that cultural order cannot be reduced to the natural order. This idea is clearly expressed in each of the essays found in this book, and the conclusion convincingly states the view that social science, like all other cultural expressions, exists beyond "being," in the realm of "becoming."

For more than a century, from 1900 to 2006, campaigns of nonviolent resistance were more than twice as effective as their violent counterparts in achieving their stated goals. By attracting impressive support from citizens, whose activism takes the form of protests, boycotts, civil disobedience, and other forms of nonviolent noncooperation, these efforts help separate regimes from their main sources of power and produce remarkable results, even in Iran, Burma, the Philippines, and the Palestinian Territories. Combining statistical analysis with case studies of specific countries and territories, Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan detail the factors enabling such campaigns to succeed and, sometimes, causing them to fail. They find that nonviolent resistance presents fewer obstacles to moral and physical involvement and commitment, and that higher levels of participation contribute to enhanced resilience, greater opportunities for tactical innovation and civic disruption (and therefore less incentive for a regime to maintain its status quo), and shifts in loyalty among opponents' erstwhile supporters, including members of the military establishment. Chenoweth and Stephan conclude that successful nonviolent resistance ushers in more durable and internally peaceful democracies, which are less likely to regress into civil war. Presenting a rich, evidentiary argument, they originally and systematically compare violent and nonviolent outcomes in different historical periods and geographical contexts, debunking the myth that violence occurs because of structural and environmental factors and that it is necessary to achieve certain political goals. Instead, the authors discover, violent insurgency is rarely justifiable on strategic grounds.

Since Donald Trump’s first day in office, a large and energetic grassroots “Resistance” has taken to the streets to protest his administration’s plans for the United States. Millions marched in pussy hats on the day after the inauguration; outraged citizens flocked to airports to declare that America must be open to immigrants; masses of demonstrators circled the White House to demand action on climate change; and that was only the beginning. Who are the millions of people marching against the Trump administration, how are they connected to the Blue Wave that washed over the U.S. Congress in 2018—and what does it all mean for the future of American democracy? American Resistance traces activists from the streets back to the communities and congressional districts around the country where they live, work, and vote. Using innovative survey data and interviews with key players, Dana R. Fisher analyzes how Resistance groups have channeled outrage into activism, using distributed organizing to make activism possible by anyone from anywhere, whenever and wherever it is needed most. Beginning with the first Women’s March and following the movement through the 2018 midterms, Fisher demonstrates how the energy and enthusiasm of the Resistance paid off in a wave of Democratic victories. She reveals how the Left rebounded from the devastating 2016 election, the lessons for turning grassroots passion into electoral gains, and what comes next. American Resistance explains the organizing that is revitalizing democracy to counter Trump’s presidency.

Illuminates how the preservation of slavery was a motivating factor for the Revolutionary War The successful 1776 revolt against British rule in North America has been hailed almost universally as a great step forward for humanity. But the Africans then living in the colonies overwhelmingly sided with the British. In this trailblazing book, Gerald Horne shows that in the prelude to 1776, the abolition of slavery seemed all but inevitable in London, delighting Africans as much as it outraged slaveholders, and sparking the colonial revolt. Prior to 1776, anti-slavery sentiments were deepening throughout Britain and in the Caribbean, rebellious Africans were in revolt. For European colonists in America, the major threat to their security was a foreign invasion combined with an insurrection of the enslaved. It was a real and threatening possibility that London would impose abolition throughout the colonies—a possibility the founding fathers feared would bring slave rebellions to their shores. To forestall it, they went to war. The so-called Revolutionary War, Horne writes, was in part a counter-revolution, a conservative movement that the founding fathers fought in order to preserve their right to enslave others. The Counter-Revolution of 1776 brings us to a radical new understanding of the traditional heroic creation myth of the United States.

"Account of of the slave trade and its lasting effects on modern life, based on the history of the Eastern Seaboard of North America, the Caribbean, Africa, and what is now Great Britain"--

A People's History of the Second World War unearths the fascinating history of the war as fought "from below." Until now, the vast majority of historical accounts have focused on the regular armies of the allied powers. Donny Gluckstein shows that an important part of the fighting involved people's militias struggling against not just fascism, but also colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism itself. Gluckstein argues that despite this radical element, which was fighting on the ground, the allied governments were more interested in creating a new order to suit their interests. He shows how various anti-fascist resistance movements in Poland, Greece, Italy, and elsewhere were betrayed by the Allies despite playing a decisive part in defeating the Nazis. This book will fundamentally challenge our understanding of the Second World War – both about the people who fought it and the reasons for which it was fought.

The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book is a powerful and historically accurate graphic portrayal of Indigenous resistance to the European colonization of the Americas, beginning with the Spanish invasion under Christopher Columbus and ending with the Six Nations land reclamation in Ontario in 2006. Gord Hill spent two years unearthing images and researching historical information to create The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book, which presents the story of Aboriginal resistance in a far-reaching format. Other events depicted include the 1680 Pueblo Revolt in New Mexico; the Inca insurgency in Peru from the 1500s to the 1780s; Pontiac and the 1763 Rebellion and Royal Proclamation; Geronimo and the 1860s Seminole Wars; Crazy Horse and the 1877 War on the Plains; the rise of the American Indian Movement in the 1960s; 1973's Wounded Knee; the Mohawk Oka Crisis in Quebec in 1990; and the 1995 Aazhoodena/Stoney Point resistance. With strong, plain language and evocative illustrations, The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book documents the fighting spirit and ongoing resistance of Indigenous peoples through 500 years of genocide, massacres, torture, rape, displacement, and assimilation; a necessary antidote to the conventional history of the Americas.

In the past quarter century the world has witnessed dramatic social and political transformations, due in part to an upsurge in civil resistance. There have been significant uprisings around the globe, including the toppling of communist regimes in Eastern Europe, the Color Revolutions, the Arab Spring, protests against war and economic inequality, countless struggles against corruption, and demands for more equitable distribution of land. These actions have attracted substantial scholarly attention, reflected in the growth of literature on social movements and revolution as well as literature on nonviolent resistance. Until now, however, the two bodies of literature have largely developed in parallel--with relatively little acknowledgment of the existence of the other. In this useful collection, an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars takes stock of the current state of the theoretical and empirical literature on civil resistance. Contributors analyze key processes of nonviolent struggle and identify both frictions and points of synthesis between the narrower literature on civil resistance and the broader literature on social movements and revolution. By doing so, Civil Resistance: Comparative Perspectives on Nonviolent Struggle pushes the boundaries of the study of civil resistance and generates social scientific knowledge that will be helpful for all scholars and activists concerned with democracy, human rights, and social justice.