Masculinities, militarisation and the End Conscription campaign: War resistance in apartheid South Africa

by Daniel Conway

Overview

Masculinities, militarisation and the End Conscription Campaign explores the gendered dynamics of apartheid-era South Africa's militarisation, analysing the defiance of compulsory military service by individual white men and the anti-apartheid activism of the white men and women in the End Conscription Campaign (ECC). The ECC was the most significant white anti-apartheid social movement in South Africa. Military conscription and objection to it are conceptualised as gendered acts of citizenship and premised on and constitutive of masculinities.

Analysing the interconnections between militarisation, sexuality, race, homophobia and political authoritarianism, Conway draws upon a range of materials and disciplines to produce this socio-political study. Sources include interviews with white men who objected to military service in the South African Defence Force (SADF), archival material including military intelligence surveillance of the ECC, ECC campaigning material, press reports and pro-state propaganda. The analysis is informed by perspectives in sociology, international relations, history and from analysis of contemporary militarised societies such as Israel and Turkey.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781526129598
Publisher:	Manchester University Press
Publication date:	10/03/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	192
File size:	14 MB
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About the Author

Daniel Conway is Lecturer in Politics and International Studies in the Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) at the Open University

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Soldiers, citizens and strangers

2. The militarisation of South Africa and the growth of war resistance

3. Performing citizenship, engendering consent: constructing militarised masculinities and citizenship in South Africa

4. Going the right way contesting conscription

5. Breaking away: the End Conscription Campaign

6. Every cowards choice: responses to war resistance

Conclusion

Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

Conway offers a fascinating account of how the SADF adapted - presenting itself as having a place for a wider range of masculinities - as popular concern with the consequences of conscription grew through-out the 1980's.

'Conway’s book is a highly readable, engaging history of a lost chapter of anti-apartheid activism, and memorializes not only the broad and costly impacts of military conscription on white society but also the deeply personal turmoil faced by individuals who refused to fight for a cause that they perceived was unjust'

From the Publisher