“No Walk in the Park”: US Empire and the Racialization of Civilian Military Labor in Guam, 1944–1962

Flores, Alfred P.

doi:10.1353/aq.2015.0035

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Around half of these worked for the Navy (Rogers, 2011: 187). Because decades of naval rule had prevented them from acquiring the education necessary for more advanced or technically skilled labor, they tended to do service‐based work for military officials (Flores, 2015: 815). Secondly, there was an increase in population.…”

Section: Imperialism and Concentrated Urbanization On Guåhanmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…About one‐third of the island's male labor force worked for the Navy or were employed through trade in Hagåtña ( ibid .). Most others were employed through agriculture (Flores, 2015: 815) on their own lanchos , or ranches. Women were employed by the Navy as nurses and midwives (DeLisle, 2007).…”

Section: Imperialism and Concentrated Urbanization On Guåhanmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Military funding poured into the island, made possible with US Senate approval of S. 1675 in 1948 to spend US $106,714,500 for construction on Guåhan in addition to US $92,000,000 11 that had already been scheduled to be spent (Cogan, 2008: 105). The US Construction Battalion, known as the Seabees, began working on rebuilding the island for military purposes in a racially segregated workforce that privileged white people, heavily exploited Filipino workers, and intensely marginalized the CHamoru people (Flores, 2015). They converted the temporary air fields in the north into a massive and permanent air base, Andersen Air Force Base, with facilities and airstrips that sprawled across the entire northern plateau.…”

Section: Imperialism and Concentrated Urbanization On Guåhanmentioning

confidence: 99%

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PLANETARY URBANIZATION AND IMPERIALISM: A View from Guåhan/Guam

Galindez¹

2023

Int J Urban Regional Res

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Through this article I contribute to debates about planetary urbanization by specifying how imperialism, defined as states restricting the self‐determination of other states or peoples, intersects with urbanization. While recent urban theory has explored how urbanization unfolds at scales beyond the city and in relation to global capital accumulation, it has not fully extended these insights to incorporate the central role of states and imperialism. First, I argue that doing so develops a more expansive account of extended urbanization by revealing how networks of military bases are themselves enmeshed in the production of urban networks via state policies, and that militarized sites safeguard the global capitalist economy that sustains urbanization. Secondly, I argue that imperialism changes concentrated urbanization by restricting self‐determination, fomenting spatial formations that prioritize militarism, and shifting urban politics to a larger scale. I show these dynamics through a historical analysis of the US military's strategic interest in the island of Guåhan/Guam at the end of the second world war, and then generalize from this case to consider variegated outcomes at the intersections of urbanization and imperialism. In the article I aim to more adequately explain the heterogenous ways urbanization unfolds across the contemporary world.

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Section: Imperialism and Concentrated Urbanization On Guåhanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Imperialism and Concentrated Urbanization On Guåhanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Imperialism and Concentrated Urbanization On Guåhanmentioning

confidence: 99%

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PLANETARY URBANIZATION AND IMPERIALISM: A View from Guåhan/Guam

Galindez¹

2023

Int J Urban Regional Res

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Colonizing Workers: Labor, Race, and U.S. Military Governance in the Southern Philippines

Charbonneau¹

2021

Mod. Am. Hist.

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Management of labor was central to articulating and constructing U.S. colonialism in the southern Philippines. Governed by American military officers for fifteen years (1899–1914), the major island of Mindanao and those of the Sulu Archipelago became sites of intensive race management efforts. Colonial officials identified racialized Muslim and Lumad societies as out of step with the modern world of work and developed myriad programs to address this “problem,” including mandatory service on public works projects, carceral labor, industrial education, and directed markets. Unevenly applied and frequently contested, these initiatives generated a range of responses from local actors. The drive to create disciplined laborers through incentive, coercion, and violence shaped state building in the region and linked it to preoccupations with work and racial reform in other U.S. imperial possessions and the wider colonized world.

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From Korea to Vietnam

Chung¹

2019

Radical History Review

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This article provides a prehistory of the “container revolution” that occurred during the Vietnam War. It situates containerization in Vietnam within the broader history of US military-led capitalist globalization, demonstrating how US military contracting influenced the development of labor relations and business practices around the globe. Starting in Korea, US military leaders implemented a range of policies to promote cost savings and efficiencies in the construction and operation of its supply chains. Of most consequence was its promotion of racialized labor practices and privatization. These distinct but interrelated processes spoke to the US military’s complicity in the exploitation of workers in the pursuit of cost savings. Further, they ultimately led to the US military’s embrace of containerization. Though the negative impact for workers was abundantly clear even at the time of Vietnam, the US military rigorously promoted the technology and helped make the “box” the standard in the shipping industry.

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“No Walk in the Park”: US Empire and the Racialization of Civilian Military Labor in Guam, 1944–1962

Cited by 4 publications

References 21 publications

PLANETARY URBANIZATION AND IMPERIALISM: A View from Guåhan/Guam

PLANETARY URBANIZATION AND IMPERIALISM: A View from Guåhan/Guam

Colonizing Workers: Labor, Race, and U.S. Military Governance in the Southern Philippines

From Korea to Vietnam

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